On February 28, Guangzhou Daily Institute of data and digitization (GDI think tank) released the report on collaborative innovation development in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Bay Area (2021) (hereinafter referred to as the report). The report focuses on the four patent index dimensions of invention patents, PCT patents, patent citation frequency and family patents, benchmarking the New York Bay area, San Francisco Bay area and Tokyo Bay area, and analyzes the scientific and technological innovation, advantages of innovation institutions and industries, and the degree of coordinated development of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Bay Area (East Bank of the Pearl River, West Bank of the Pearl River and Hong Kong and Macao), Demonstrate the comprehensive innovation ability, advantages and disadvantages of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Bay area, and help build a world-class Bay area. This is the fifth consecutive year that GDI think tank released the report. # Invention patent# The disclosure and growth rate of invention patents in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Dawan District rank first in the world Invention patent is an important index to measure the innovation ability of a country or region. According to the data, the disclosure of invention patents in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Dawan district from 2016 to 2020 reached 1.4984 million, far exceeding the other three Dawan districts, with a compound annual growth rate of 17.23%. In 2020, the disclosure of invention patents in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Bay area was about 365900, 2.39 times that of Tokyo Bay area, 5.73 times that of San Francisco Bay area and 7.85 times that of New York Bay area. ▲ Figure 1 disclosure and growth rate of invention patents in sidawan District From 2016 to 2020, about 876800 invention patents were disclosed on the East Bank of the Pearl River, about 578700 on the West Bank of the Pearl River and about 43000 in Hong Kong and Macao. The disclosure of invention patents in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Dongguan and Hong Kong has maintained positive growth in recent five years. ▲ Figure 2 disclosure data of invention patents in different regions of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Dawan District From the industry distribution of invention patents, the industrial structure of Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Bay area is similar to that of Tokyo Bay area and San Francisco Bay area, focusing on the development of class G (Physics) and class H (electricity), followed by class A (necessities of human life), class B (operation and transportation) and class C (Chemistry and metallurgy). The New York Bay area focuses on the development of class A (necessities of human life) and class G (Physics). The ratio of class G (Physics) and class H (electricity) in the San Francisco Bay area is higher than that in other Bay areas. ▲ Figure 3 proportion of invention patent industry in four Bay areas of the world The top 10 IPC industries in the disclosure of invention patents in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Dawan District in recent five years are g06f (electrical digital data processing), h04l (digital information transmission), h04w (wireless communication network), h04n (image communication), g06q (data processing system or method specially suitable for administrative, commercial, financial, management, supervision or prediction purposes) G06k (data identification; data representation; recording carrier; processing of recording carrier), a61k (medical, dental or cosmetic accessories), h04m (telephone communication), f24f (air conditioning; air humidification; ventilation; application of air flow as shielding), h01l (semiconductor device). Digital information transmission, wireless communication network and data processing have always been hot research fields in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Bay area. They are mainly used in 5g applications, Internet of things, satellite channel, optical fiber channel and so on. This shows that with the development of big data, artificial intelligence, electronic communications, semiconductors and other fields, there are more and more inventions and innovations of such technologies, boosting the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and helping Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Bay area build an international scientific and technological innovation center. ▲ Table 1 changes over time of the top ten industry segments in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Dawan District # PCT patent# The compound annual growth rate of PCT patents in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Dawan District exceeds 15%, ranking first among the four Dawan districts PCT is the English abbreviation of Patent Cooperation Treaty. It is an international treaty related to patents. The amount of PCT patent disclosure in a region can reflect the innovation strength of a region and the degree to which enterprises or institutions in the region participate in international competition. The total number of PCT patents published in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Bay Area in recent five years is about 122000, second only to the Tokyo Bay area, 2.88 times and 3.40 times that of New York Bay area and San Francisco Bay area. The disclosure of PCT patents in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Great Bay area has maintained a positive growth, with a rapid growth rate from 2016 to 2018. Although the growth rate has slowed