Detecting of Technology Innovation Trends Based on Patent Data:Theory and Methods

This article summarizes the theory, methods and systems of innovation trends detection prob-lem based on patent analysis. By comparing the priorities and weaknesses of four kinds of methods whichcomposed from the perspectives of expert judgment, information analysis, network evolution and informa-tion visualization, we found out that behavior of innovation groups, big data analysis of patent, patent evo-lution network and patent visualization are the research direction and hotspots.