The present invention is related to patent-related tools, and methodologies involving those tools, for assisting in all stages of the merger and acquisition process. The IPAM
server may be used in conjunction with the tools and methodologies to aid in the merger and acquisition process. These tools or methods include, but are not limited to, a
topographic map, a technology classification, a SIC classification, a
radar diagram, a patent
citation tree, a
citation root tree, a
citation count report, a citation frequency graph, a citation frequency report, a patent count / year, an application count / year, a patent aging graph, a U.S. primary class / subclass, an international patent class, an assignee patent count report by primary class / subclass, a patent count graph by number of patents, a top assignees primary class / subclass by percent of total, a months to issue patents, a features grouping, a document
annotation, an inventor patent count / assignee, an inventor patent count graph, and inventor data.