WO2008127338A1 - Enhanced patent prior art search engine - Google Patents

Enhanced patent prior art search engine Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2008127338A1
WO2008127338A1 PCT/US2007/066702 US2007066702W WO2008127338A1 WO 2008127338 A1 WO2008127338 A1 WO 2008127338A1 US 2007066702 W US2007066702 W US 2007066702W WO 2008127338 A1 WO2008127338 A1 WO 2008127338A1
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
prior
art
patent application
end user
user
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/US2007/066702
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Ray J. Mueller
Andrew Van Luchene
Dean Alderucci
Original Assignee
Leviathan Entertainment
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Leviathan Entertainment filed Critical Leviathan Entertainment
Priority to PCT/US2007/066702 priority Critical patent/WO2008127338A1/en
Publication of WO2008127338A1 publication Critical patent/WO2008127338A1/en

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Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
    • G06Q10/10—Office automation; Time management

Definitions

  • Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a system 100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
  • FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a system 100' according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
  • FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a system 10 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
  • Fig. 4 is a block diagram of a system 400 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
  • Fig. 5 is a block diagram of a system 500 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
  • the present disclosure provides search engine that stores or otherwise has access to patent applications and other forms of prior art, including documents, articles, blogs, white papers, web sites, survey question responses and/or notes, among other prior art and other electronic materials. Furthermore, the search engine has the ability to query, search, and/or index the electronic materials.
  • Advertisement - includes any communication via any medium to any one or more end users or any person or third party. Advertisements may include text, audio, video, icons, graphics, images, etc. Advertisements may include an offer for sale, for profit or not, and may or may not include a discount, for any services, products, financial instruments, e.g., insurance, annuities, securities, e.g., stocks, bonds, options, etc. and/or any other good or service, and/or may provide information about any of the forgoing or anything, such as a request for donations to political or charitable or any other entity or organization. Or, an advertisement might be used or designed to provide information to inform or educate any constituent and/or may include communications in support of any one or more objectives such as public relations, publicity, product placement or introduction, sponsorship, underwriting, public notice or service announcement or any other objective or purpose.
  • objectives such as public relations, publicity, product placement or introduction, sponsorship, underwriting, public notice or service announcement or any other objective or purpose.
  • Alert - includes the transfer, delivery or storage of information or otherwise communicating with, by, between or among any two or more of the following, including, but not limited to any real or virtual: a) end user, b) game owners, c) game or other servers, d) player or player characters, e) NPCs, f) exchanges, g) game devices or controllers, h) cell phone or other communications hardware and/or networks, i) databases, j) software applications, k) legal agencies, 1) governing bodies, m) software interfaces, n) any person, o) and/or any combination of any of the above, which may be initiated by and/or based upon an alert event or other action. Exemplary methods to determine alert events and/or to send alerts are disclosed for example, in U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 11/676,848 "Virtual Environment with Alerts" filed February 20, 2007 which is incorporated herein by reference.
  • Alert Event - includes any change in, of or to any condition or state, and includes any action, opposite action, unexpected action, desire for action, or failure to act, and thus Alert Event includes, but is not limited to any one or more of:
  • Approval Queue- includes a queue of documents and or prior art associated with those documents that is awaiting an approval mark from an entity such as a patent examiner
  • Boilerplate - includes any text, word, words, or phrases and/or part or all of a document which may be readily or otherwise reused with little or no modification and/or to serve as the basis of a new phrase or document, which use may save time and effort in the creation of said phrase or document.
  • Boilerplate may include standard documents, terms, conditions, words, phases, etc., that can be incorporated or reused in multiple applications.
  • Blog - includes a user-generated website or other system where entries may be made in journal or other style and may be displayed in a reverse chronological or other order. Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. Blogs may include and/or combine or use text, images, and may include links, including hyperlinks to other blogs, web pages, documents, words, and other media related to its topic or subject matter.
  • the term “blog” is derived from the term "Web log.” "Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
  • Certified Font-in includes any font that is approved by a central entity such as the patent office for use in an invention disclosure or figures associated with such a disclosure.
  • Certified Plug-in-inc hides any software module that can be inserted into a larger software program and used to perform a sub function of the total function of the total system that is approved by a certification party such as the USPTO
  • Certified Shape-shall include any visual shape that can be used to identify a component in a patent or other drawing that is approved by a central entity such as the patent office for use in a figure associated with an invention disclosure
  • Certified Template-shall include a group of certified shapes, certified Icons, and or certified fonts that can be used in a figure associated with an invention disclosure and that is approved by a central entity such as the patent office.
  • Class in the context of a patent application, -includes a class of patents or other digital documents in an electronic database
  • Click-through - includes the process of an end user selecting or otherwise activating a hyperlink
  • Document Map or Map - includes a visual representation of a group of documents or other items or objects, such as patents that shows the relationship of those documents, objects or items to one another.
