Patent Analysis as a New Scholarly Research Method

Abstract

As time progress, changes in human perception, thinking, and performance are inevitable and the same is true in research methods. There are many research methods accepted and adopted under qualitative and quantitative research umbrella and many new research methods are added by many researchers at different point of time. Such new systematic research methods provide or open a new avenue to succeeding researchers and provide an expanded opportunity to see things differently. The process ofresearch always focuses on either development of new knowledge or analysing and interpreting the existing things in a newer way. In this paper, we are proposing and forwarding a new qualitative research method called ‘Patent Analysis’. This method focuses on analysis, description, and interpretation of a chosen patent in any area in a systematic way. Such analysis process of the patent might lead to the development of new concepts or theory. The procedure of patent analysis contains an evaluation of the patent in terms of its advantages, benefits, constraints, disadvantages, effectiveness, and future value. Further, the use and applications of patent analysis in the organizational strategic decisions on foreseeing the new technologies are also discussed.