https://whimsical.com/en-De7xes6pBdPc3wr8p15V9A
Using Apple's Augmented Reality(AR; AR glass) as a field example, this map provides citation related contents using PatentPia GoldenCompass. If you click on the chain(link) marks that are attached to each item in the above utilisation map, the example page will open in a new window.
Individual patent data, like an article, contains the reference (backward citation) article numbers for that patent. The reference data is called citation data.
There are two citation directions: i) forward citations, which consist of the preceding references that you cite, and ii) backward citations, which are references to yourself.
If P1's patent has preceding patents P01 and P02 in its references, then P01 and P02 will be P1's references/backward citations. On the other hand, if P2 has P1 in its references, P2 will be P1's backward citations.
There are five main sources of citations (references): i) IDS by applicant, ii) citations by examiner, iii) citations during examiner office action (OA), iv) citations in the literature, and v) citations due to prior art search by the intellectual property office. In United States of America patents, i) to iv) occur.
When the right holders of a self patent and its references match, it is called self-references.
If P1's reference patent P0 and P1's forward citations patent P2 are all in a self citation relationship (P2 is citing (referencing) P1, and P1 is citing P0), then P0, P1, and P2 are highly technically related to each other. A set of patents that are both technically related and sequentially separated in time is closely related to R&D continuity, because P1 is likely to contain technology that is in an improvement-improvement-extension-extension-application-connected relationship with P0, and P2 is likely to contain technology that is in an improvement-improvement-extension-extension-application-connected relationship with P1.