Technological strategies of telecommunications equipment manufacturers : A patent analysis

Patent analysis on a company level leads to many interesting insights into the technological strategy of telecommunications manufacturers. European companies are usually focused on telecommunications, whereas Japanese companies put higher emphasis on other fields such as data processing or audiovisual electronics and enter telecommunications from this angle. This might be decisive for the future markets. European companies target European markets and, in the second place, North America. They neglect Japan. US companies are oriented to both the European and the Japanese markets. Japanese patents are chiefly aimed at the US market and, on a lower level, the European. International trade and patent patterns correlate with each other.