down since 2019, the annual compound growth rate still ranks first among the Four Great Bay areas. ▲ Figure 4 PCT patent disclosure and growth rate in sidawan District # Homologous patent# The patents of the same family in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Bay areas continued to grow, leading the three Bay areas in the world The same family patent is a collection of patent documents related to the same invention disclosed in different countries (or regions) and in different (or the same) languages, also known as the patent family. The function of patents of the same family is to judge the market coverage of patents. In the past five years, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Dawan district has published 2480651 patents of the same family, ahead of the other three Dawan districts. What is particularly critical is that the patents of the same family in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Dawan district have maintained a growth trend in recent five years, with an annual growth rate of more than 20% from 2016 to 2018. ▲ growth rate of patents and the same family in bay area 5 From 2016 to 2020, there were nearly 1.35 million patents of the same family on the East Bank of the Pearl River, more than 1 million on the West Bank of the Pearl River and more than 40000 in Hong Kong and Macao, all of which maintained a growth trend. Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan and Foshan are the innovation subjects with the largest amount of patents of the same family in Dawan District, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao in recent five years. ▲ Figure 6 disclosure volume and growth rate of patents of the same family in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Dawan District # Patent citation frequency# There is still much room to improve the influence of invention patents in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Dawan district Patent citation frequency refers to the number of times patents are cited, which is an important indicator of patent influence. The report measures the influence of invention patents in the bay area by the ratio of the cited frequency of invention patents to the disclosure of invention patents (the cited frequency of invention patents / the disclosure of invention patents). The higher the ratio, the higher the influence of patents in the bay area. A ratio less than 1 indicates that some patents have not been cited. In terms of the influence of invention patents, the ratio of San Francisco Bay area is the highest, which is 3.03, followed by New York Bay area of 1.77, Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Bay area of 1.04 and Tokyo Bay area of 0.95. The ratio of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Greater Bay area increased by 0.29 compared with the previous period (2015-2019), but there is still much room for improvement compared with San Francisco Bay area and New York Bay area. ▲ Figure 7 Comparison between cited frequency and disclosure of invention patents in sidawan District From the perspective of PCT patent influence, the ratio of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Bay area is 0.42, the ratio of Tokyo Bay area is 0.92, and the ratios of San Francisco Bay area and New York Bay area are 1.53 and 1.34 respectively. The amount of PCT patent disclosure in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Greater Bay area is increasing year by year, but there is a large gap between the patent influence and San Francisco Bay area and New York Bay area. ▲ figure 8 Comparison of PCT patent citation frequency and PCT patent disclosure in sidawan District # Industry analysis# The scale of science and technology industry continues to expand, and the head agglomeration effect is obvious According to the industry classification standard of national economy GB / T 4754-2017, the report classifies the enterprise industries in the sample of top 500 advantageous innovation institutions (hereinafter referred to as "advantageous innovation institutions") in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Great Bay district. There are 10 categories of industries selected in the enterprise sample, mainly focusing on the secondary and tertiary industries: manufacturing, scientific research and technical services, information transmission Software and technical services, power and heat production and supply, wholesale and retail, business services, health and social work, construction, finance and culture, sports and entertainment. Among the advantageous innovation institutions, in addition to enterprises, there are many colleges and universities and scientific research institutes, which are uniformly set as "colleges and universities and scientific research institutes". Among the top 500 advantageous innovation institutions from 2016 to 2020, 77 scientific research and technology service enterprises and 69 universities and scientific research institutes were selected as the advantageous innovation institutions in this period, ranking among the top three with "computer, communication and other electronic equipment manufacturing industry" (109). Followed by information transmission, software and information technology services, 53 institutions were selected as the dominant innovation institutions, accounting for 10.6%. Compared with 500 advantageous innovation institutions in the five years from 2015 to 2019 (hereinafter referred to as "advantageous innovation institutions in the previous period"), the leading industries of advantageous innovation institutions in this period have not changed, and the head agglomeration effect is obvious; The scale of science