Digital Transformation: Patents as a Determinant Proxy for Industry 4.0

This study seeks to identify the relationships between patent indicators in the process of digital transformation of industries in Brazil and Portugal to try to figure out the changes in course, as well as the reflections that have arisen  in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Specifically, an analysis of patents is carried out to characterise the level of industry 4.0 in Brazil and Portugal in the period 2008 to 2018. The article aims to answer the following question: How do these countries react to the emergence of new technological domains with strong innovation potential, such as the 4.0 industry? The methodology is descriptive as to the objectives. As such, the study has an applied nature, being designed from bibliometric research and accessing databases of legal intellectual protection institutes in both countries and the Orbit® Intelligence database. As results, the comparative analysis of patents that composed the essentials of this work demonstrates that Brazil and Portugal participated, although in an unequal way, both in terms of periods and sectors and intensity, in the general process of development of enabling technologies in the context of digital transformation. Despite the technological "gaps" that still affect both countries, this has not prevented them from taking an active and growing part in patent filing, in the search for recognition of their ability to innovate through their companies and scientific centres of excellence, in technological areas that are still little developed internally, but that require sophistication and advanced scientific knowledge and its application.