  • a map might be of a group of documents and their relevancy to each other.
  • a map might include a visual representation.
  • End User - includes any person or entity, real or virtual that makes use of or otherwise practices any part or all of the disclosed invention and/or any software application or tool disclosed herein or otherwise.
  • End users include, for example, patent applicants, patent examiners, patent attorneys, patent examiner supervisors, document review specialists, diagram or figure design engineers, survey respondents, search tool users, and other persons.
  • an end user may be an application, application program interface, reporting or other tool or automated process.
  • Genetic Algorithm - includes any software application or module that can improve results with use.
  • Hyperlink or link - includes a set of instructions or code, which may be embedded, or otherwise associated with or connected to, an element, word, object, icon, document, figure, map, file attachment, or other displayed area within a document which, when selected, clicked or otherwise activated by an end user, may cause a computer to perform one or more functions. Examples of functions that might be performed include, but are not limited to, displaying new or additional information, redirecting to a different area of the same or a new document, displaying an advertisement, soliciting and/or capturing information, opening a form that requires end user input, and/or displaying new information that is generally associated with and/or related to the hyperlinked element.
  • New or additional information and/or webpage(s) may or may not be displayed using a separate or new web browser page or popup window or interstitial.
  • Hyperlinks are commonly identified through the use of an underline and/or color coding, e.g., HYPERLINK, but this is not necessarily required or desired. Hyperlinks may be activated by any applicable means, including, but not limited to, left or right clicking on or near the link, placing a pointer on or near the link (briefly, temporarily or not), touching the area, e.g., via use of a touch screen or other pointing mechanism, and/or automatically, e.g., based upon date or time, or other action or inaction of the end user.
  • a hyperlink may be associated with other hyperlinks, e.g., hyperlinks within hyperlinks, documents, programs, words, phrases, or other information or actions. For example, if an end user right clicks on a hyperlink, one or more options may appear, permitting the end user some degree of flexibility in the action or actions taken.
  • link and hyperlink shall have corollary meanings.
  • Improvement Module includes a sub module that is embedded in a total system that is used to improve upon the total system or other sub modules embedded in that system.
  • Keyword - includes any word or words that are identified as being "of interest.”
  • a keyword may be of interest because it is a word that generally helps to describe the content of the document in which it is used, or for other reasons.
  • Merchant - includes any person that desires to sell a good or service or desires to have one or more end users to review, select, or click a hyperlink in a document and/or receive other information and/or perform other tasks and/or receive information associated with one or more keywords selected by such merchant.
  • Notes - includes any computer file or data or any free form or other text, graphics, figures and/or any files such as any audio, video, e.g., JPEG or MPEG, pictures, e.g., GIF, or other files, such as, PDF, XLS, XML, TXT, DOC, RTF, or any other known files such as those described on the websites: http://filext.com/ and http://www.computeruser.com/resources/dictionary/filetypes.html, which are incorporated herein by reference. Notes may be attached or associated with any one or more of the following, any electronic element, word or words, phrase, document, figure, hyperlink, webpage, database, table, file, or any other electronic media.
  • notes may include any description, hyperlink, figure, document or file associated or attached to any of the forgoing and/or any combination of the forgoing.
  • notes may contain or refer or reference other notes, e.g., notes within notes. Exemplary methods to provide attachment of notes into documents and/or associate notes with documents, or words, or other data are disclosed in US Patent Application Nos.
  • Patent Application Drafting Tool includes a web based software program that assists in the drafting and filing of patent applications with a registration entity such as the USPTO.
  • An exemplary patent application drafting tool is described in U.S. Patent
  • Patent Drafting Engine includes a software module that can partially or completely draft and/or modify an existing draft patent application and/or file those applications with a registration entity such as the USPTO.
  • Plug-in - includes any software application or module or one or more computer instructions, which may or may not be in communication with other software applications or modules, and may include any file, image, graphic, icon, audio, video or any other attachment. Plug-ins may be comprised of any one or more set of computer instructions using any computer programming language.
  • Rules - includes computer instructions that can provide application direction and/or decision making and includes both inference and reactive rules. Rules may include permissions, limitations, method steps, alert event conditions, alert contents, workflow instructions, security measures, business process management instructions, if/then/else instructions and/or any supporting data, variables, or computing instructions and/or logic.
  • Rules Based - includes any system or application or module that uses or relies on one or more rules.
  • Search Relevancy includes how relevant sections of a document are to a word, phrase, patent section, patent figure, or document are when producing search results for a query.
  • the abstract of a patent document can have higher search relevancy than the background of a patent document when conducting prior art searches using a prior art search software tool.
  • Search Weight-shall mean the score that one section of a document has to other sections of a document when conducting searches against a database of documents in which that document is included.
  • Subclass can also include any sub classification of a database of electronic documents.
  • Synonym - is any word or group of words that have the same or similar meaning of another word or group of words and/or that may be interchangeable.
