Forty Years of Automated Patent Classification

The continuous development of technology increases the number of new inventions and thus the number of patents. Each new technology is assigned to one of the existing patent classes, otherwise, a new technology must be added to the patent classes. These processes support the development of automated patent classification methods and articles on this subject. For decades, studies have been conducted in the field of automatic patent classification. In this paper, the studies and pat ents published in this field have been evaluated using a bibliometric approach. The most referenced important studies on this subject are examined in detail, the analysis is detailed by making the pioneering authors of the field, journals, countries, assignees, etc., the focal point. The most recent developments in the field have been examined and evaluations have been presented regarding topics that are likely to be studied in the future.