Evolutionary Analysis of the Application of SAO in Patent Analysis: A Bibliometric Study

With the increasing demand for finer granularity in patent analysis, some scholars have started to explore the application of SAO (Subject-Action-Objection) triples to provide systematic descriptions of "problem-solution" in patent texts at a granular level. To investigate the progress in this field of research and assist scholars in identifying research topics and important research teams, this study utilizes the Web of Science database to retrieve academic papers in this domain. The study applies the BERTopic model and Gephi software to analyze the evolution of research topics and core research institutions in this field. The findings of this study reveal that the overall research in this field is in its preliminary exploration stage. Currently, scholars primarily focus on the application of SAO at the methodological level, and a stable core research group has not yet formed in this field. Future research should consider incorporating semantic associations between the Subject (S) and Objection (O) and expand the application of SAO triples to the theoretical level. Moreover, research teams in this field should actively seek collaboration and exchange to promote the advancement of SAO application research in patent analysis.