Visual analysis of patent data through global maps and overlays

Visual analytics has been increasingly used to help to better grasp the complexity and evolution of scientific and technological activities over time, across science and technological areas and in organisations. This chapter presents general insights into some important fields of expertise such as mapping, network analysis and visual analytics applied to patent information retrieval and analysis. We also present a new global patent map and overlay technique and illustrative examples of its application. The concluding remarks offer considerations for future patent analysis and visualisation.