Patent information is effective in clarifying the research policy and strategy of acompany and its competitors through the analysis of technological trends. In this study, wedevised a patent analysis system that incorporates one patent search system, YUPASS (YamaguchiUniversity Patent Search System), and patent mapping software. In order to confirm theeffectiveness of this analysis system, we focused on the differences in technological features ofexposure equipment of Canon, Nikon and ASML for

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... se in semiconductor manufacturing andtheir market share, and attempted to infer the technological reason for the changes in eachcompany's market share through the analysis of patent maps. The analysis result correlatedwell with the market share investigation report, and we have found that it is a useful analyticaltool in clarifying a company's or its competitor's research strategy and policy.