Patent claims analysis system and method

• US 7,644,360 B2
• Filed: 11/08/2004
• Issued: 01/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Magic Number, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Spore, Inc.
• Inventors: Beretich, Guy R. Jr., Glasgow, JiNan
• Primary Examiner(s): Campbell; Joshua D
• Application Number:
  US10/983,458
• Publication Number:
  US 20050108652A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,884 Days
• Field of Search: 715/500, 715/514, 715/515, 715/712, 715/713, 715/775, 715/200, 715/209, 715/270, 715/277
• US Class Current: 715/270
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/313 Selection or weighting of terms for indexing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2216/11 Patent retrieval
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/211 Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A system and method for facilitating patent grant and patent application claims examination; including the functions of automated importing of patent claims, automated parsing of the claims into their hierarchy, and compression/expansion of the parsed claims to/from the independent claim level.

Claims

1. A system for displaying patent claims, the system comprising:

at least one input device in communication with a computer and at least one output device, wherein at least one user is capable of inputting information via the at least one input device to the at least one computer and viewing information on the at least one output device, and wherein the at least one computer is capable of storing, modifying, outputting, and retrieving information in communication with the at least one input device and at least one output device;

and software installed and capable of running on the at least one computer for automatically importing patent claims based upon the user inputted information, parsing the patent claims hierarchically, generating a hierarchical claims diagram comprising graphical claim structure and textual claim content associated with each patent claim, the textual content of each claim ending with a numerical representation of how many claims directly depend on that claim, and outputting a viewable diagram of the parsed claims wherein, for each patent claim, the graphical claim structure fully includes the textual claim content;

wherein the claims diagram shows at least part of a patent claims series in an interactive format that is operable to dynamically expand and compress the at least part of a patent claims series, including both the graphical claim structure and the fully included textual claim content, according to the hierarchy of the at least part of a patent claims series;

wherein the graphical claim structure comprises multiple geometric outlines, each outline operable to fully contain the textual claim content of one claim, and at least one line directly connecting the outlines to each other according to the hierarchy of the at least part of a patent claims series;

wherein at least one of the multiple geometric outlines further has a visual emphasis, the visual emphasis indicating whether there are additional levels of the hierarchy of the at least part of a patent claims series directly connected to the at least one of the multiple geometric outlines that has a visual emphasis.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least part of a claim series include an independent claim.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the claim series includes at least one dependent claim that depends from the independent claim.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the claims are displayed in a compressed state.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the claims are displayed in an expanded state.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the imported claims are an entire claims series.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the imported claims are an entire patent'"'"'s claims.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the imported claims are at least part of a patent claims series from more than one patent.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the parsing includes subcomponent parsing.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the claims are displayed in html.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the claims are displayed in a compressed state.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the claims are displayed in an expanded state.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer is a server.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer is a member of a computer network.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one input device communicates with the computer directly.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one input device communicates with the computer remotely.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one input device communicates with the computer wirelessly.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one input device communicates with the computer via the Internet.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one output devices is an electronic output device with graphic user interface.

20. A method for displaying patent claims, the method steps comprising:

selecting at least part of a patent claims series;

importing the at least part of a patent claims series;

parsing the at least part of a patent claims series into the claims hierarchy of at least part of a patent claims series;

displaying the parsed at least part of a patent claims series in an interactive format that is operable to dynamically expand and compress the at least part of a patent claims series, including both the graphical claim structure and the fully included textual claim content, according to the hierarch of the at least part of a patent claims series, the textual content of each claim ending with a numerical representation of how many claims directly depend on that claim;

wherein the graphical claim structure comprises multiple geometric outlines, each outline operable to fully contain the textual claim content of one claim and at least one line directly connecting the outlines to each other according the hierarch of the at least part of a patent claims series;

wherein at least one of the multiple geometric outlines further has a visual emphasis, the visual emphasis indicating whether there are additional levels of the hierarchy of the at least part of a patent claims series directly connected to the at least one of the multiple geometric outlines that has a visual emphasis.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the at least part of a claim series include an independent claim.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the at least part of a claim series includes at least one dependent claim that depends from the independent claim.

23. The method of claim 20, further including displaying the claims in a compressed state.

24. The method of claim 20, further including displaying the claims in an expanded state.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein the imported claims are an entire claims series.

26. The method of claim 20, wherein the imported claims are an entire patent'"'"'s claims.

27. The method of claim 20, wherein the imported claims are at least part of a patent claims series from mare than one patent.

28. The method of claim 20, wherein the parsing includes subcomponent parsing.

29. The method of claim 20, further including displaying the claims in html.

30. The method of claim 29, further including displaying the claims in a compressed state.

31. The method of claim 29, further including displaying the claims in an expanded state.

32. A computer readable medium having instructions for causing a computer to create an interactive graphic user interface (GUI) for providing a diagram of patent claims, the diagram comprising:

an interactive graphical user interface (GUI) viewable on an electronic display, the GUI including a diagram of at least part of a patent claims series;

wherein the claims are parsed hierarchically wherein the diagram comprises graphical claim structure and textual claim content associated with each patent claim and wherein, for each patent claim, the graphical claim structure fully includes the textual claim content, the textual content of each claim ending with a numerical representation of how many claims directly depend on that claim;

and the claims, including both the graphical claim structure and the fully included textual claim content, are dynamically compressible hierarchically;

wherein the graphical claim structure comprises multiple geometric outlines, each outline operable to fully contain the textual claim content of one claim, and at least one line directly connecting the outlines to each other according the hierarch of the at least part of a patent claims series;

wherein at least one of the multiple geometric outlines further has a visual emphasis, the visual emphasis indicating whether there are additional levels of the hierarchy of the at least part of a patent claims series directly connected to the at least one of the multiple geometric outlines that has a visual emphasis.

33. The computer readable medium having instructions for causing a computer to create an interactive GUI of claim 32, wherein the at least part of a claim series include an independent claim.

34. The computer readable medium having instructions for causing a computer to create an interactive GUI of claim 32, wherein the claim series includes at least one dependent claim that depends from the independent claim.

35. The computer readable medium having instructions for causing a computer to create an interactive GUI of claim 32, wherein the claims are displayed in a compressed state.

36. The computer readable medium having instructions for causing a computer to create an interactive GUI of claim 32, wherein the claims are displayed in an expanded state.

37. The computer readable medium having instructions for causing a computer to create an interactive GUI of claim 32, wherein the imported claims are an entire claims series.

38. The computer readable medium having instructions for causing a computer to create an interactive GUI of claim 32, wherein the imported claims are an entire patent'"'"'s claims.

39. The computer readable medium having instructions for causing a computer to create an interactive GUI of claim 32, wherein the imported claims are at least part of a patent claims series from more than one patent.

40. The computer readable medium having instructions for causing a computer to create an interactive GUI of claim 32, wherein the parsing includes subcomponent parsing.

41. The computer readable medium having instructions for causing a computer to create an interactive GUI of claim 32, wherein the claims are displayed in html.

42. The computer readable medium having instructions for causing a computer to create an interactive GUI of claim 41, wherein the claims are displayed in a compressed state.

43. The computer readable medium having instructions for causing a computer to create an interactive GUI of claim 41, wherein the claims are displayed in an expanded state.