A study on technological trajectory of light emitting diode in Taiwan by using patent data

Many companies improve their technological competitiveness and enhance patent deployment by capitalising on their competitors' technological information. In this article, we propose a patent analysis model that includes the company level as well as the technology level. We specifically address how to use patent data effectively to identify companies' technological competitive position and development trend. At the company level, this article combines technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) with criteria importance though intercriteria correlation (CRITIC), utilising six patent indicators to explore the competitive conditions of a company in the LED industry. Moreover, at the technology level, we integrate the concepts of technological trajectory and technology life cycle to draw development trends of key LED technologies. Companies would then be clustered based on similar patent deployments. In addition to improving the ability to obtain competitive technological intelligence of each company, this approach would also enable monitoring of the development status of the key technologies, which could serve as an important reference for decision makers.