The diversity and coincidence of patent thickets: a case of battery electric vehicle technology

It is an open question of whether patent thickets coincide or differ across jurisdictions. Taking Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) technology as an example, this paper applies the social network analysis method to study the diversity and coincidence of patent thickets. The evolution of patent thicket density in the USA has a similar pattern with Europe and Japan, but it differs from China, Germany and South Korea. This paper uses the degree centrality, which is the number of one node directly connecting to the other nodes in a given network, to explore the patent thicket structure. We find critical multinational companies with higher degree centrality coincides across patent thickets, while most patentees with lower degree centrality do not co-occur in other patent thickets. The diversity of patent thickets implies companies should implement differential patent strategies in various markets. In contrast, the coincidence means patent holders who co-occurred in different patent thickets could be potential patent licensors.