Technology commercialisation: patent portfolio alignment and the fuel cell

The limits and potential of patents as a source of information in plotting technological development and competitive insight are gradually being explored. The value of patents as commercialization and technology emergence predictors is an area where tools have yet to be fully developed. In this paper, a statistically driven patent-based method that identifies the technological portfolios in industry players is introduced. The approach is explored through the case of fuel cell technology development, a technology with a succession of failed predictions, which appears to be nearing commercial introduction. The paper identifies the close alignment between the technology portfolios of the firms developing fuel cell technology and this is seen as a precursor and indicator of commercialization.