Multilingual patent information search system

• US 6,571,241 B1
• Filed: 03/02/1999
• Issued: 05/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mazda Motor Corporation
• Inventors: Nosohara, Makifumi
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Hosain T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ly, Anh
• Application Number:
  US09/260,721
• Time in Patent Office: 1,547 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1-10, 707/536, 707/512, 704/3, 704/9
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3337 Translation of the query language, e.g. Chinese to English
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2216/11 Patent retrieval
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access

Abstract

There is provided an information search system that can be easily used by a foreigner. A client terminal is connected to an information search apparatus through a network. The information search apparatus is a server for searching for, e.g., patent information filed in Japan, and searches various databases storing Japanese patent information and the like in response to a request from the client terminal. The database server is connected to the information search apparatus and includes various databases.

Claims

1. A patent information search system having a patent information processing apparatus to input a search expression for searching for patent information containing bibliographic information and information other than the bibliographic information, and a patent information search apparatus to search a patent information database storing patent information such as bibliographic information based on a predetermined search expression, comprising:

said patent information processing apparatus includes;

an input unit enabling a user to input a first search expression including a first natural language expression that can be understood by the user;

a search expression replacement unit to replace the input first search expression with a second search expression, including a second natural language expression different from the first natural language expression, such that the second search expression is a replacement based on bibliographic information search contents of the first search expression and thereby suitable for searching the patent information database in the second natural language; and

a first transmission unit to transmit the replaced second search expression to said patent information search apparatus, and

said patent information search apparatus includes;

a search unit to search the patent information database based on the received second search expression; and

a second transmission unit to transmit a search result to said patent information processing apparatus,

wherein said replacement includes a replacement table for replacing components of the first search expression described in the first language with components of the second search expression described in the second language used in the database.

2. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that said patent information search apparatus further comprises a determination unit for determining the first language that can be understood by the user who has generated the first search expression, based on unique information for specifying the user.

3. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that said patent information search apparatus further comprises a translation unit to translate patent information described in the second language so as to translate a character string contained in a figure into a character string in the first language that can be understood by the user.

4. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that said patent information search apparatus is connected, through a network, to a translation server for translating patent information described in the second language, and further comprises a translation request issuing unit to issue a request to translate the search result from said search unit into the first language that can be understood by the user.

5. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that the replacement table contains at least one of

a table for replacing an applicant name in the first search expression with an applicant name described in the second language used in the database, and

a table for replacing a patent classification code in the first search expression with a patent classification code of the database.

6. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that the patent information database stores at least information associated with English abstracts, free keywords, F-term codes, and International Patents Classification, which correspond to official gazettes of patents, utility models, designs, and trademarks.

7. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that the bibliographic information used in the search expression contains at least one of an applicant name, a patent classification, a publication number, a publication date, an application number, an application date, an official gazette type, and a country of priority claim.

8. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that the replacement table replaces the bibliographic information in the search expression between the U.S. Patents Classification and the International Patents Classification.

9. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that the replacement table replaces the bibliographic information in the search expression between a date in the Japanese year and a date in the dominical year.

10. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that the bibliographic information contains at least one of information associated with an examination procedure, information associated with an appeal procedure, and information associated with registration.

11. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that said patent information processing apparatus comprises a client terminal connected to said patent information search apparatus through a network.

12. The system according to claim 11, characterized in that said client terminal comprises an emulator terminal of said patent information search apparatus.

13. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that said patent information processing apparatus further comprises:

a computer information processing apparatus connected to said patent information search apparatus and including at least said replacement unit and said first transmission unit, and

a client terminal connected to said computer information processing apparatus through a network and including said input unit.

14. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that said patent information processing apparatus further comprises:

a patent information database as said patent information search apparatus, said replacement unit and first transmission unit,

a computer information processing apparatus connected to the patent information database, said replacement unit, and said first transmission unit through a bus, and

a plurality of client terminals each connected to said computer information processing apparatus through a communication network and including said input unit.

15. The system according to claim 14, characterized in that said computer information processing apparatus incorporates a translation engine.

16. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that said patent information processing apparatus further comprises a display to display the search result in a form that can be understood by the user.

17. The system according to claim 16, characterized in that said display includes a translating unit to translate the search result described in the second language into the first language that can be understood by the user by machine translation.

