Constructing a patent citation map using bibliographic coupling: A study of Taiwan's high-tech companies

This paper uses bibliographic coupling analysis to plot out a patent citation map. It explores the current research and development in the high-tech electronic companies in Taiwan, and the relationship between companies and industries. Fifty-eight high-tech electronic companies under this study, between 1998 and 2000, obtained 4,162 patents from U.S., and cited 24,852 patents during these years. Through the data from bibliographic coupling analysis, the paper categorizes these companies into 6 major groups: semiconductor, peripheral, scanner, notebook/monitor, system, IC design/packaging. This research also uses multidimensional scaling to plot out a patent citation map, graphically displaying the association among the groups. The result shows a higher similarity among companies in semiconductor sector, whereas the distinction between industries grows more and more ambivalent, even overlapping in some cases.