  • the opposite of synonym is antonym.
  • Thesaurus includes an electronic database of words that have been mapped to indicate similarities in word definitions.
  • the thesaurus may be broken into classes and subclasses that relate to the classes and subclasses of documents stored in an electronic database and/or accessed via such database
  • Virtual - includes anything that is not real, in whole or in part, and/or anything real, in whole or in part; which may be simulated, represented, presented or depicted in a virtual environment, video game or displayed on a screen.
  • Virtual Environment any technology that permits one or more end users to interact with a real, imaginary or virtual computer simulated environment.
  • Virtual World - includes a world created in an online game such as World of
  • Warcraft or a virtual community such as Second Life, Eve or There.com
  • Video Game-shall mean any massive multi online player game such as World of Warcraft and any virtual world such as Second Life
  • Web page - includes any resource, form, or any information that is accessible via the Internet and that is suitable or exists on the world wide web.
  • a web page usually includes information in any applicable format, e.g., HTML or XHTML.
  • Web pages may include hyperlinks or provide other means of navigation to other web pages.
  • Web pages may be accessed by any applicable means, including, but not limited to: any computing or internet enabled devices, e.g., personal computers, laptops, PDAs, cell phones, video game controllers, or any other communications device, which may be local or remote to the computer or server where such web page(s) may exist or reside.
  • Word - includes one or more groups of letters including titles, indices, text, headings, descriptions, diagrams, etc., and documents (in whole or in part), phrases (i.e., groups of two or more words), synonyms, antonyms, icons, graphics, drawings, schematics, blueprints, pictures, audio and/or video, and/or any combination of the forgoing,
  • phrases i.e., groups of two or more words
  • synonyms i.e., groups of two or more words
  • antonyms icons
  • a general system 100 is shown.
  • System 100 is suitable for any of the below-described applications.
  • the system includes one or more program modules 10, which are in electronic communication with one or more databases 20.
  • Databases 20 may be hosted on the same server as program modules 20
  • databases 20 may be hosted on other or remote locations/servers.
  • the present invention provides an automated web-based patent application preparation and submission tool.
  • an end user can draft a patent application using an online tool.
  • the document can be submitted to: (i) a researcher for further research, (ii) a patent attorney for further drafting, or (iii) the patent office.
  • the information submitted into the tool may be analyzed automatically and/or in real time by the system in order to perform various functions. For example, based on the information submitted, the system can recommend alternate language for sections or draft missing parts of the total patent application.
  • information is considered to be analyzed automatically any time it is analyzed by the system with the system having to receive additional input, such as a request or command, from the user.
  • computer implemented systems are subject to various operating constraints, such as server loads, processing speeds, and the like, with which those of skill in the art will be familiar and, accordingly, "real time" analysis may not necessarily be instantaneous, but is rather intended to mean that results are automatically provided to the user as soon as they are available, given the various system operating constraints.
  • Recommendations for alternate language or missing portions may be based on patent applications or other non-copyright protected publications describing similar inventions.
  • the system may use a genetic algorithm to determine like patent applications as the end user is entering the description of his invention. Because patent practitioners often act as their own lexicographers and coin new terminology to describe inventions, such new terminology can be shared immediately and made available to other patent practitioners. In this manner, the system can act as an ever changing virtual dictionary of language for new patent applications.
  • An example of a genetic algorithm that can perform this function is the Semetric program offered by Engenium.
  • the system can perform real time prior art search based on the disclosure as the end user types words into the tool.
  • the system could be configured to dynamically display the most relevant prior art choices based on the words and letters being typed. The prior art being displayed would then change in real time as the end user types in more words to describe the invention. It will be appreciated that such real time searching could be used for any type of searching and not just searching for prior art for inventions.
  • Suggestions for alternate language and missing portions or prior art or other searches need not necessarily be performed in real time, but may also or alternatively be performed after a disclosure is submitted by the end user, for example in order to receive an initial review prior to filing, or only upon the end user's request.
  • the system may utilize a genetic algorithm to specify a class and subclass for a patent application.
  • the system may analyze an application in real time, or after it has been submitted, and determine the appropriate class and subclass.
  • the genetic algorithm may or may not allow for the incorporation of classification data from previously submitted applications which are identified by the system or the end user as being similar to the current application.
  • the system may track and/or identify information that is missing from the patent application that is required for filing the patent application with the patent office. The end user can review missing parts for a particular patent application and fill them in as desired. The end user can also leave missing information fields open for subsequent completion, for example, by researchers and/or patent practitioners.
  • one or more notes could be submitted by an end user or other individual in connection with a document, including, for example, an application as it is being drafted, a submitted or filed application, a patent publication, an issued patent, a non-patent reference, an office action, a examiner or practitioner communication, a judicial or review-board decision, or the like.
