Patent Analysis – Systematic Literature Review on Methodology and Technological Fields

Patent analysis is the process of analyzing patent documents and other information throughout the patent lifecycle to uncover innovation insights and patterns in a particular area or technology field. It provides data-driven, evidence-based insights that allow organizations to make better strategic decisions in areas such as research and development, innovation policies, licensing, and research collaboration. Patent analysis is often carried out in several steps, such as data collection and extraction, analysis and finding patterns, and reporting results. Various methods have been used to analyze patent data in many technological fields. The goal of this paper is twofold: (i) to describe basic concepts and terminology of patent analysis, and (ii) to perform a systematic literature analysis to detect the most common methodology used for conducting patent analysis and to identify the technological fields that have been the focus of patent analyses in the last twenty years. The research is carried out in three steps: first, querying scientific databases; second, analyzing relevant articles within the patent analysis research area; and third, summarizing and reporting the state-of-the-art methodology and technological fields prevalent in patent analysis for the last twenty years.