18. The system according to claim 16, characterized in that said display displays the search result added with an existing English abstract.

19. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that when the search result from said search unit represents that a country of priority claim is a country using the language of patent information for said search unit, said information processing apparatus generates a command for causing said search unit to search for an English abstract and receives a processing result from said search unit according to the command from said search unit.

20. The system according to claim 19, characterized in that said patent information processing apparatus has a terminal for displaying a processing result associated with priority claim.

21. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that when the search result from said search unit represents that a country of priority claim is a country using the language of patent information for said search unit, said patent information search apparatus searches for a corresponding English abstract and transmits the searched English abstract to said patent information processing apparatus.

22. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that when the search result from said search unit represents that a country of priority claim is a country using a language other than the language of patent information for said search unit, said patent information processing apparatus generates a link to a network to the country of priority claim and returns the link to the network to the user.

23. The system according to claim 22, characterized in that the link to the network is an URL address.

24. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that said search unit searches the patent information database based on information other than the bibliographic information.

25. A patent information search method using a patent information processing apparatus to input a search expression for searching for patent information containing bibliographic information and information other than the bibliographic information, and a patent information search method for searching a patent information database storing patent information such as bibliographic information based on of a predetermined search expression, comprising:

inputting a first search expression including a first natural language expression that can be understood by a user in said patent information processing apparatus;

replacing the input first search expression with a second search expression, including a second natural language expression different from the first natural language expression, such that the second search expression is a replacement based on bibliographic information search contents of the first search expression and thereby suitable for searching the patent information database in the second natural language;

transmitting the replaced second search expression to said patent information search method;

searching the patent information database based on the received second search expression in said patent information search method; and

transmitting a search result to said patent information processing apparatus,

wherein, in said replacing of the input first search expression, the replacing the input first search expression with the second search expression is performed by using a replacement table for replacing components of the first search expression described in the first language with components of the second search expression described in the second language used in the database.

26. The method according to claim 25, characterized in that said replacing of the input first search expression further comprises determining the first language that can be understood by the user who has generated the first search expression, based on unique information for specifying the user.

27. The method according to claim 25, characterized in that said searching of the patent information database further comprises translating patent information described in the second language so as to translate a character string contained in a figure into a character string in the language that can be understood by the user.

28. The method according to claim 25, characterized in that said searching of the patent information database comprises issuing a request to a translation server connected to said search apparatus through a network to translate patent information described in the second language so as to translate the search result into the first language that can be understood by the user.

29. The method according to claim 25, characterized in that said replacing of the input first search expression further comprises:

replacing an applicant name in the first search expression with an applicant name described in the second language used in the database, or

replacing a patent classification code in the first search expression with a patent classification code of the database.

30. The method according to claim 25, characterized in that the patent information database stores at least information associated with English abstracts, free keywords, F-term codes, and International Patents Classification, which correspond to official gazettes of patents, utility models, designs, and trademarks.

31. The method according to claim 25, characterized in that the bibliographic information used in the search expression contains at least one of an applicant name, a patent classification, a publication number, a publication date, an application number, an application date, an official gazette type, and a country of priority claim.

32. The method according to claim 25, characterized in that said replacing of the input first search expression further comprises replacing the bibliographic information in the search expression between the U.S. Patents Classification and the International Patents Classification.

33. The method according to claim 25, characterized in that said replacing of the input first search expression further comprises replacing the bibliographic information in the search expression between a date in the Japanese year and a date in the dominical year.

34. The method according to claim 33, characterized in that said client terminal comprises an emulator terminal of said patent information search apparatus.

35. The method according to claim 25, characterized in that the bibliographic information contains at least one of information associated with an examination procedure, information associated with an appeal procedure, and information associated with registration.

36. The method according to claim 25, characterized in that the search result is returned to a client terminal connected through a network.

37. The method according to claim 36, characterized in that said computer information processing apparatus incorporates a translation engine.

38. The method according to claim 25, characterized in that said replacing of the input first search expression and said transmitting of the replaced second search expression are performed in at least one computer information processing apparatus, and said inputting of the first search expression is executed in a client terminal connected to said computer information processing apparatus through a network.

