“…Patent citation analysis is a bibliometric technique that links patents in the same way that the science citations link the papers' references [33], [35], [36], and [37]. Patent citations have been primarily used in three lines of research: as a measure of patent quality [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [18], [38], as a measure of knowledge flows and spillovers [39], [40], [41], and as a tool for the examination of technology structure [33], [42]. The term "quality" has been often used to emphasize both the technological and value dimensions of innovation [43].…”