  • These notes may or may not be viewable to other users and may or may not be used by the system for any suitable purpose, including, for example, preparation or examination of the present application, preparation or examination of other applications, system maintenance, and the collection and dissemination of statistical information.
  • notes may or may not be submitted in response to additions, suggestions, or notes from the system or other individuals.
  • Any suitable type of file including, but not limited to a jpg, digital video, recording, voice message, or textual document could be added to or associated with a document as a note.
  • an end user may add notes to the alternate language and missing portion suggestions provided to or by the system. These notes can be used by the genetic algorithm to generate improved alternate language and missing portion suggestions for later invention submissions by the same and/or other end users. Moreover, these notes could be readable by subsequent end users and could be used to assist in the drafting of later patent applications.
  • the present disclosure provides for a system in which a practitioner can elect from between multiple post-drafting processing options.
  • the system may or may not require that the application have been drafted using a web-based drafting tool such as that described above.
  • the end-user can select whether he wants to:
  • the system can recommend one of the previous three choices to an end user based on the current status of an application.
  • the system analyzes the patent application document and compares it to previously filed patent applications. The patent application is scored and the system determines whether the application should be sent to a researcher, an attorney, or to the patent office.
  • the system can select or suggest an optimal researcher from its database of researchers based on inventions researched by those researchers and the relevance of those inventions to the invention currently being submitted by the end user.
  • the system could select or suggest a researcher based on whether a particular researcher has capacity to conduct research on the patent application. If the end user is allowed to select a researcher, a list of applicable researchers could be provided to the user by the system. The list could be sorted or sortable based on relevancy, expected timeframe for research completion, cost, location, or other factors.
  • the system could be configured to provide to the end user contact information for each selected or suggested researcher. The end user could then contact the selected or suggested researcher via the system interface and submit the patent application to the researcher for review.
  • a contract can be set up, i.e., drafted and executed automatically, between the end user and the patent researcher using the system.
  • the researcher receives the patent application, creates a research report, and submits the research report to the end user.
  • the research report may be submitted to the end user via the central system.
  • the end user can review the prior art cited in the research report and rate its relevance to the invention disclosed. The relevance rankings can be used to match that researcher to subsequent patent applications.
  • the end user can also submit notes distinguishing the application over the prior art cited and/or alter the application, such as to include distinguishing language.
  • the system may be configured to facilitate fee transactions between the end user and the researcher.
  • the system may or may not impose a surcharge for facilitating the fee transactions. For example, once an application has been submitted to a researcher, the system may charge the researcher with a finder's fee. The system could also charge the end user with a researcher finder fee, or, the two parties could split a single fee. Alternatively the system could charge the researcher, who, in turn could charge the end user some, or all, of the fee amount. Alternatively or additionally, once the report has been received by the end user, a research report fee can be charged to the end user and some or all of the fee can be remitted to the researcher.
  • the system may be configured to submit the application to an automated searching program configured to produce search results using, for example, a genetic algorithm search program.
  • a genetic algorithm search program is described, for example, previously incorporated U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 11/462/621, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60/727,191.
  • the system can determine an optimal attorney from its database of attorneys. The determination may be based on any number of factors including, for example, estimated fee, past applications filed by the attorney, attorney's capacity, estimated turn-around, etc.
  • the system may be configured to identify past inventions/applications filed and prosecuted by attorneys in the database and further determine the relevance of those inventions to the invention currently being submitted by the end user.
  • attorneys may be asked or required to provide the system with information regarding their fees for preparation including billing rates and fees for past applications, current availability, estimated turn-around time, contact information, etc. Accordingly, the system can select or suggest an attorney based on such information. For example, a given attorney may be selected or suggested based on whether or not the system determines that attorney has capacity to assist the inventor in enhancing the application.
  • the system can provide the attorneys' contact information to the end user using any suitable method.
  • the end user may receive an attorney's contact information via the web-based form.
  • the end user may be able to automatically submit the patent application to the attorney via the web-based service.
  • the attorney may then review the application for further refinement. Changes, additions, and alterations made by the attorney may be tracked by the system.
  • the end user may be able to log in or otherwise access the completed application via the system to order to review and approve changes made by the attorney to the application.
  • the application may be submitted to a second attorney and such process repeated until the end-user is satisfied with the application.
  • the patent application can be submitted to the patent office by the system.
  • the determination of an appropriate attorney may be made at the time the end user opts to submit the draft application to an attorney or while the end user is drafting the application. Moreover, rather than waiting until the end user believes he has "finished” the application, the end user may be able to contact the attorney via the system while drafting the application. For example, while the end user is entering the patent application data into the system, the system can determine an appropriate attorney and offer the opportunity to provide the end user with real time chat with the attorney, if the end user accepts, a chat window is opened between the end user and attorney via the central system. The end user can provide patent application data and the attorney can add and edit the data. When the session is complete, the system can charge a fee to the end user and submit a portion of that fee to the attorney. The recorded chat session is attached to the patent application file.