39. The method according to claim 25, characterized in that said searching of the patent information database, said replacing of the input first search expression, and said transmitting of the replaced second search expression are performed in a computer information processing apparatus, and said inputting of the first search expression is executed in a client terminal connected to said computer information processing apparatus rough a communication network.

40. The method according to claim 25, characterized in that the search result is displayed in a form that can be understood by the user in said patent information processing apparatus.

41. The method according to claim 40, characterized in that said displaying of the search result further comprises translating the search result described in the second language into the language that can be understood by the user by machine translation.

42. The method according to claim 40, characterized in that said displaying of the search result further comprises displaying the search result added with an existing English abstract.

43. The method according to claim 25, wherein said patent information search method further comprises generating a command for searching for an English abstract and receiving a processing result according to the command when the search result in said searching of the patent information database represents that a country of priority claim is a country using the language of patent information for a search unit implementing said searching of the patent information database.

44. The method according to claim 43, characterized in that said patent information processing apparatus has a terminal for displaying a processing result associated with priority claim.

45. The method according to claim 25, wherein said patent information search method further comprises searching for a corresponding English abstract and transmitting the searched English abstract to said patent information processing apparatus when the search result in said searching of the patent information database represents that a country of priority claim is a country using the language of patent information for a search unit implementing said searching of the patent information database.

46. The method according to claim 25, wherein said patent information search method further comprises generating a link to a network to the country of priority claim and returning the link to the network to the user when the search result in said searching of the patent information database represents that a country of priority claim is a country using a language other than the language of patent information for a search unit implementing said searching of the patent information database.

47. The method according to claim 46, characterized in that the link to the network is an URL address.

48. The method according to claim 46, characterized by further comprising

sequentially storing search results received from said patent information search apparatus to form a database,

searching the new database using the replaced second search expression, and

when no result is obtained from the new database, transmitting the replaced second search expression.

49. The method according to claim 25, characterized in that said searching of the patent information database further comprises searching the patent information database based on information other than the bibliographic information.

50. A storage medium which stores a program to control a patent information search system having a patent information search apparatus to search a patent information database based on an input search expression and a patent information processing apparatus connected to said patent information search apparatus through a network, comprising:

a program code for replacing an input first search expression, including a first natural language expression that can be understood by a user, with a second search expression, including a second natural language expression different from the first natural language expression, such that the second search expression is a replacement based on bibliographic information search contents of the first search expression and thereby suitable for searching the patent information database in the second natural language;

a program code for transmitting the replaced second search expression to said patent information search apparatus;

a program code for searching the patent information database based on the received second search expression; and

a program code for transmitting a search result to said patent information processing apparatus,

wherein, when said program code for replacing is executed, the replacing the input first search expression with the second search expression is performed by using a replacement table, prepared in advance, for replacing components of the first search expression described in the first language with components of the second search expression described in the second language used in the database.

51. A multiple language search system, comprising:

an input unit enabling a user to input a first search expression, including a first natural language expression, for searching an information database based upon bibliographic information;

a replacement unit to replace the input first search expression with a second search expression, including a second natural language expression, such that the second search expression is a replacement based on bibliographic information search contents of the first search expression and thereby suitable for searching the information database in the second natural language;

a search unit to search the information database based on the second search expression; and

a display unit to display a search result of the search unit in the second natural language,

wherein the display unit further replaces non-textual expressions in the first natural language with corresponding expressions in the second natural language and/or replaces expressions in the first natural language with corresponding non-textual expressions in the second natural language.

52. The multiple language search system of claim 51, wherein the bibliographic information is patent bibliographic information.

53. The multiple language search system of claim 52, further comprising an applicant replacement table for replacing an applicant expression in the first search expression with an equivalent second natural language applicant expression in the second search expression.

54. The multiple language search system of claim 52, wherein the patent bibliographic information corresponds to at least any one of a publication no., application no., publication date, application date, International Patent Classification, US patent classification, and priority no.

55. The multiple language search system of claim 54, further comprising an International Patent Classification/US patent classification replacement table.

56. The multiple language search system of claim 52, wherein the patent bibliographic information corresponds to at least any one of an abstract, summary of an invention, and a figure.

57. The multiple language search system of claim 51, wherein the second natural language is a language of a country picked by the user.

