Indicators of firm patent activities

It is noted that with the advent of computerized patent data banks it has become common to use patent data for analytical purposes. Most of the analyses aim at describing the technological position of a firm. The author discusses various indicators for this purpose that have proven to be useful in evaluating technological positions. He shows that data have to be aggregated from classes in the International Patent Classification to arrive at technological fields. He discusses measures of patenting quantity and waiting time for patents as well as patent portfolios and their forecasting. This work is based on experiences with German companies