Patent analyzing system

• US 8,160,306 B1
• Filed: 06/04/2008
• Issued: 04/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Michael S. Neustel
• Original Assignee: Michael S. Neustel
• Inventors: Neustel, Michael S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bali, Vikkram
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bitar, Nancy
• Application Number:
  US12/132,674
• Time in Patent Office: 1,413 Days
• Field of Search: 382/112, 382/113, 715/224, 715522-523, 715/507, 705/310, 707/748, 707/749, 707/730, 358/505, 345/649, 345/658, 345/659
• US Class Current: 382/113
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/18 Legal services
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/416 Extracting the logical structure, e.g. chapters, sections or page numbers; Identifying elements of the document, e.g. authors

Abstract

A patent analyzing system for efficiently reviewing and analyzing a patent document (e.g. patent application, published patent document or patent). The patent analyzing system includes identifying the element names within a patent document and modifying patent drawing sheets to include element names and figure descriptions.

Claims

1. A method of analyzing a patent document, said method comprising the steps of:

providing a patent document, wherein said patent document includes text data and image data comprised of a figure;

providing element name data for said patent document comprising at least one element name and at least one reference numeral associated with said at least one element name;

analyzing said image data of said patent document;

identifying a figure reference numeral within said figure of said image data;

identifying a location of said figure reference numeral within said figure;

identifying an element name within said element name data that is associated with said figure reference numeral within said image data;

adding said element name to said image data adjacent to said figure reference numeral; and

creating a final image file that includes said image data and said element name.

2. The method of analyzing a patent document of claim 1, wherein said text data is received using an optical character recognition process.

3. The method of analyzing a patent document of claim 1, wherein said final image file is comprised of a PDF format.

4. The method of analyzing a patent document of claim 1, including the steps of storing said final image file on a computer server and accessing said final image file from a remote computer.

5. The method of analyzing a patent document of claim 1, wherein said element name data is comprised of an index of elements.

6. The method of analyzing a patent document of claim 1, including the steps of:

identifying a figure number of said figure;

identifying a figure description corresponding to said figure number; and

adding said figure description to said image data.

7. The method of analyzing a patent document of claim 6, wherein said figure description is added to a lower portion of said figure.

8. The method of analyzing a patent document of claim 1, including the step of adding a left separator to the left and a right separator to the right of said element name within said figure.

9. The method of analyzing a patent document of claim 1, wherein said step of adding said element name includes identifying an area adjacent said reference numeral that has less than a maximum percentage of non-white pixels.

10. The method of analyzing a patent document of claim 9, wherein said maximum percentage of non-white pixels is comprised of 5% or less.

11. A method of analyzing a patent document, said method comprising the steps of:

providing a patent document file including a figure;

analyzing a text data of said patent document;

generating element name data for said patent document file comprising at least one element name and at least one reference numeral associated with said at least one element name;

analyzing said image data of said patent document;

identifying a figure reference numeral within said figure of said image data;

identifying a location of said figure reference numeral within said figure;

identifying an element name within said element name data that is associated with said figure reference numeral within said image data;

adding said element name to said image data adjacent to said figure reference numeral; and

creating a final image file that includes said image data and said element name.

12. The method of analyzing a patent document of claim 11, wherein said text data is received using an optical character recognition process.

13. The method of analyzing a patent document of claim 11, wherein said final image file is comprised of a PDF format.

14. The method of analyzing a patent document of claim 11, including the steps of storing said final image file on a computer server and accessing said final image file from a remote computer.

15. The method of analyzing a patent document of claim 11, wherein said element name data is comprised of an index of elements.

16. The method of analyzing a patent document of claim 11, including the steps of:

identifying a figure number of said figure;

identifying a figure description corresponding to said figure number; and

adding said figure description to said image data.

17. The method of analyzing a patent document of claim 16, wherein said figure description is added to a lower portion of said figure.

18. The method of analyzing a patent document of claim 11, including the step of adding a left separator to the left and a right separator to the right of said element name within said figure.

19. The method of analyzing a patent document of claim 11, wherein said step of adding said element name includes identifying an area adjacent said reference numeral that has less than a maximum percentage of non-white pixels.

20. A method of analyzing a patent document, said method comprising the steps of:

providing a patent document file including a figure;

analyzing a text data of said patent document;

generating element name data for said patent document file comprising at least one element name and at least one reference numeral associated with said at least one element name;

analyzing said image data of said patent document;

identifying a figure reference numeral within said figure of said image data;

identifying a location of said figure reference numeral within said figure;

identifying an element name within said element name data that is associated with said figure reference numeral within said image data;

identifying an insertion area adjacent said reference numeral that has less than a maximum percentage of non-white pixels;

adding said element name to said image data adjacent to said figure reference numeral;

identifying a figure number of said figure;

identifying a figure description corresponding to said figure number;

adding said figure description to said image data;

creating a final image file that includes said image data, said figure description and said element name;

wherein said text data is received using an optical character recognition process;

wherein said final image file is comprised of a PDF format; and

storing said final image file on a computer server and accessing said final image file from a remote computer.