Author(s)

S. Larreina & S. Hernando

Abstract

Patents have a wide range of uses for clients of science and technology. This article explains the origin of patent mining tools and their evolution to more complex software. The article also intends to point out the utility of complementing this kind of analysis with statistical techniques in order to improve its application to prospective methods. The article is based on currently developed projects and other related articles with patent analysis. Keywords: patent mining, business intelligence, technology maps, co-ocurrence, statistics, information visualisation, prospective, scenario. 1 Introduction This article presents several tools for the patent analysis (specially software based on co-ocurring words), and presents how it may be used either for Technology Prospective (identification of scenarios) or for the elaboration of market studies thanks to the patent data mining. The use of patents can be justified since they can be used to track the direction in which a technology is developing, meanwhile you can identify the leading players in a field. Patents may be used to (Yu and Kehoe 2001): • Monitor worldwide technological developments; • Determine emerging trends in an industry; • Obtain state-of-the-art technology information; • Locate expert consultants or potential employees; • Identify competitors and watch for emerging competitors and • Monitor the activities and plans of competitors, their R&D focus. Despite existence of other articles arguing for value of patent data for business intelligence (Mogee 1997, Vijay-Rao 2001), or articles showing how

Keywords

patent mining, business intelligence, technology maps, co-ocurrence, statistics, information visualisation, prospective, scenario.