This is the first book that comprehensively analyzes joint applications of patents from the European Union, Japan and the United States, which directly signify collaborations between companies or inventors, using the methodology of network science. Network science approaches enable us to predict structures of joint-application networks and to predict the impact of patents applied jointly. Regression analyses, which are broadly used in the field of economics, may be effective for determining what parameters are important for companies or inventors that are going to be connected, but they...