Recent advances in patent analysis network

Abstract

The databases of patents are considerable, with many authors, as a source of information very valuable within the innovation process. One of the most important methods in patent analysis is based on the citations. The basic concept of patent citation analysis is that there exists a technological linkage between two patents if a patent cites the other. The networks codifying the cited-citing relationship between patents are useful for visualizing the overall status of a given technology and helps the experts in the identification of the technological implications using analysis network techniques. The potential offered by the measuring citations for planning and assessing of policies from Science and Technology is immense. The aim of this paper is to describe the utilities and limitations of the analysis network of patents as well as recent advances.