Finding the Signal in the Noise of Patent Citations: How to Focus on Relevance for Strategic Advantage

Patent evaluations based on prior art citation data are business methodologies that can reveal hidden relationships between a patent and the associated prior art citations. These hidden relationships can further identify firms, actors and, technology and can identify strategic business relationships and opportunities. However, a fundamental problem with existing methodologies for discovering relevant relationships in citation data is noise. Citation noise obscures relevant relationships and impedes the potential value of these methodologies. This article reviews the literature on prior art citations as they relate to citation-based patent evaluation methodologies. A framework is presented to overcome citation noise and reveal relevant relationships to evaluate knowledge, technology, and invention properties, thereby opening up strategic and competitive advantages to the evaluating firm. The article provides guidance to executives and managers to help improve strategic decision making through relevant citation-based patent evaluations. We must not always judge of the generality of the opinion by the noise of the acclamation.