A Reproducible Patent Landscape Review Framework for Search Validation, Dataset Construction and Structured Research Whitespace Assessment

Patent Landscape Reviews (PLRs) are widely used to map technological activity, applicants, jurisdictions, patent families and innovation trends. However, many PLRs remain descriptive and provide limited methodological detail on search validation, dataset construction, manual screening, classification consistency and translation into research directions. This paper proposes a structured but flexible PLR framework for moving from patent dataset construction to structured research whitespace assessment and research direction identification. The framework integrates literature-informed scoping, broad preliminary patent searching, development and hold-out patent sets for search validation, Clopper–Pearson lower confidence bounds for recall estimation, patent-specific filtering, PRISMA-style reporting, manual relevance screening, classification consistency checking, bibliographic analysis, technology update analysis and research whitespace translation. An illustrative ammonia-to-hydrogen patent review is used to demonstrate how the framework can be operationalised. In the use case, the frozen Lens.org search query retrieved all 20 patents in the hold-out validation set, giving an observed hold-out recall of 100% and a one-sided 95% Clopper–Pearson lower confidence bound of 86.1%. The validated query retrieved 1394 patent records, which were reduced to 934 distinct patent families and, finally, to 708 relevant patent families after patent-specific filtering and manual relevance screening. The use case shows how validated search construction, patent family filtering, manual screening and multi-layer patent classification can support both descriptive landscape analysis and deeper technology interpretation. The framework contributes a practical methodological pathway for researchers, postgraduate students, innovation offices and technology transfer offices seeking to use patent information for research planning, invention development, technology scouting and future research direction identification.