Furthermore, they suggest that patent mapping provides useful insights into a company's R&D strategy and can illuminate areas of technology push, claiming that it This is perhaps the only revealed source of competitive profiling of a company's technology. Bowonder et al. illustrate the analysis with various patent tables from 1990 to 1999. With three main criteria used, total R&D expenditure measured, R&D expenditure as a percentage of sales (R&D intensity), number of patents granted and expenditure on R&D by patent. for every business. Bowonder et al. examine the R&D spending patterns of global companies by calculating the total amount of R&D spending, the number of patents granted to each company, and the cost per patent. This appears to be a comprehensive and robust method for measuring what can be considered a difficult task, given a company's intellectual rights and the secrecy that normally surrounds its technology. It is recognized that this can illustrate areas of current technological interest, but patents take considerable time to award and may provide information on outdated trends. Although it would still be beneficial to observe the company's overall R&D behavior patterns, competitive technology position, and annual budgets. In addition, the cost per patent