System and method of goal-oriented searching

• US 9,069,853 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2007
• Issued: 06/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Innography (Clarivate Plc)
• Original Assignee: Innography (Clarivate Plc)
• Inventors: Stading, Tyron Jerrod
• Primary Examiner(s): PEACH, POLINA G
• Application Number:
  US11/731,377
• Publication Number:
  US 20080243786A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,014 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2216/11 Patent retrieval

Abstract

In a particular embodiment, a method of goal-oriented searching is disclosed that includes providing a graphical user interface including an input and a selectable indicator. The selectable indicator is related to a pre-defined query associated with a particular goal. The particular goal includes multiple criteria. The method also includes receiving data related to the input and inserting the data into the pre-defined query to produce a goal-oriented query to identify one or more documents that satisfy the multiple criteria.

Claims

1. A method of goal-oriented searching, the method comprising:

providing a graphical user interface (GUI) to a user device from a server, the GUI including an input field accessible by a user to provide a text input and a selectable indicator accessible by the user to select one of a plurality of goal-oriented searches, each of the plurality of goal-oriented searches comprising a pre-defined query stored at a server prior to interaction by the user;

receiving a user input including the text input and a selection corresponding to the selectable indicator indicating a selected one of the plurality of pre-defined goal oriented searches;

retrieving a first document based on the text input;

searching one or more data sources based on data extracted from the first document and according to search parameters defined by the selected one of the plurality of pre-defined goal oriented searches to identify a set of documents;

applying a rule derived from explicit user interactions and implicit user interactions to produce a matrix including highest probability keywords identified from the search results;

identifying a plurality of search results using a greedy algorithm;

retrieving ancillary information from a secondary search of at least one other data source using a query that is related to data from the plurality of search results, the ancillary information including associative data that is not included within the search results;

correlating the search results with the ancillary information to identify associations between search results to produce augmented search results;

refining the rule based on the data;

applying the refined rule to filter the set of documents based on the data extracted from the first document to produce a first filtered results; and

providing an interface to the user device to present multiple views of the data, the multiple views including a first view and a second view that present the first filtered results in different contexts.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing link analysis on one or more links contained within the first document to extract additional information related to the pre-defined query.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first document comprises semi-structured data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the goal-oriented query comprises a competitive analysis search to identify data related to competitors of a particular entity represented by the first data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the goal-oriented query comprises an asset licensing search to identify data related to potential licensees of an asset represented by the first document.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the goal-oriented query comprises a patent invalidity search to invalidate a patent identified within the first data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the goal-oriented query comprises an asset identifying search to identify a potentially valuable asset from a plurality of assets identified in the first document.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected one of the plurality of goal oriented searches defines multiple criteria, and wherein the multiple criteria includes a date criteria automatically determined from the first document.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected one of the plurality of goal oriented searches defines multiple criteria, and wherein the multiple criteria includes an industry classification.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected one of the plurality of goal oriented searches defines multiple criteria, and wherein the multiple criteria includes an organization identifier.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected one of the plurality of goal oriented searches defines multiple criteria, and wherein the multiple criteria includes a location identifier.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected one of the plurality of goal oriented searches defines multiple criteria, and wherein the multiple criteria includes a range of annual revenues associated with an organization.

13. A computing system comprising:

a network interface configured to couple to a network;

a processor coupled to the network interface; and

a memory accessible to the processor and storing instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to;

receive a user input including a text input and a selection indicating a selected one of a plurality of goal oriented searches from a user device via the network interface, the plurality of goal oriented searches including a patent invalidity search;

retrieve a first document based on the text input, the text input including a patent number;

extract data from the first document, the extracted data including at least one of a list of citations and a priority date;

search one or more data sources using the data from the first document based on the selected one of the plurality of goal oriented searches to produce a set of documents that satisfy multiple criteria defined by the selected one;

apply a rule derived from explicit user interactions and implicit user interactions to produce a matrix including highest probability keywords identified from the search results;

identify a plurality of search results using a greedy algorithm;

retrieve ancillary information from a secondary search of at least one other data source using a query that is related to data from the plurality of search results, the ancillary information including associative data that is not included within the search results;

