Network analysis applied to patent data

Jasmine Mondolo
j.mondolo@staff.univpm.it
 Network analysis applied to patent data*
There are two main types of network based on patent data:

• (Patent) citation networks

• Nodes: patents
• Edges: citations (directed)

• (Co-)inventor (/collaboration) networks

• Nodes: inventors (/applicants)
• Edges: co-inventorship (undirected)

Inventor networks of Intrexon/Precigen –genetic engineering- (a) and Facebook (b)

*Note: the contents of this module are mainly based on Chapters 8 and 9 of the book “Patent Analytics” by Kim et al. (2021)
 Patent citation networks

• Useful for detecting emerging technologies and innovation trajectories

• A patent’s citations (which have an important legal function) can be

divided into two main classes:

• Backward citations prior literature cited by a patent at the time of the

invention or examination a measure of the acquired technical knowledge
[in-degree centrality]

• Forward citations the citations received by a patent from other subsequent

patents after publication a measure of knowledge transmission and the
relevance of a technology (+ market value) [out-degree centrality]
Patent citation networks
Backward and forward citations of a patent (p.77)
 Patent citation networks: a real-world example

Snapshot of the patent citation network of Apple’s US design patent D627,778 (iPhone 4, 2010); the design patents
linked through thick arrows are the patents related to the Samsung–Apple “design war” (p.75)
 The construction of a patent citation network
It typically starts from the identification of a focal patent (or a set of focal patents),
to which patents are added going both backward and forward N times (we build
the egocentric network of degree/depth N of that patent) (p.77)
 A practical application: Dyson’s patent citation network
1. Data collection and cleaning
Various primary and secondary sources of patent data (in this example, WIPS
database) the authors searched for the applicant’s name, Dyson Technology
Limited, among the utility and design patents filed with the USPTO after some
data cleaning, 624 granted patents (focal patents to which the patents linked
through their forward and backward citations are added)
 A practical application: Dyson’s patent citation network
2. Data mapping
Preparation of a node spreadsheet (ID + additional info) and an edge
spreadsheet (source, target, type, weight+ additional info) to be imported in
Gephi
 A practical application: Dyson’s patent citation network
3. Network analysis (+network visualization)
Selection of a software (Gephi), uploading of the node and the edge
spreadsheets, selection of a layout, (application of some filters/partitioning
etc), visualization and calculation of some network measures

“hairball effect”
Visualization obtained using the force-based layout Force Atlas 2
 A practical application: Dyson’s patent citation network
Overview of Dyson’s patent citation network
• 624 patents (432 utility patents and 192 design patents) were granted to
Dyson in the US as of February 1, 2018 (date of the data collection)
• Six product categories were identified (i.e., vacuum cleaner, fan, motor,
robot vacuum, hairdryer, and hand dryer):
 A practical application: Dyson’s patent citation network
Overview of Dyson’s patent citation network
 A practical application: Dyson’s patent citation network
Overview of Dyson’s patent citation network
• The analysis of Dyson’s patent citation network helps assess how Dyson’s
product innovations grow and relate to each other the visualization and
the data suggest for instance that robot vacuum innovation has evolved by
borrowing or improving many designs and technologies derived from the
vacuum cleaner cluster, and that the fan cluster was initially influenced by
the hand-dryer cluster

(p. 120)
• We can also focus on a specific patent to better understand the innovations
from which it was prompted/inspired and the subsequent innovations that
patent has prompted/inspired
 A practical application: Dyson’s patent citation network
The egocentric network of two Dyson’s patents
The bladeless fan design represented a big forward leap in fan design, and relevantly
influenced subsequent innovations

a) Egocentric network of patent US D602,143 (the first design patent granted to a bladeless fan, in 2008); b) Egocentric
network of US patent D715,995 (a design patent granted to a hairdryer in 2014); caution due to time-lag effects (getting
citations takes time) (p. 64)
 Co-inventor networks

• To identify collaborations between different inventors or groups of

inventors and companies for which they work

• To identify potential experts and leaders or new employees with

experience in a particular field of interest/ who is an “influencer”,
gatekeeper, or active member of an inventor team

• To see how/to what extent the global collaboration network changed over
time/after a relevant event (e.g., the economic recession, the Covid-19
pandemic)
 Co-inventor networks
Example of two co-inventor networks: Apple (a) and Google (b) -p.140-
Data collected over a ten-year period; 5,232 inventors and 10,975 registered patents
(Apple) vs 8,888 inventors and 12,386 registered patents (Google) 4.2 inventors per
patent (Apple) vs 2.8 (Google)
• Concentration tendency (Apple) vs evenly distributed pattern (Google)> more
«horizontal environment» + presence of ringlike membranes that refer to independent
activities at the periphery

Note: these visualizations have been produced by Periscopic (a US company specialized in data analysis and visualization)
 Co-inventor networks
Zoom on the central part of the networks, which include the founders of the
two companies (Steve Jobs, 347 patents; Sergey Brin and Larry Page, 27
patents in total)
 Variations of these two main types of networks

• Co-inventor or patent citation networks where the nodes are geographical

areas

• Networks of patent categories

• Citation networks of firms

• Co-inventor networks of applicants/firms

• Example: OECD (2012) conducted an interesting and exhaustive overview of co-

inventor networks of OECD regions in three different technological fields
 Main path (short mention)
• The Main Path Analysis is a mathematical tool, first proposed by Hummon
and Doreian in 1989, aimed to identify the major knowledge flows, or
“technological trajectories” in a patent citation network by exploiting the
information on citations

Example: main path of e-payment technologies (built by Lai et al. 2023 using Pajek)
 Gephi

• Most recent version: 0.1.0 -released in Jenuary 2023-

https://gephi.org/(free download)

Note: It requires Java-version 11, which, in the last releases, is already embedded into the
installation

• Relevant availability of data, tutorials, plugins…. A useful guide to Gephi is

Mastering Gephi Network Visualization (2015) by Ken Cherven (freely
available)
 Gephi

Upper part of the current homepage of Gephi’s website

We are going to have a look at how Gephi works (basic functions),
especially by building together a small social network
What we learnt so far

• Network basics
• Network structure
• Some economic applications (in particular to international trade and to a high-
tech sector)

• The main characteristics of patent citation networks and collaboration

networks

• An example of patent citation network implemented using Gephi