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for the licensed patents within a given year (Figure 10) while accounting for truncation in
both citations and Web hits. For each year, the calculated variable generally correctly
approximates commercial value of the licensed patents higher than the unlicensed
patents, i.e. κ -κ > 0. Similar to citations (Figure 1), Web presence appears to suffer
unlic
lic
a degree of signal truncation, although less severe than citations: patents from the last
decade average at least 15–20 signal Web hits. Hence, albeit with significant future
refinements, we believe that it is possible to construct a predictive relationship using the

Web hits metric. Furthermore, this measure may be a complement to citation analysis
and may appear earlier than those records due to the delay in citation evolution.

Figure 10. Predictive commercial value of patents using proposed Web hits relationship

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