  • the system may be configured to facilitate fee transactions and contract formation between the attorney and the end-user.
  • the system may or may not impose a surcharge for such facilitation. For example, when an end user contacts an attorney, a finder's fee can be charged to both the attorney and the end user.
  • the system may facilitate with the drafting and execution of a contract between the end user and attorney specifying terms and conditions so that the attorney can complete the application.
  • the system may or may not utilize a standard contract which may or may not be modifiable by the end user and/or the attorney. Once the attorney's changes are made, the system may be configured to charge the fee specified by the contract to the end user for enhancing the patent application and submit some or all of the fee to the attorney.
  • the system may be configured to determine if all information fields have been completed. Once the system has determined that all information fields have been completed, the system generates the appropriate forms, and submits the patent application, along with the appropriate forms to the patent office. An electronic receipt confirmation is received from the patent office and stored by the central system as well as being transmitted to the end user. The central system charges a filing fee to the end user and remits a portion of that fee to the patent office. If all fields have not been completed, the system steps the applicant through each open field, providing examples and information about each field, its use, etc.
  • the system may be configured to time stamp the patent application file as additions are made by the various parties who can access it. Moreover, the system could time and date stamp and store all files that are entered into the system and so that a record of the invention is maintained.
  • the end user may be allowed to determine whether or not an application filed with the system is to be treated as public or private data. If the filed application is be treated as public data, and thus useful as prior art against other inventions, the end user may further be allowed to identify the application as an invention registration rather than as an application. Just like a filed patent application, an invention registration can be assigned a filing date and used as prior art against later filed applications, but may not be subjected to further examination.
  • An end user preparing a patent application may desire to get into contact with other end users that are preparing or have prepared other similar patent applications.
  • the system of the present disclosure may be configured to facilitate communication between end users who are or have worked on similar patent applications.
  • the system may perform a search to find other end users that are working or have worked on similar patent applications and allow the end users to communicate with one another. Such communication may or may not be anonymous.
  • the system receives patent application data from an end user and then uses that patent application data to search against other end user profiles in the system.
  • the system generates a list of end user profiles that are relevant to the patent application data and scores them based on relevance.
  • the system then outputs the list of relevant end users to the end user submitting the patent application data.
  • end users may be able to opt in to or out of being a member of this service.
  • the system may require the use of a user ID and password associated with a specific log in profile or other mechanism to protect privacy and ensure that end users are accessing only the information they are entitled to access. For example, a given user may only be given access to or receive help from applications written by himself, other members of his firm or corporation, other applications for the same inventor or assignee, or other practioners who have opted in to a program. In cases where an end user is an entity with multiple individuals who access the system, each individual may have the same or a separate log in profile.
  • the system may incorporate a smaller interface, like a toolbar on a browser or a freestanding toolbar / text field that floats, and/or is hidden but present as an icon (e.g., in the bottom right hand corner in Windows XP).
  • a text field may be ever present on the screen.
  • a user may be able to type a patent number, application number, attorney docket number, etc (along with any necessary password, confirmation number or the like), hit enter and be automatically directed to a search results screen, draft history screen, prosecution history screen, or some other desirable location.
  • system may be configured to make new matter added as part of a continuation in part (CIP) or other application easily identifiable. For example, new matter could be red-lined, highlighted, or otherwise identified by altering the font or in some other recognizable manner as the application is being prepared, or at the time of submission or filing.
  • CIP continuation in part
  • the system may be configured to ensure that all submissions for filing comply with any formalities requirements. For example, the system may ensure that all submitted figures fall within the current guidelines for margins size, line thickness, font size, etc. Such compliance may be determined each time a submission is made, whether an initial filing, response to an office action, filing of a continuation, divisional, continuation-in-part of the like.
  • the system could generate a clarity score for the patent application. An AI system could be trained to identify patent applications that clearly define an invention vs. applications that do not. End Users and patent examiners could provide a clarity rating for prior art. Based on the ratings assigned, an AI system can analyze newly filed patent applications and assign clarity scores to them.
  • the system can be built using any suitable architectural method.
  • suitable architectural methods include, but are not necessarily limited to: 1) a simple, table based method 2) a rules based system or 3) an artificial intelligence (AI) system such as Neural Net, or Bayesian Algorithm.
  • AI artificial intelligence
  • a typical data processing system generally includes one or more of a system unit housing, a video display device, memory, processors, operating systems, drivers, graphical user interfaces, and application programs, interaction devices such as a touch pad or screen, and/or control systems including feedback loops and control motors.
  • a typical data processing system may be implemented utilizing any suitable commercially available components to create the gaming environment described herein.
  • the presently described system may comprise a plurality of various hardware and/or software components.