and technology industry continues to expand, and the category of "computer, communication and other electronic equipment manufacturing industry" increased by 12.37% over the previous period; The total number of "manufacturing" institutions has decreased, and the categories covered have decreased. ▲ Table 2 industry distribution of advantageous innovation institutions in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Dawan District Among the top 500 advantageous innovation institutions in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, the number of industries covered by the selected institutions on the West Bank of the Pearl River is the largest, and the number of institutions selected on the East Bank of the Pearl River is the largest. Among them, the agglomeration effect of innovation elements in electronic information related fields is more obvious on the East Bank of the Pearl River; Guangzhou has outstanding basic strength and innovation ability in the fields of education, medical care and other people's livelihood. ▲ Figure 9 regional situation of advantageous innovation institutions in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Dawan District A total of 239 of the 500 advantageous innovation institutions in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Dawan District belong to emerging technology industries. Among them, the number of advantageous innovation institutions in emerging technology industries in Guangzhou and Shenzhen ranks among the top in Dawan District, accounting for more than 70% of the total number of institutions. The agglomeration effect of Guangzhou Shenzhen Hong Kong Macao science and technology innovation corridor is obvious. ▲ Figure 10 distribution of advantageous innovation institutions and emerging technology industries in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Dawan District Among the 500 advantageous innovation institutions in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, 122 belong to various manufacturing industries. Guangzhou and Foshan on the West Bank of the Pearl River and Shenzhen and Dongguan on the East Bank of the Pearl River constitute important areas for the high-quality development of manufacturing industry in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. ▲ Figure 11 distribution of various manufacturing industries of advantageous innovation institutions in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Dawan District Guangzhou and Shenzhen are the main positions of innovative institutions of universities and scientific research institutes in the Greater Bay area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, accounting for nearly 70%, of which Guangzhou has the most prominent scientific research advantage. ▲ Figure 12 distribution of advantageous innovation institutions, universities and scientific research institutes in Dawan District, Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao # Inter city cooperation# The pole driving effect of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macao is obvious, and cross city cooperation continues to strengthen The joint application of invention patents between cities is an important embodiment of the collaborative interaction and innovation connection between different innovation subjects. Taking the cooperation rate of invention patents across cities as the measurement standard, the report explores the effectiveness of collaborative innovation and development among different innovation subjects in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Bay area. The inter city patent cooperation rate between Guangzhou and Dongguan is 6.88 ‰. Data processing systems and methods, measurement and testing, electrical digital and data processing, circuit devices, cable and wire installation and conductive connection are the main directions of patent cooperation between the two places. The cooperation involves calculation and calculation, measurement and testing, power generation and distribution, electrical communication technology and other fields, With the continuous optimization and development of Dongguan industry and technology, the innovation trend of complementary advantages between Guangzhou and Dongguan is being strengthened. ▲ Figure 13 patent cooperation rate between Guangzhou and other cities in Dawan District Guangzhou is an innovative city with the closest cooperation with Foshan in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Dawan district. The cross city patent cooperation rate between the two places is 7.78 ‰. Measurement and testing, calculation, data processing systems and methods, circuit devices, electrical digital data processing, medical accessories, medical pharmaceuticals, heat supply or ventilation system applications are the main directions of patent cooperation between the two places. The cooperation involves information technology services Scientific research and technical services, electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing, pharmaceutical manufacturing and other fields, showing the collaborative innovation development trend of complementary advantages and resource sharing between Guangfo and Foshan. ▲ Figure 14 patent cooperation rate between Foshan and other cities in Dawan District Dongguan is an innovative city with the closest cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao and Shenzhen. The cross city patent cooperation rate between the two places is 3.71 ‰. Lighting devices, wireless communication networks and electronic digital data processing are the main directions of patent cooperation between the two places. The cooperation involves electronic information technology