INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DISCOVERY AND MAPPING SYSTEMS AND METHODS

• US 20100250479A1
• Filed: 03/31/2009
• Published: 09/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Novell Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Novell Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Carter, Stephen R.
• Application Number:
  US12/415,975
• Publication Number:
  US 20100250479A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/46
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/345 Summarisation for human users
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/184 Intellectual property management

Abstract

An apparatus can include an information gathering module, a semantic abstract generation module, and an intellectual property space identification module. The information gathering module can retrieve information pertaining to intellectual property activities within a particular technical field. The semantic abstract generation module can generate semantic abstracts based on the information retrieved by the information gathering module. The intellectual property space identification module can perform an evaluation of the particular technical field based on the generated semantic abstracts.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

an information gathering module operable to retrieve information pertaining to a plurality of presently existing intellectual property activities within a particular technical field;

a semantic abstract generator operable to receive the retrieved information from the information gathering module and to generate a plurality of semantic abstracts based on the retrieved information; and

an intellectual property space identification module comprising a semantic abstract evaluation module operable to measure distances between at least some of the plurality of generated semantic abstracts.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the intellectual property space identification module comprises a blue ocean space identification module operable to identify at least one blue ocean space within the particular technical field based at least in part on the measured distances.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the intellectual property space identification module comprises a red ocean space identification module operable to identify at least one red ocean space within the particular technical field based at least in part on the measured distances.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising a blue ocean space recommendation module operable to generate and transmit a report, the report comprising recommendations pertaining to new intellectual property activities to be pursued by the user entity within the particular technical field.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, further comprising a red ocean space recommendation module operable to generate and transmit a report, the report comprising recommendations pertaining to new intellectual property activities to be pursued by the user entity within the particular technical field.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the existing intellectual property activities comprise at least one of issued patents, published patent applications, and non-patent publications.

7. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the new intellectual property activities comprise at least one of patent applications, trademark applications, and trade secrets.

8. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the new intellectual property activities comprise at least one of patent applications, trademark applications, and trade secrets.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein responsive to a request by a user entity, the semantic abstract generator is further operable to generate a second plurality of semantic abstracts based on the plurality of existing intellectual property activities.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a report storage module operable to store the report for future use by the user entity.

11. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

identifying a first plurality of intellectual property activities for a user entity, the first plurality of intellectual property activities pertaining to at least one particular technical field;

identifying a second plurality of intellectual property activities for at least one competitor, the second plurality of intellectual property activities pertaining to the at least one particular technical field;

generating a first plurality of semantic abstracts based on the first plurality of intellectual property activities;

generating a second plurality of semantic abstracts based on the second plurality of intellectual property activities;

performing a comparison of the first and second generated pluralities of semantic abstracts;

generating one or more recommendations based on the comparison; and

transmitting a report comprising the one or more recommendations.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the one or more recommendations pertain to patent applications to be pursued by the user entity.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein generating one or more recommendations comprises determining at least one blue ocean space within the particular technical field.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein generating one or more recommendations comprises determining at least one red ocean space within the particular technical field.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the one or more recommendations pertain to patent applications that can be pursued by the user entity to construct an intellectual property fence within the at least one particular technical field.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the one or more recommendations pertain to patent applications that can be pursued by the user entity to avoid being fenced in by intellectual property activities of the at least one competitor.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising storing the report.

18. A tangible computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform the computer-implemented method of claim 11.

19. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving an identification of at least one particular technical field for a user entity;

identifying a plurality of intellectual property activities pertaining to the at least one particular technical field;

generating a plurality of semantic abstracts based on the plurality of intellectual property activities;

evaluating the generated plurality of semantic abstracts;

generating a report based on the evaluating; and

providing the generated report.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein evaluating comprises identifying at least one nullity within the generated plurality of semantic abstracts.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein evaluating comprises identifying at least one blue ocean space within the particular technical field.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein evaluating comprises identifying at least one red ocean space within the particular technical field.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein evaluating comprises identifying at least one opportunity for building an intellectual property fence within the particular technical field.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, further comprising storing the generated report.

25. A tangible computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform the computer-implemented method of claim 19.