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A hybrid keyword and patent class methodology for selecting relevant sets of patents for a technological field

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  • Christopher L. Benson

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Christopher L. Magee

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Abstract

This paper presents a relatively simple, objective and repeatable method for selecting sets of patents that are representative of a specific technological domain. The methodology consists of using search terms to locate the most representative international and US patent classes and determines the overlap of those classes to arrive at the final set of patents. Five different technological fields (computed tomography, solar photovoltaics, wind turbines, electric capacitors, electrochemical batteries) are used to test and demonstrate the proposed method. Comparison against traditional keyword searches and individual patent class searches shows that the method presented in this paper can find a set of patents with more relevance and completeness and no more effort than the other two methods. Follow on procedures to potentially improve the relevancy and completeness for specific domains are also defined and demonstrated. The method is compared to an expertly selected set of patents for an economic domain, and is shown to not be a suitable replacement for that particular use case. The paper also considers potential uses for this methodology and the underlying techniques as well as limitations of the methodology.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher L. Benson & Christopher L. Magee, 2013. "A hybrid keyword and patent class methodology for selecting relevant sets of patents for a technological field," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 96(1), pages 69-82, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:96:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-012-0930-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-012-0930-3
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Manuel Trajtenberg, 1990. "A Penny for Your Quotes: Patent Citations and the Value of Innovations," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 21(1), pages 172-187, Spring.
    2. Trajtenberg, Manuel, 1987. "Patents, Citations and Innovations: Tracing the Links," Foerder Institute for Economic Research Working Papers 275436, Tel-Aviv University > Foerder Institute for Economic Research.
    3. Jacques Michel & Bernd Bettels, 2001. "Patent citation analysis.A closer look at the basic input data from patent search reports," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 51(1), pages 185-201, April.
    4. Bronwyn H. Hall & Adam B. Jaffe & Manuel Trajtenberg, 2001. "The NBER Patent Citation Data File: Lessons, Insights and Methodological Tools," NBER Working Papers 8498, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Trajtenberg, Manuel, 1987. "Patents, Citations and Innovations: Tracing the Links," Foerder Institute for Economic Research Working Papers 275436, Tel-Aviv University > Foerder Institute for Economic Research.
    6. Jan M. Gerken & Martin G. Moehrle, 2012. "A new instrument for technology monitoring: novelty in patents measured by semantic patent analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 91(3), pages 645-670, June.
    7. Campbell, Richard S., 1983. "Patent trends as a technological forecasting tool," World Patent Information, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 137-143.
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    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
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    Cited by:

    1. Christopher L. Benson & Christopher L. Magee, 2015. "Technology structural implications from the extension of a patent search method," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(3), pages 1965-1985, March.
    2. Ansgar Moeller & Martin G. Moehrle, 2015. "Completing keyword patent search with semantic patent search: introducing a semiautomatic iterative method for patent near search based on semantic similarities," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(1), pages 77-96, January.
    3. Mariam Barry & Giorgio Triulzi & Christopher L. Magee, 2017. "Food Productivity Trends from Hybrid Corn: Statistical Analysis of Patents and Field-test data," Papers 1706.05911, arXiv.org.
    4. Park, Inchae & Triulzi, Giorgio & Magee, Christopher L., 2022. "Tracing the emergence of new technology: A comparative analysis of five technological domains," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    5. Subarna Basnet & Christopher L Magee, 2017. "Artifact interactions retard technological improvement: An empirical study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(8), pages 1-17, August.
    6. Singh, Anuraag & Triulzi, Giorgio & Magee, Christopher L., 2021. "Technological improvement rate predictions for all technologies: Use of patent data and an extended domain description," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(9).
    7. Yoon, Byungun & Magee, Christopher L., 2018. "Exploring technology opportunities by visualizing patent information based on generative topographic mapping and link prediction," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 105-117.
    8. Matthias Niggli & Christian Rutzer, 2023. "Digital technologies, technological improvement rates, and innovations “Made in Switzerland”," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 159(1), pages 1-31, December.
    9. Bruns, Stephan B. & Kalthaus, Martin, 2020. "Flexibility in the selection of patent counts: Implications for p-hacking and evidence-based policymaking," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(1).
    10. Triulzi, Giorgio & Alstott, Jeff & Magee, Christopher L., 2020. "Estimating technology performance improvement rates by mining patent data," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    11. Feng, Sida & Magee, Christopher L., 2020. "Technological development of key domains in electric vehicles: Improvement rates, technology trajectories and key assignees," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    12. Martin Ho & Henry CW Price & Tim S Evans & Eoin O'Sullivan, 2023. "Order in Innovation," Papers 2302.13076, arXiv.org.
    13. Annapoornima M. Subramanian & Moren Lévesque & Vareska van de Vrande, 2020. "“Pulling the Plug:” Time Allocation between Drug Discovery and Development Projects," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(12), pages 2851-2876, December.
    14. Shubbak, Mahmood H., 2019. "Advances in solar photovoltaics: Technology review and patent trends," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    15. Mun, Changbae & Yoon, Sejun & Raghavan, Nagarajan & Hwang, Dongwook & Basnet, Subarna & Park, Hyunseok, 2021. "Function score-based technological trend analysis," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    16. Parraguez, Pedro & Škec, Stanko & e Carmo, Duarte Oliveira & Maier, Anja, 2020. "Quantifying technological change as a combinatorial process," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    17. Changbae Mun & Sejun Yoon & Hyunseok Park, 2019. "Structural decomposition of technological domain using patent co-classification and classification hierarchy," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 121(2), pages 633-652, November.
    18. Christopher L Benson & Christopher L Magee, 2015. "Quantitative Determination of Technological Improvement from Patent Data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-23, April.
    19. MAVRIDIS, Dimitrios & CSÉFALVAY, Zoltan & GKOTSIS, Petros & POTTERS, Lesley, 2021. "A Preliminary Index of SARS-CoV-2 Diagnostic Testing Patents," JRC Working Papers on Corporate R&D and Innovation 2020-07, Joint Research Centre.
    20. Magee, C.L. & Basnet, S. & Funk, J.L. & Benson, C.L., 2016. "Quantitative empirical trends in technical performance," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 237-246.
    21. Donghyun You & Hyunseok Park, 2018. "Developmental Trajectories in Electrical Steel Technology Using Patent Information," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-15, August.
    22. Fang Han & Christopher L. Magee, 2018. "Testing the science/technology relationship by analysis of patent citations of scientific papers after decomposition of both science and technology," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(2), pages 767-796, August.
    23. Jie Hu & Shaobo Li & Jianjun Hu & Guanci Yang, 2018. "A Hierarchical Feature Extraction Model for Multi-Label Mechanical Patent Classification," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-22, January.
    24. Benson, Christopher L. & Magee, Christopher L., 2014. "On improvement rates for renewable energy technologies: Solar PV, wind turbines, capacitors, and batteries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 745-751.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Patent searching; Technological planning; Information retrieval; Patent analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
    • O34 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital

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