Analyzing patent references

Use Analyze patent references to assess the value and the uniqueness of a technology by identifying the following:

Companies that reference a particular patent
Frequency of patent references

To analyze patent references

On the main menu, click Patents: Innovation Trend Analysis.
Under I want to, click Analyze patent references.

About patent references maps

You can generate both backward and forward patent references maps to gain insight into the value of a technology.

Analyzing forward references identifies the patents that reference your focal patent.
Analyzing backward references shows the prior art patents that are referenced by your focal patent.

For example, if a given patent is referenced often (many forward references), it probably represents a core technology. In addition, a patent that describes a unique technology cites few or no prior art patents (few backward references).

To generate a patent reference map for a patent

Type the publication number of your focal patent in the Publication Number box.
Click Show References.
- If only one publication of the patent is found, the patent references results are displayed in the Patent References Graph tab to display an interactive forward references map for the selected patent.
- If several publications of the patent are found, click the number of the publication whose references you want to see. An interactive patent references map for the selected patent is displayed.

If you do not know the publication number of the patent whose references you want to analyze, you might first have to locate the patent. To search patent collections, click Search patents under I want to, and then type a query. In the patent search results, click View references for this patent on the Tools menu. This displays the patent references results.

For information about patent references results, see Viewing patent references as a graph and Viewing patent references as a table.