Patents as instruments for exploring innovation dynamics: Different perspectives on "photovoltaic cells"

Patents are framed in different contexts: in addition to being among the outputs of the production system of knowledge, patents can also serve as input to the economic process of innovation. Furthermore, intellectual property in patents is legally regulated, for example, in national patent offices. Thus, different selection environments are relevant to patenting: the context of technological knowledge production, the economic context, and the legal framework of the state. Patents reflect these different contexts in terms of attributes: names and addresses of inventors and assignees provide information about the locations of inventions, patent classifications and claims within the patents can be used to map technological developments, citations provide measures of impact and value, etc. Can patent analysis and patent maps provide us with an analytical lens for studying the complex dynamics of technological innovations?