Patent mapping

• US 20070198578A1
• Filed: 07/27/2006
• Published: 08/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner PA
• Original Assignee: Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner PA
• Inventors: Sinha, Pradeep, Lundberg, Steven, Kalis, Janal
• Granted Patent: US 8,161,025 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3331 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/367 Ontology
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/382 using citations hypermedia G06F16/94
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2216/11 Patent retrieval
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/184 Intellectual property management

Abstract

The present subject matter provides systems, methods, software, and data structures for patent mapping, storage, and searching. Some such embodiments include mapping patent documents, claims, and claim limitations. Some further embodiments provide for searching a universe of patent documents by patent document, claim, limitation, class, element, or concept.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

maintaining a database of claim concepts;

maintaining a database of patent claims, wherein each claim is associated to one or more claim concepts;

searching the database of patent claims as a function of one or more identified claim concepts to identify claims associated with the one or more identified claim concepts; and

outputting the identified claims.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a portion of a claim in the database of patent claims is associated with one or more claim concepts in the database of claim concepts.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a portion of a claim in the database of patent claims includes a mapping to one or more portions of a document describing the portion of the claim.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the document is a patent from which the claim is from.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the database of claim concepts is arranged in a hierarchical manner such that a first claim concept is a child of a second claim concept and a parent of a third claim concept.

6. A method comprising:

identifying a target subject matter;

assigning the target subject matter to one or more concepts;

identifying a patent pool to screen the target subject matter against based on the one or more concepts; and

assembling a concept pool from the identified patent pool.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving input related to concepts in the concept pool; and

removing patents from the patent pool based on the received input related to concepts in the patent pool.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein:

the concepts of the patent pool are organized in a hierarchical manner; and

input received related to the patent pool that removes a concept higher in the hierarchy of concept causes associated concepts lower in the hierarchy to be removed.

9. A method comprising:

designating a first definitional concept of a patent claim;

designating a second definitional concept of the patent claim; and

designating a relational concept of the patent claim, wherein the relational concept relates the second definitional concept to the first definitional concept.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein designating the first definitional concept of the patent claim includes designating at least a portion of the patent claim as the first definitional concept.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein designating the second definitional concept of the patent claim includes designating at least a portion of the patent claim as the second definitional concept.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein designating the first and second definitional concepts and the relational concept of the patent claim includes assigning a concept to each of the elements, wherein the assigned concepts are derived from a patent document of the patent claim.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

associating the patent claim to a patent disclosure providing support for the patent claim.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein associating the patent claim to a patent disclosure providing support for the patent claim comprises:

associating the relational concept to a portion of the patent disclosure.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the associating the relational concept of the patent claim to a portion of the patent disclosure comprises:

associating one or more words of the patent claim to one or more sentences of the patent disclosure.

16. A method comprising:

maintaining a database of patent concepts, wherein each concept is defined to include elements inherent to the concept; and

maintaining a database of mapped patent claims, each claim including an element mapped to a concept, the mapped elements being non-inherent elements of the mapped concept.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein each of the mapped patent claims is an independent claim.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the mapped patent claims do not include a dependent claim containing only elements inherent to a concept mapped to a parent claim of the dependent claim.

19. A method comprising:

comparing patent claim language with language of mapped patent claims; and

suggesting a mapping for the patent claim language based on the comparing.

20. A method comprising:

generating a list of first definitional concepts contained in a universe of patent claims;

eliminating irrelevant first definitional concepts;

generating a list of relational concepts associated with the remaining first definitional concepts;

eliminating irrelevant relational concepts;

generating a list of second definitional concepts associated to the remaining first definitional concepts by the remaining relational concepts; and

eliminating irrelevant second definitional concepts.