Community Evolution in International Patent Application Top1 Networks

Based on the patent application data of 62 countries in the world from 2001 to 2018, the global transnational patent application complete network is constructed in four stages, and the top-ranking network (Top1 network) is extracted from it. On this basis, the community structure and evolution trend of global transnational patent applications are explored. The results show that: (1) The USA, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and other European developed countries have always occupied a central position in the global transnational patent application complete network, but China’s control and influence in the network continue to improve. (2) there is an obvious community structure in the top-ranking network of global transnational patent applications, but the number of communities is decreasing, and small- and medium-sized communities on the network are gradually converging into large communities. (3) the global transnational patent application shows a strong concentration and monopoly.