On A Patent Analysis Method for Technological Convergence

An important feature in recent innovation trend is the merging and overlapping of technologies, i.e. the technological convergence. The paper proposes two approaches using patent data to examine the technological convergence. First, we conduct a patent network analysis using the patent citation, which can be considered as a knowledge flow among technological fields. Second, in order for more specific analysis, the co-classification among technologies is carried out to measure the convergence intensity, rate, and coverage. Finally, by using the coverage intensity and rate, we propose two portfolio matrices to manage the technological convergence.