  • An exemplary system 100' is shown in Fig. 2 and described below. However, it will be understood that a nearly unlimited number of variations are possible and that such description is intended to provide a non- limiting example of an implementation that could be utilized but should not be used to define the entire scope of the invention.
  • a system 100' configured to perform the various functions described above may incorporate a number of software modules configured to perform various tasks.
  • Exemplary software modules useful for the presently-described system include:
  • User interface 102 this program allows the end user to interface with system 100'.
  • Patent Words and Phrases Dictionary Program 104 this program generates like words and word phrases based on patent application text entered by an end user. These words and phrases may then be stored in a database such as Patent Words and Phrases Database 124, described below.
  • Patent Application Text Enhancement Program 106 this program identifies words and phrases in an end user's patent application and associates these words and phrases with alternative words and phrases from the patent words and phrases dictionary program 104.
  • Profile Score Generation Program 110 this program scores the relevance of end users to one another and to patent applications and prior art.
  • System 100' may further include a number of databases configured to store and associate the various types of data that are used by the system to perform the functions described above.
  • Exemplary databases useful for the presently-described system include: [0233] End User Database 112, which may store and associate data such as:
  • Patent Application Database 114 which may store and associate data such as:
  • Patent Application Attorney or Agent 12 Patent Application PCT Information
  • Patent Application Status Database 116 which may store and associate data such as:
  • Attorney Database 118 which may store and associate data such as: 1. Attorney ID
  • Prior Art Database 120 which may store and associate data such as:
  • Prior Art Note Database 122 which may store and associate data such as:
  • Patent Words and Phrases Dictionary Database 124 which may store and associate data such as:
  • Researcher Database 126 which may store and associate data such as:
  • Researcher Queue 128, which may store and associate data such as:
  • Certified Search Database 130 which may store and associate data such as:
  • Profile Database 132 which may store and associate data such as:
  • End User Profile 134 which may store and associate data such as:
  • Profile Type Database 136 which may store and associate data such as:
  • Transaction Database 138 which may store and associate data such as:
  • Transaction Amount [0247] Transaction Type and Fee Database 140, which may store and associate data such as:
  • a system wherein prior art searches for patent-related document are automatically generated.
  • An end user can submit a patent application to a central system, for example via the web-based form described above.
  • this system could be implemented using any standard mechanism for submitting a patent application and that known methods, such as scanning and OCR, can be used to turn applications submitted in paper form into electronic applications which can then be entered into the presently described system.
  • the system uses a genetic algorithm or other similar mechanism to automatically identify relevant prior art.
  • the system may output the prior art in order of its relevancy. Relative relevancy may be determined based on a score generated by the system.
  • the end user may also be able to review the identified prior art and rate its relevance to the patent application submitted.
  • the end user can also submit notes about related to the identified prior art.
  • the submitted notes and relevance rating are stored with the prior art and may be used as criteria on subsequent patent application searches. Over time prior art is given a stand-alone relevance score and a relevance score for each patent application in which it was cited.
  • Relevance may be based on any number of suitable factors which may be determined solely by the system and/or may be determined by the end-user's actions. For example, if the end-user ultimately includes a prior art reference found and presented by the system, that particular piece of prior art may be assumed to have been relevant. If the end-user decides not to include a particular prior art reference that has been found by the system, that piece of prior art may or may not be considered not to be relevant.
  • the end user can elect to save the search results with the patent application.
  • the end user can also write language to distinguish the patent application over the prior art search results and/or amend the claims of the patent application to distinguish over the prior art cited.
  • Any language in the patent application that is added, altered, or deleted by the end user in response to the automated search results may be identified by the system as an "amendment" to the application.
  • the central system can certify the search results as being unaltered by the end user, and the patent application and any "amendments" can be submitted along with the certified search results to the patent office for filing.
  • the system can be used to generate the first office action for a patent application.
  • the automated search results are treated as the first office action.
  • the "amendments" submitted by the end user in response to the automated prior art search can be treated as a response to the first office action.
  • the automated search results along with the end user's "amendments," notes, and comments can then be submitted to an examiner, who can then develop a second office action.
  • the system could therefore be used to automate an entire step of the patent filing and issuance process.
  • the system could then display the end user's notes to future applicants, whose applications include the same or similar prior art, i.e., to assist them in distinguishing their invention over the same or similar prior art.
  • an end user's notes may identify that a particular invention is not enabled or a particular combination is not obvious.
  • the automated search tool described herein can also be used to find prior art on issued patents.
  • the end user submits the issued patent to the system and the system finds the most relevant prior art with a date prior to the filing date of the submitted issued patent.
  • the system can assemble the prior art on each issued patent in real time, i.e. when the prior art request is submitted.
  • the system can classify issued patents with prior art all the time and have pre-assembled search reports available on issued patents.
  • the central system can certify the search results so that they can be used by multiple parties who can use them as the basis for invalidating a patent or determining the novelty of an issued patent.