58. The multiple language search system of claim 51, wherein the replacement unit replaces non-textual expressions of the first natural language with corresponding expressions in the second natural language.

59. The multiple language search system of claim 51, wherein the replacement unit replaces the first search expression with a second search expression consistent with a corresponding second natural language technical term specifically oriented for the information database.

60. The multiple language search system of claim 59, wherein the technical term is specifically oriented for a PATOLIS database.

61. The multiple language search system of claim 51, wherein the bibliographic information is trademark bibliographic information.

62. The multiple language search system of claim 61, wherein the replacement unit further comprises a replacement table to replace an applicant expression in the first search expression with an equivalent second natural language applicant expression in the second search expression.

63. The multiple language search system of claim 61, further comprising a display unit to display a search result of the search unit in the second natural language, wherein the display unit replaces non-textual expressions in the first natural language with corresponding expressions in the second natural language and/or replaces expressions in the first natural language with corresponding non-textual expressions in the second natural language.

64. The multiple language search system of claim 51, wherein the user unit, replacement unit, and search unit are integrated.

65. The multiple language search system of claim 51, wherein the user unit is remote from the replacement and search units, with the user unit connecting to the replacement and search units through a network.

66. The multiple language search system of claim 51, wherein the user and replacement units are remote from the search unit, with the user and replacement units connecting to the search unit through a network.

67. The multiple language search system of claim 51, wherein the second search expression includes structured query expressions in addition to expressions in the second natural language.

68. A searching method, comprising:

inputting a first search expression, including a first natural language expression, for searching a patent information database based upon bibliographic information;

replacing the input first search expression with a second search expression, including a second natural language expression, such that the second search expression is a replacement based on bibliographic information search contents of the first search expression rather than a replacement based solely on a translation of the first search expression;

searching the patent information database, in the second natural language, based on the second search expression; and

displaying search results of the searching of the information database, wherein non-textual expressions in the first natural language are replaced with corresponding expressions in the second natural language and/or expressions in the first natural language are replaced with corresponding non-textual expressions in the second natural language,

wherein the replacing of the input first search expression includes replacing applicant information in the first natural language with applicant information in the second natural language, replacing patent classification numbers for a first country with patent classification numbers of a second country, and replacing the first search expression with the second search expression such that the second search expression includes structured query expressions.

69. A method of searching, comprising:

inputting a first search expression, including a first natural language expression, for searching an information database based upon bibliographic information;

replacing the input first search expression with a second search expression, including a second natural language expression, such that the second search expression is a replacement based on bibliographic information search contents of the first search expression and thereby suitable for searching the information database in the second natural language; and

searching the information database based on the second search expression,

wherein the replacing of the input search expression further comprises replacing a patent classification expression for a first country in the first search expression with an equivalent patent classification expression for a second country in the second search expression.

70. The searching method of claim 69, wherein the bibliographic information is patent bibliographic information.

71. The searching method of claim 70, wherein the replacing of the input search expression further comprises replacing an applicant expression in the first search expression with an equivalent second natural language applicant expression in the second search expression.

72. The searching method of claim 69, wherein the replacing of the input search expression further comprises replacing non-textual expressions of the first natural language with corresponding expressions in the second natural language and/or replacing expressions in the first natural language with corresponding non-textual expressions in the second language.

73. The searching method of claim 69, further comprising displaying a search result of the searching of the information database.

74. The searching method of claim 73, Wherein the displaying of the search result further comprises replacing non-textual expressions in the first natural language with corresponding expressions in the second natural language and/or replacing expressions in the first natural language with corresponding non-textual expressions in the second natural language.

75. The searching method of claim 69, wherein the bibliographic information is trademark bibliographic information.

76. The searching method of claim 75, wherein the replacing of the input search expression further comprises replacing an applicant expression in the first search expression with an equivalent second natural language applicant expression in the second search expression.

77. The searching method of claim 75, further comprising displaying a search result of the searching of the information database, wherein non-textual expressions in the first natural language are replaced with corresponding expressions in the second natural language and/or expressions in the first natural language are replaced with corresponding non-textual expressions in the second natural language.

78. The searching method of claim 69, wherein the replacing of the input search expression further comprises replacing the first search expression with the second search expression such that the second search expression includes structured query expressions.