Purpose. The aim of the paper is to present the development of patent citation ana-lyses and to present the possibilities of their application in the evaluation of universities together with bibliometric analyses.Approach/methodology/design. The historical development and application of patent citation analysis are presented. In the second part of the paper, a comparison is made between Croatian, regional and leading EU universities in terms of average patent citations per 1000 scientifi c papers and the average citations per paper. The Scopus bib-liometric tool SciVal was used for the analysis.Findings. The paper provides examples of citation analyses comparing patent cita-tions of Croatian universities with those of the region and the leading universities of the European Union. The patent citations of the largest Croatian universities: the University of Zagreb, the University of Split, the University of Rijeka and the University of Osijek are examined, as well as the patent citations of the mentioned universities by diff erent scientifi c fi elds. The citation rate of the papers cited in patents of individual Croatian universities was examined, as well as the ratio of international collaborations to the average papers of these universities. Research limitations/implications. Lack of research on patent indicators in Croatia and in literature. Although patent citations indicate the connection between universities and the industrial sector, for more exact analysis of knowledge and technology transfer, it is necessary to use additional indicators such as the number of contracts between universities and industries, the number of conferences organized in cooperation with industry, the number of licenses, spin-off companies of universities, etc.Originality/value. Precisely because of the lack of relevant recent literature, as well as primarily Croatian papers on this topic, we believe it is important to raise awareness of the role of both citation analysis and patents, as well as patentometrics in the evalua-tion of universities and their further development, as well as the promotion of university personnel.