Abstract: The metaverse is a future industry with a new generation of information technology integrated applications such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and virtual reality, and its development is highly dependent on cross-domain technology collaborative innovation. From the perspective of patent cooperation, this paper employs multilayer social network analysis to investigate the structural and evolutionary characteristics China’s Metaverse industry collaborative innovation network. The study reveals that the overall scale of China’s metaverse industry collaborative innovation network continues to expand, and the collaborative innovation efficiency continues to be optimized, but the network density and clustering coefficient show a downward trend, and cross-domain integrated innovation is insufficient. Enterprises emerge as core actors in Metaverse innovation collaboration, while universities and research institutes play significant coordinating roles. Accordingly, this paper proposes policy recommendations including strengthening integrated innovation, promoting cross-industry convergence of core technologies, leveraging institutional advantages to build industry-academia-research innovation consortia, and enhancing small and medium-sized enterprises innovation capabilities to foster an integrated ecosystem. These suggestions aim to provide theoretical support for technological integration and ecological optimization in the Metaverse industry.

Key words: Patent Cooperation; Metaverse; Collaborative Innovation; Social Network Analysis; Multilayer Network