  • the system maintains a database of all searches and search results for any issued patents, and for any new searches for the pending application. This information helps the system to determine a relevancy score, i.e., if another applicant uses the same or similar search, the results, prior art, notes, etc., from the first application could be available to any subsequent application.
  • the system can generate a novelty score of the document over the prior art it cites as relevant.
  • the novelty score can be generated by the system based on how close the prior art cited comes to disclosing the invention disclosed in the document submitted by the end user.
  • the search system can use the unpublished prior art and cite is as references to newly submitted patent applications.
  • the search system can additionally generate novelty scores for the newly submitted patent applications based on the unpublished prior art. Should an examiner cite unpublished prior art as a reason for not issuing a patent, the end user can request at least one second opinion from another examiner.
  • End users can also submit unpublished prior art as prior art for an issued patent.
  • the system can use the unpublished prior art to generate a novelty score for the issued patent.
  • Patent examiners can review the issued patent in light of the unpublished prior art and determine if the patent can remain valid.
  • file wrappers for issued patents can continue to grow after a patent has issued.
  • the ever-growing file wrapper can be used to determine the value of a patent for licensing purposes.
  • An issued patent with a low novelty score can have a lower licensing value then an issued patent with a higher novelty score.
  • the system can search both public and unpublished prior art.
  • the system can cite references and output them to the end user. (And can, optionally, insert references in the end user's application).
  • the system can generate a novelty score and certify the search results. The end user can elect to continue filing the patent based on the novelty score.
  • the unpublished, certified results can be reviewed by a patent examiner in determining whether or not to issue a patent on the claimed invention.
  • a piece of prior art may be determined to be relevant based on: 1.
  • Non-limiting examples of invention fields that may be considered suitable for review during the invention search include: i. Title ii. Abstract iii. Issue Date iv. Patent Number v. Application date vi. Application Serial Number vii. Application Type viii. Assignee Name ix. Assignee City x. Assignee State xi. Assignee Country xii. International Classification xiii. Current US Classification xiv. Primary Examiner xv. Assistant Examiner xvi. Inventor Name xvii. Inventor City xviii. Inventor State xix. Inventor Country xx. Government Interest xxi.
  • the system could determine relevant prior art and output results in real time via the web- based application.
  • Prior art could be incorporated into the patent application as the application is being drafted. (Output formats could be a simple listing, sorted or unsorted in order of relevancy, tree structure, showing links, or a "web" mapping, showing links among all patents and other prior art, published or otherwise).
  • output formats could be a simple listing, sorted or unsorted in order of relevancy, tree structure, showing links, or a "web" mapping, showing links among all patents and other prior art, published or otherwise.
  • the system could weight that information based upon the end-user's role (applicant, researcher, and attorney) and/or based upon their proven ability to effectively score in the past. All end- users can score each other's performance, which may also affect the system's weighting of such scores (individually and collectively).
  • the system could simultaneously: a) retrieve the relevant prior art, continuously updating the list as the search term or phrase is changed or completed and b) offer up completed terms or phrases that are similar (i.e., past searches) or relevant to the current search.
  • multiple search windows could open up on the end user desktop showing completed search phrases that might be of interest to the current searcher. These searches could also be displayed based upon relevancy and/or how recent the search was submitted and/or popularity, i.e., how often it has been used.
  • the system could build up a profile for each user that helps the system better understand the type of patent applications that a given user files, searches on, etc.
  • the system could highlight the relevant sections of prior with different colors to reflect the degree of potential infringement.
  • the end user and patent examiner can add feedback to the cited prior art reference to indicate whether the reference was flagged with the appropriate color. This feedback could be used by an artificial intelligence algorithm to improve the generation of relevant prior art for subsequent searches.
  • Keyword analysis can determine the common use of rare vs. common words in two documents. Common words can then be discarded. The matching of rare words between documents could affect the relevance score between the documents.
  • results of a search may be based both on the invention being submitted and previous inventions submitted by the end user.
  • the system can be built using any suitable architectural method.
  • suitable architectural methods include, but are not necessarily limited to: 1) a simple, table based method 2) a rules based system or 3) an artificial intelligence (AI) system such as Neural Net, or Bayesian Algorithm.
  • AI artificial intelligence
  • a typical data processing system generally includes one or more of a system unit housing, a video display device, memory, processors, operating systems, drivers, graphical user interfaces, and application programs, interaction devices such as a touch pad or screen, and/or control systems including feedback loops and control motors.
  • a typical data processing system may be implemented utilizing any suitable commercially available components to create the gaming environment described herein.
  • the presently described system may comprise a plurality of various hardware and/or software components.
  • a suitable exemplary system 10 is shown in Fig. 3.
  • FIG. 3 A suitable exemplary system 10 is shown in Fig. 3.
  • a nearly unlimited number of variations are possible and that such description is intended to provide a non-limiting example of an implementation that could be utilized but should not be used to define the entire scope of the invention.
