一般要了解一個產業的關鍵技術,會有從市場角度切入的市場分析,和有從專利文件預測未來可能興新科技此兩大類。市場分析只能分析現有的技術,資訊的價值時效性很短,但是專利可以作為分析技術發展趨勢、掌握重要廠商基礎專利、繪製技術生命週期現況和預測技術未來的興衰等。一般專利分析找出該大廠可能發展的技術趨勢,卻仍對該公司技術與商業化應用的連結所知有限。觀察現在大多的廠商,不僅提供實體產品之銷售,而結合整體價值鏈對其顧客提供整合式服務來創造最大的商業價值。 本研究以領域知識本體論之定義為基礎,建構了結合創新商業流程模型於專利佈局及技術創新的分析架構與方法。運用電腦輔助進行服務流程模型分析,並依據領域本體論及商業流程,進行系統化策略性專利技術之分類及全球競爭者分析。本研究使用隱形牙套產業作為研究範例,透過建立研究廠商的商業流程,了解每個環節可能使用的技術,架構本體論,並將該產業其他競爭對手的重要專利對應技術環節,了解各家廠商在相同商業流程環節上的異同,也了解各家廠商在整套商業流程上的布局,間接了解每一個流程技術可能有的未來走向,預估其專利佈局可能發展的趨勢。此方法亦可以提供在一般企業研究對手技術時,一個較微觀的視角,了解自己和其他廠商的專利佈局,有效降低研發成本、提升研發方向的正確性,更進一步做為其決定研發策略的參考依據。
To study the critical technology in the industry, two approaches are frequently used. One is by using the statistic approach to find the general market trend analysis. Another is by analyzing the patent files to predict the future technology trend. However, there are two disadvantaged of the market trend analysis. First, the result is only valid in the current technology. Second, the data have limited timeliness. The patent analysis can be used to predict emerging trends and identify research opportunities. But the connection between technology and the commercialized applications are still limited. Moreover, companies nowadays not only provide the actual products but the whole business service process to offer the customer total solution package. This research uses the ontology as the basis of the knowledge domain and incorporates innovative business process modeling with patent portfolio analysis. With the computer supported tools, the strategic patent technology classification and the global competitors’ analysis are studied. The invisible orthodontic brace industry is used to demonstrate the proposed methodology. The critical technologies are classified into the business process. The other competitors’ patent are, then, benchmarked in the same business process patent portfolios. The comparison shows the technology focus of each company, which also indicates the technology trends of the companies and their patent portfolios. The methodology provides micro-analytics for comparing the patent portfolios from the business process perspectives to enhance the efficiency of the R&D research.