自2007年Apple推出iPhone後,觸控技術隨即引發一波熱潮,也帶動了整個觸控產業的競爭與變化,而各家廠商為了鞏固市場優勢地位,在專利上的競爭更是激烈。 本研究使用美國專利局 (USPTO) 資料庫檢索電容式觸控面板相關領域之專利,先針對此產業之專利進行初步分析,使我們對於該產業有一定的瞭解,再運用專利計量指標的角度來瞭解電容觸控面板廠商之優勢。最後,依照國際分類號IPC之定義,找出各主流技術,並以專利被引用率指標取代傳統著重於專利件數之指標,結合技術吸引力、相對專利貢獻與相對專利優勢,製作出專利組合圖。 本研究發現:利用專利被引用率取代專利件數,更可呈現出各家廠商實際的技術強度、與對該產業的貢獻。而從專利組合圖中可看出各公司之競爭能力,與主流技術之未來發展趨勢,以提供廠商在研發時,參考之建議。
Apple introduced its iPhone in 2007, it drove the booming of touch technology, and the competition and change of touch panel industry. All companies strengthen the efforts on the patenting to enhance their competitive advantage. We used the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database to retrieve the patent data of capacitive touch panel technology. Basic analysis of patents let us have preliminary understanding of this industry. Then we measure some patent bibliometrics to compare the advantages and disadvantages of each company. Finally, we identify the dominate technology on each IPC ( International Patent Classification) code, and adopt the patent citations, the Associated Technology Attractive indicator, the Relative Technology Contribution indicator, and the Relative Patent Advantage indicator to figure the patent portfolio map. We found that the patent citation data is better than the patent count to identify the technology strength of a company and its contribution to the industry. Based on the patent portfolio map we can know each company’s competitiveness, the future trends of the dominant technology of the capacitive touch panel. The results provide valuable recommendations for companies for their future research and development.