OVERLAY PATENT NETWORK TO ANALYZE THE DESIGN SPACE OF A TECHNOLOGY DOMAIN: THE CASE OF HYBRID ELECTRICAL VEHICLES

Technology domains are often made of various interactive technologies, which makes technology forecasting difficult. We introduce a method to visualize, analyze and predict the evolution of a technology domain, which is to overlay the design space of a technology domain and its evolution paths on the total technology space. In this way, the structure of the design space of a domain and its evolution paths can be identified and analyzed. One can also analyze the nearby neighborhood of the current positions of a domain on the total map, to explore next innovation and expansion opportunties.