White spot analysis: The potential of patent information for research and development

Patents do not only offer legal protection, but also provide an extensive source of technical information: pre-processed in “technology maps” or “patent maps”, interesting technical details can be identified for the own development of new product ideas and business opportunities. The White Spot Analysis presented in this paper is based on a special patent map: building a problem solution matrix of patent data within a defined technology field, gaps so called White Spots can be identified, which lead to new business opportunities not described through patents yet. The manual analysis of numerous patents is very time consuming and thus very expensive. The approach presented in this paper utilizes a text mining based method in order to support the extraction of problems and solutions from patent text. For the purpose of identifying only White Spots with a high economic attractiveness, a special assessment method is combined with the patent data analysis process. The detailed process steps of the White Spot Analysis will be shown by a practical example regarding Electric Mobility, especially battery management systems for electric and hybrid cars.