D ecisions for determining the current stage of technology life cycle (TLC) based on reliable data, are necessary. The inherent links between patents and science and technology make them essential sources for data on any technology. In the light of this, and considering the importance of patent information for the firm's strategic decisions, we have attempted to use patent data as a source of information to identify the level of a technology in the S-Curve. This paper starts with the literature review of the life cycle and the role of patents at

Determining the success factors of the product acquisition process has initialized extensive researches at the level of institutions and organizations. However, few studies have been done about the success requirements of knowledge management in the product acquisition process. Therefore, in this research it is attempted to deal with this topic with a mixed method of qualitative and quantitative studies. At the qualitative stage by the use of the studies and the half-organized interviews the key knowledge which was very important for the success of each of the product acquisition phases was determined. Then this knowledge was translated to knowledge requirements, and at the next stage, a new model of assessing the situation of each of these requirements in product acquisition phases was presented. Finally, each situation was assessed with the knowledge management cycle approach in above-mentioned organizations.The results indicate that the knowledge production step in all of the product acquisition phases has an inappropriate situation, but the sharing process has an inappropriate situation in all phases except the knowledge production phase.

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