Scientometric study of laser patent literature

An analysis of the patents filed and scientific papers published and abstracted in the Journal of Current Laser Abstracts (JCLA) for the period 1967-95 indicates that innovative activity in laser science and technology was at its peak in the early 70s. However, scientific activity surpassed the innovative activity in the early 80s. There was a continuous shift in emphasis from "applications of lasers" to "experimental laser research" and to "theoretical laser research". Further analysis of the 1840 patents filed in 1970-71, 1975-76, and 1980-85 indicates that most of the firms filing patents were situated in USA and thus USA is the leading country filing patents in this area followed by Japan. "Spectroscopy of laser output" followed by "Communication applications of laser" got the maximum emphasis.