TECHNOLOGICAL STRATEGIES OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURERS - A PATENT ANALYSIS

Patent analysis on a company level leads to many interesting insights into the technological strategy of telecommunications manufacturers. E uropean companies are usually focused on telecommunications, whereas J apanese companies put higher emphasis on other fields such as data pro cessing or audiovisual electronics and enter telecommunications from t his angle. This might be decisive for the future markets. European com panies target European markets and, in the second place, North America . They neglect Japan. US companies are oriented to both the European a nd the Japanese markets. Japanese patents are chiefly aimed at the US market and, on a lower level, the European. International trade and pa tent patterns correlate with each other.