Abstract:   As one of the strategic tools to boost the transformation and upgrading of the industry and value reengineering, patent innovation has become a criterion by which the growth of key technologies is measured. In particular, the research on the layout and evolution of patent innovation has increasingly attracted the attention of the nation and even the world. The tide of world change also makes the patterns of global industrial chain, value chain and supply chain undergo rapid evolution. The number of supply chain patents increases exponentially, which has become the indicator of supply chain innovation, confirming that the excavation and deepening of supply chain technology are potentially affecting the innovation pattern and trend of supply chain. 
   This paper selects the supply chain patent data of China, the United States, Japan, Germany and South Korea as the research object, deeply excavates the supply chain patent data pool for the past 27 years from 1990 to 2016, and uses quantitative and visual methods to analyze the network characteristics and evolution path from the three aspects of cooperative innovation, spatial structure and technical theme. 
   The studies indicate that (1) the evolution process of the supply chain patent innovation network is highly consistent with the development track of the global industry, which confirms the evolution process of the global industry. It has started in the medical and health care industry, and its technological innovation guides the direction of supply chain technological innovation in other industries. Then, the supply chain patent technological innovation extends to the computer industry and the financial industry, laying the cornerstone for the rise of core scientific and technological forces. Then, the supply chain patent technology covers the agriculture and energy industries. The supply chain technology mining of traditional industries and green industries has become the key force to construct the supply chain innovation network. With the circular development of technology, the supply chain technology has been deepened in the energy industry, food industry and computer industry. So far, the supply chain patent innovation network has been continuously upgraded under the background of global technological innovation, and its innovation network is becoming more and more mature. With the innovation trend of supply chain patent technology, calculation / calculation / counting, communication technology, transportation / packaging / storage have become the hot spots of supply chain patent application, as well as competitive areas for patent technologies of various countries.
   (2) The supply chain cooperative innovation network with core cities is becoming more and more mature, and it has played a driving and radiating role in the surrounding cities. With the continuous innovation of supply chain patent technology, many countries around the world have joined the team of supply chain patent innovation, basically forming a system dominated by interregional collaborative innovation. In the spatial pattern of patent innovation in the supply chain supplemented by transnational cooperative innovation, the heterogeneous community structure is becoming increasingly prominent. Countries urgently need to eliminate the locking effect and enhance the scale of industry university research collaborative innovation.
  (3) With the increasing popularity of supply chain patent technology, more and more subjects participate in supply chain innovation. Therefore, the scale of supply chain patent space network is gradually expanding, but the spatial layout is uneven, which is mainly reflected in that countries mainly focus on domestic cross regional cooperation, supplemented by transnational cooperation, and most cross-national cooperation is among the United States, Japan and South Korea. Therefore, countries should establish a more open cooperation, truly realize the barrier free exchange of patented technology in the supply chain, and constantly realize technological breakthrough and innovation in cooperation.
   (4) Focusing on the technological innovation of China′s supply chain, we can find that the scale of patents is gradually increasing, but the form of cooperation is relatively single, the collaborative innovation mode of industry-university-research cooperation has not really played a role. At the same time, the technical theme layout does not match the development of China′s advantageous industries, so it is urgent to design the supply chain patent layout at the top level. The mining of supply chain technology should be combined with the characteristics of China′s industrial development to realize the spiral synchronous rise of technology and industry.

Key words:  innovation network, supply chain, evolution path, patent layout