Yet another way to look at how technology and products are related and distributed among competitors can be shown in the “Thematic Map of the Merger’s Assignees’ Portfolios” figure.  In this figure the thematic map is used to plot patents according to the subject matter they cover.  Patents that are similar to one another are mapped together and mountains and those that are unrelated to one another are found in valleys or at the four corners of the map. By color coding the patents according to the merged assignees one can see at a glance who owns which part of the landscape. If time size slices are used one can see how the map changes over time as companies may shift their focus from its materials to processes to formulations. It also by color coding shows at a glance which assignees her strongest and materials, formulations processes, or applications.