System for identifying potential licensees of a source patent portfolio
First Claim
1. A method for determining potential licensees for a source patent portfolio comprising one or more patents, the method comprising:
- devising a set of associated patents wherein each patent in the set of associated patents i) cites as a reference a patent in the source patent portfolio or ii) is cited as a reference by a patent in the source patent portfolio;
processing all of the patents in the set of associated patents to establish a set of assignees contained in the set of associated patents;
establishing a set of remaining assignees by removing from the set of assignees all assignees that are currently licensed; and
organizing the set of remaining assignees according to a ranking criteria that causes a higher ranking to be given to any assignee when the following ratio is greater for that assignee than for other assignees, wherein the ranking criteria gives more weight to assignees both i) having patents that have a reference to a patent in the source patent portfolio and ii) having patents that are cited as a reference by a patent in the source patent portfolio;
assignee'"'"'s patents in the set of associated patents;
all patents held by assignee.
11 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
A list of potential licensees of a patent portfolio can be generated from a source patent portfolio. To identify the licensees, the source patent portfolio comprising, for example, all the patents owned by a particular entity, can be created. Next, a list of a set of patents that are related to or associated with the patents in the source patent portfolio is generated. The unlicensed assignees of patents in this set of related patents are organized according to various criteria. For example, the assignees could be ranked based on the ratio of total patents held by an assignee to the number of patents in the set of associated patents held by that assignee. Such rankings can provide an indication of assignees that may be potential licensees of the patents in the source patent portfolio.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A method for determining potential licensees for a source patent portfolio comprising one or more patents, the method comprising:
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devising a set of associated patents wherein each patent in the set of associated patents i) cites as a reference a patent in the source patent portfolio or ii) is cited as a reference by a patent in the source patent portfolio;
processing all of the patents in the set of associated patents to establish a set of assignees contained in the set of associated patents;
establishing a set of remaining assignees by removing from the set of assignees all assignees that are currently licensed; and
organizing the set of remaining assignees according to a ranking criteria that causes a higher ranking to be given to any assignee when the following ratio is greater for that assignee than for other assignees, wherein the ranking criteria gives more weight to assignees both i) having patents that have a reference to a patent in the source patent portfolio and ii) having patents that are cited as a reference by a patent in the source patent portfolio;
assignee'"'"'s patents in the set of associated patents;
all patents held by assignee. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A computer program product comprising:
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a computer usable medium;
computer readable instructions embodied on said computer useable medium for determining potential licensees for a source patent portfolio comprising one or more patents, the instructions directing a computer to perform the steps of;
devising a set of associated patents wherein each patent in the set of associated patents
1) cites as a reference a patent in the source patent portfolio or ii) is cited as a reference by a patent in the source patent portfolio;
processing all of the patents in the set of associated patents to establish a set of assignees contained in the set of associated patents;
establishing a set of remaining assignees by removing from the set of assignees all assignees that are currently licensed; and
organizing the set of remaining assignees according to a ranking criteria that causes a higher ranking to be given to any assignee when the following ratio is greater for that assignee than for other assignees, and wherein the ranking criteria gives more weight assignees both i) having patents that have a reference to a patent in the source patent portfolio and ii) having patents that are cited as a reference by a patent in the source patent portfolio;
assignee'"'"'s patents in the set of associated patents;
all patents held by assignee. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A system for determining potential licensees for a source patent portfolio comprising one or more patents where each patent has one or more references cited thereto, the system comprising:
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means for devising a set of associated patents wherein each patent in the set of associated patents i) cites as a reference a patent in the source patent portfolio or ii) is cited as reference by a patent in the source patent portfolio;
means for processing all of the patents in the set of associated patents to establish a set of assignees contained in the set of associated patents;
means for establishing a set of remaining assignees by removing from the set of assignees all assignees that are currently licensed; and
means for organizing the set of remaining assignees according to a ranking criteria that causes a higher ranking to be given to any assignee when the following ratio is greater for that assignee than for other assignees, wherein the ranking criteria gives more weight to assignees both i) having patents that have a reference to a patent in the source patent portfolio and ii) having patents that are cited as a reference by a patent in the source patent portfolio;
assignee'"'"'s patents in the set of associated patents;
all patents held by assignee. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification