4. Analyze your entire patent database

Analyses can be performed on your entire patent database using :

• lists (for the record) ;

• matrices: data from all available document fields can be cross-referenced: IPCs and applicants (automatic benchmarking), inventors and IPCs (know-how), IPCs and application dates (technological evolution), applicants and application dates (new entrants). However, when the number of records is large, these analyses can be tedious to interpret;

• networks: these represent the simple visualization of a correlation, e.g. applicants' networks (which applicants co-publish patents), inventors' networks (potential localized searches, inventors working together), applicants-inventors (potential inventors linked to a company). But here too, interpretation can prove tedious.