Introduction

The technology clusters are technology fields created and updated by PatentSight and have four hierarchical levels (e.g., "Healthcare > Dentistry > Dental drill > Tool tip"). In contrast to IPC or CPC, each patent family can only belong to one technology cluster per level. The clustering process is performed weekly with each database update, thereby incorporating new publications into the technology clusters. All patents, patent applications, and other IP rights in the PatentSight database are assigned to one cluster on each level.

PatentSight’s technology clusters are sets of similar patent families created based on titles, abstracts and IPC and CPC classification symbols by an automated machine learning technique. The technology clusters are built based on all documents from all patent families and other IP rights in the PatentSight database irrespective of their legal status and have four levels of hierarchy.

First, PatentSight applies a proprietary IPC mapping process to allocate each patent document to one or more of 159 level 2 tech regions. At this stage of the clustering process, the patent documents can be mapped to multiple level 2 clusters.
The level 2 clusters serve as a basis for creating the level 4 clusters, which are created based on phrases extracted from titles and abstracts and IPC and CPC classification symbols. These document features are combined into patent vectors. These vectors are clustered using our proprietary tech clustering algorithm into level 4 tech clusters.
Then, the level 4 clusters are automatically aggregated into level 3 tech fields. This process is also based on the patent vectors.
Next, PatentSight manually aggregates the level 3 tech fields into a total of 159 level 2 tech regions and 14 level 1 tech areas.
In the following step, the LN simple patent families are assigned to the most fitting level 4 cluster. Based on the distance of their member documents to each level 4 cluster, each patent family is assigned to a single level 4 cluster which is closest to the majority of its family members. Then, the patent family is also hierarchically assigned to the overlying level 3, 2, and 1 cluster. While in the first stage of the clustering process patent documents can be mapped to multiple of the 159 tech regions, this is no longer the case after the assignment of the patent families to the clusters (i.e., there is no co-classification).
Finally, the tech clusters (level 4) and fields (level 3) are automatically labelled based on the titles and abstracts of the patent documents of each cluster.

Additional Facts

Freedom of Overlaps

Since each patent family in the PatentSight database belongs to exactly one technology cluster on each level, portfolios can be analyzed without having to pay attention to technology overlaps (e.g., as in IPC classifications).

Weekly Updates

The weekly inflow of new documents into the PatentSight database results in continuous updates of the technology clusters. These weekly updates may come with changes to the overall number of level 3 and 4 clusters (with an increasing tendency), the reallocation of patent families to different clusters, and changes to the cluster labels.

Continuous Improvement

Based on iterative training, PatentSight’s clustering approach allows for easy incorporation of new data. The automated machine learning continuously improves the clustering process.

How to Use Technology Clusters

You can use the search field "Technology Cluster" in the search panel to narrow down your search results to patent families that belong to a technology field of interest.
Searching by Technology clusters can be helpful in prior art searches, FTO searches, benchmarks, and many more use cases!

	Click on the "More" icon to access all available search fields.
	Access the section "Technology". Alternatively, enter "Technology" into the search box of the "Add Search Field" dialog.
	Select the search field "Technology Cluster."

	Click on the drop-down icon displayed next to a cluster of interest to access the lower levels.
	Tick the checkboxes of the relevant technology clusters you want to add to the search panel.

After narrowing down your search results to patent families that belong to a technology cluster of interest, you can for example find out which owner owns portfolios in this technology field and how these portfolios have developed over time.

This example line chart shows that, in the field of "Circuit boards" (as defined in the search query), Company B owned the strongest portfolio as of Patent Asset Index until 2021 and was then overtaken by Company A.

Alternatively, you can use the sunburst chart to obtain an overview of an owner’s portfolio grouped by technology clusters.

	Click "Insert" in the main tool bar and select "Chart." In the chart settings (accessible via the gear wheel icon), select the chart type "Sunburst."
	Double - Click on a segment displayed in the sunburst chart to expand the segment. Double - click on an expanded segment to collapse it again.
	Click on the pink arrow to display hidden segment.

	Under "Segments" you can slice the sunburst chart by the one of the attributes "Technology Clusters" or "IPC (Smart)—Short Title."
	Under "Segment Size", you can select the measure (here: “Portfolio Size”) to be visualized by the size of each segment.
	Under "Technology Cluster Levels Shown", you can move the slider to adjust the number of technology cluster levels displayed in the sunburst chart.
	Use the radio buttons under "Level of Details" to adjust the level of details shown in the sunburst chart. The setting "Low" will only show the main technology clusters, whereas the setting "High" will show a higher number of sub-levels.

You can use the attribute "Technology Clusters" or "Technology Cluster (Owner and Title)" and the measure "Share of Parameter Selected in Technology Cluster" in all charts and tables available in PatentSight.

	In this example, the table is grouped by the attribute "Technology Cluster—Level 3 (Path and Title)."
	The table shows the measure "Share in Total Number of Active Families in Technology Clusters (Level 3)" to find out in which technology an owner occupies a strong position.
	The owner Company A owns 35.7% of all active patents belonging to the level 3 technology cluster "Surface acoustic wave."

Finally, you can also use the technology clusters to quickly find out in which technology areas competitors are active and own strong patent portfolios. This example matrix chart shows that Company C has the strongest portfolio in the field of "Automatic Transmission."