PatMining - Approaches to the Content-Based Analysis of Textual Patent Information for Technology Monitoring

Patent have often been seen as a useful information source for technology monitoring. Nevertheless, analyzing patent information remains a demanding task, and this is largely due to the ever increasing number and extent of patent documents. A very useful tool for dealing with the information overflow in order to analyze textual patent information can be found in the application of semantic patent analysis. Following up on this, approaches to the content-based analysis of textual patent information for technology monitoring are introduced in this thesis. Relating to the usefulness of patent information for technology monitoring, it is shown that technologies are published in patents on a large scale. Furthermore, patents provide information about new technologies at an early stage. From a methodological point of view, the role of design decisions for concept extraction is highlighted. Additionally, semantic patent analysis is adapted for technology monitoring and its specific tasks