Method and apparatus for evaluating documents with correlating information

• US 6,665,656 B1
• Filed: 10/05/1999
• Issued: 12/16/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Carter, Jeffery L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Choules, Jack M.
• Application Number:
  US09/413,089
• Time in Patent Office: 1,533 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3-6, 707/102
• US Class Current: 707/748
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/932 Infringement detection
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A method for producing correlating information with respect to a target document, the method including providing a target document, the target document including patent content; processing the target document to obtain an information structure; producing a search criteria from the information structure; searching computer readable media based upon the search criteria to obtain search material; and comparing the search material to contents of the target document to produce the correlating information. An apparatus for using the method is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method for producing correlating information with respect to a target document, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a target document, the target document including patent content;

processing the target document to obtain an information structure, wherein said information structure comprises a tree structure ontology;

producing a search criteria from the information structure;

searching computer readable media based upon the search criteria to obtain search material; and

comparing the search material to contents of the target document to produce the correlating information.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the target document is selected from the group consisting of a portion of the specification content of the target document, a complete patent document, and one or more claims from the target document.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the target document is the information structure wherein the step of processing the target document accepts the target document as the information structure.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the nodes of the tree structure ontology contain content from the target document.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the tree structure ontology is more than one level in depth.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the tree structure ontology is created from natural language processing or semantic processing of the target document.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the tree structure ontology is created at least in part with human user intervention.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the tree structure ontology is modified to build a second ontology that maintains certain criteria and parameters from the tree structure ontology.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of searching is performed by generating a search request from the information structure and using the search request to search the computer readable medium.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the computer readable medium is a database or is accessible by an electronic network.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the search request is used to search publicly available documents.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of comparing comprises generating one or more ontologies from each reference in the search material and comparing the ontologies to the information structure.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising evaluating the correlating information with respect to claims of the target document.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising evaluating the correlating information with respect to claims of the target document for validity or infringement analysis.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising evaluating the correlating information with respect to claims of the target document for patentability analysis wherein the target document is a disclosure of an invention.

16. The method of claim 1 further comprising evaluating the correlating information with respect to claims of the target document to locate prior art related to the target document.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the correlating information is rank ordered according to correlation weight.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the information structure incorporates additional input provided by a user.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the additional input is information selected from alternate phrases and alternate documentation.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein searchable sources within the computer readable medium are prioritized based upon user input.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the search material is filtered based upon a user selected date range.

22. The method of claim 1 wherein a user is notified of availability of correlating information based upon a selected criterion.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein the information structure may be modified by a user after production of the correlating information.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the information structure is modified by a user inputting new rank information of the correlating information.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein the correlating information is annotated by a user.