correlate the search results with the ancillary information to identify associations between search results to produce augmented search results;

refine the rule based on the data; and

filter the set of documents based on the extracted data to produce search results.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the memory further comprises instructions executable by the processor to generate instructions executable at a destination device to render a second graphical user interface including data related to search results from the selected one of the plurality of goal oriented searches.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the memory further comprises instructions executable by the processor to send data related to the selected one of the plurality of goal oriented searches to one or more data sources and to generate a visualization of search results from the selected one of the plurality of goal oriented searches.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the memory further comprises instructions executable by the processor to generate selectable navigation elements related to search results from the selected one of the plurality of goal oriented searches.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the memory further comprises instructions executable by the processor to reverse engineer a query from the data extracted from the first document.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the memory further comprises instructions executable by the processor to reverse engineer a query from documents associated with a company that is related to the data extracted from the first document.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the memory further comprises instructions executable by the processor to query multiple data sources using the data extracted from the first document.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the selected one of the plurality of goal oriented searches comprises a one-click asset licensing search to identify one or more potential licensees of an identified licensable asset represented by the text input.

21. The system of claim 13, wherein the selected one of the plurality of goal oriented searches comprises a competitive analysis search to identify data related to competitors of a particular entity.

22. The system of claim 13, wherein the selected one of the plurality of goal oriented searches comprises an asset identifying search to identify a potentially valuable asset from a plurality of assets.

23. A computer-readable storage device embodying instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive an input corresponding to one of a company name and a patent document identifier and an identifier related to a selected one of a plurality of pre-defined goal oriented searches, each of the plurality of pre-defined goal oriented searches comprising multiple criteria, the plurality of pre-defined goal oriented searches including a patent invalidity search;

retrieve a first document based on the input, the first document comprising a patent document corresponding to the patent document identifier;

extract data from the first document using an extraction module, the extracted data including a priority date, an issue date, owner data, and a list of cited references;

insert at least some of the extracted data from the first document into the selected one of the plurality of pre-defined goal oriented searches provided by a server to produce a goal-oriented query constructed to identify one or more documents that satisfy the multiple criteria;

search one or more data sources using the goal-oriented query to retrieve search results;

apply a rule derived from explicit user interactions and implicit user interactions to produce a matrix including highest probability keywords identified from the search results;

identify a plurality of search results using a greedy algorithm;

retrieve ancillary information from a secondary search of at least one other data source using a query that is related to data from the plurality of search results, the ancillary information including associative data that is not included within the search results;

correlate the search results with the ancillary information to identify associations between search results to produce augmented search results;

refine the rule based on the data; and

apply the refined rule to filter the search results according to some of the extracted data to produce filtered search results including prior art not cited in the patent document when the identifier corresponds to the patent invalidity search.

24. The computer-readable storage device of claim 23, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

perform link analysis on one or more links contained within the first document to extract additional information related to the pre-defined query.

25. The computer-readable storage device of claim 23, wherein:

the plurality of pre-defined goal oriented searches further includes a competitive analysis search; and

when the identifier corresponds to the competitive analysis search, further comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to generate a competitive analysis report to identify data related to competitors of a particular entity based on search results from the pre-defined query.

26. The computer-readable storage device of claim 23, wherein:

the plurality of pre-defined goal oriented searches further includes a licensee search; and

when the identifier corresponds to the licensee search, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to generate a licensee report to identify data related to potential licensees of an asset based on search results from the pre-defined query.

27. The computer-readable storage device of claim 23, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

generate a patent invalidity report to identify data related to documents that may invalidate one or more claims of the patent document corresponding to the patent document identifier based on search results from the pre-defined query; and

wherein the processor uses the extracted data from the first document to filter the search results to produce a set of search results listing patents that were not cited during prosecution of the particular patent and that are related to the subject matter of the particular patent through at least one of a relationship to another patent cited in the particular patent, shared key words, and shared classifications.

28. The computer-readable storage device of claim 23, wherein:

the plurality of pre-defined goal oriented searches further includes an asset search; and

when the identifier corresponds to the asset search, further comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to generate an asset report to identify data related to a potentially valuable asset from a plurality of assets based on search results from the pre-defined query.