Patenting Strategies of Domestic and Foreign Players in the Indian Machine Tool Industry: A Comparative Study Using Multidimensional Scaling Approach

Capital goods industry, termed mother industry, has been garnering the attention of developing economies for several decades. Given the strategic importance of the machine tool industry in the manufacturing sector, the Indian Government has been supporting the industry with policy impetus founded on the self-reliance principle to close the import-export gap. The present study analyzes the trends in the machine tools imports and also the patents filed in India. Comprehensive research studies to explore various facets of macro-micro linkage at national and firm levels have been warranted to augment technology foresight exercises. We propose to investigate patenting strategies of foreign firms in the domestic market. The study involves a review of 1180 patents on CNC metal cutting machine tools filed in India. The analysis of patents-related data using the multidimensional scaling (MDS) approach provides insights into the R&D capabilities and technology positioning of the machine tool firms – both domestic and foreign. The MDS utilizes three patent indicators, namely, priority year, IPC classification codes and inventor count. CNC metal cutting machine tool segment has been selected for exemplification of the multivariate approach adopted for the study.