  • a system 10 configured to perform the various functions described above may incorporate a number of software modules configured to perform various tasks.
  • Exemplary software modules useful for the presently-described system include:
  • Novelty Score Program 14 This program generates a novelty score of a patent application as they relate to the certified search results.
  • System 10 may further include a number of databases configured to store and associate the various types of data that are used by the system to perform the functions described above. Exemplary databases useful for the presently-described system include: [0170] End User Database 18 a. End User ID b. End User Name c. End User Address d. End User Contact Info e. End User Billing Info f. Profile Score ID [0171] Patent Application Database 20 a. Patent Application ID Number b. End User ID c. Patent Application Title d. Patent Application Abstract e. Patent Application Description/Specification f. Patent Application Invention Class and Sub Class g. Patent Application Inventor Name h. Patent Application Inventor City i. Patent Application Inventor State j . Patent Application Inventor Country k. Patent Application Attorney or Agent
  • Patent Application PCT Information m. Patent Application Date of Invention n. Patent Application Background of the invention o. Patent Application Invention Figures p. Patent Application Assignee Name q. Patent Application Assignee City r. Patent Application Assignee State s. Patent Application Assignee Country t. Patent Application Claims u. Patent Application Search ID v. Patent Application Researcher w. Patent Application Filing Date x. Patent Application Status y. Profile Score ID z. Published/Unpublished Flag
  • Patent Application Status Database 22 a. Patent Application Registered b. Submitted to Formal Search c. Formal Search Complete d. Received Distinguishing Language Over Prior Art e. Patent Application Filed f. Patent Examiner Review g. Response to Examiner Review h. Patent Abandoned i. Final Rejection j. Patent Issued [0173] Attorney Database 24 a. Attorney ID b. Attorney Name c. Attorney Address d. Attorney Billing Info e. Profile Score ID [0174] Prior Art Database 26 a. Prior Art ID b. Prior Art Title c. Prior Art Abstract d. Prior Art Description/Specification e. Prior Art Invention Class and Sub Class f. Prior Art Inventor Name g. Prior Art Inventor City h. Prior Art Inventor State i. Prior Art Inventor Country j . Prior Art Attorney or Agent k. Prior Art PCT Information
  • Virtual Dictionary Database 30 a. Word ID b. Word c. Like Words 1-N d. Common phrases using word or like words 1-N e. Used in Patents 1-N f. Profile Score ID [0177] Certified Search Database 32 a. Search ID b. Patent Application ID c. Prior Art ID d. Novelty Score e. Usefulness Score f. Non-obvious Score g. Search Score
  • Distinguishing Language Database 34 a. Patent Application ID b. Prior Art ID c. Referenced Section of Prior Art ID d. Distinguishing Language over Referenced Section of Prior Art ID [0179] Profile Database 36 a. Profile Score ID b. Profile Type c. Patent Class 1 -N d. Patent Subclass 1 -N [0180] End User Profile 38 a. Profile Score ID b. Patent Application(s) Class 1 -N c. Patent Application(s) Sub Class 1-N d. Invention Keywords 1-N [0181] Profile Type Database 40 a. End User b. Attorney c. Word d. Patent Application e. Prior Art
  • Transaction Database for search, novelty score, and filing fees 42 a.
  • Transaction Type and Fee Database 44 a.
  • a system such as that described herein will be configured to perform various functions, such as those described above, by performing various method steps in order to accomplish one or more given tasks.
  • methods that may be performed by a system and the steps that the system may execute in order to perform these methods are described below: [0185] Submit patent application and receive relevant search results
  • an end user may prepare and submit a patent application to a central search system.
  • the central system may be similar to the one described above, or may be a dedicated searching system.
  • the system or an end user determines or identifies one or more criteria about the application to help identify an appropriate searcher. For example, the system or end user may identify a class and subclass for the patent application. Based on the patent class and subclass (or other criteria), a list of potential researchers is generated.
  • the system or end user may select a specific researcher from the list based on any number of factors, including, but not limited to, the queue of patent applications each researcher has, the class and sub class (or other criteria) of the patent being filed, and the class and subclasses for which the researcher is considered an expert. According to one aspect, a researcher can be selected based on keywords in the patent application.
  • the invention is submitted to the researcher in such a way that the system does not disclose identifying information about the end user or assignee to the researcher.
  • the researcher conducts a prior art search and attaches relevant digital prior art to the patent application record.
  • the researcher can highlight sections of the prior art and site specific sections of the prior art as relevant to specific sections of the patent application.
  • a researcher can embed specific sections of prior art and/or notes into a patent application.
  • the researcher may submit the patent application with added prior art data to the system.
  • the system may then certify the search.
  • an end user may receive a notice indicating that the researcher has completed a certified search for the patent application.
  • the end user can log in to the system and retrieve the patent application along with the certified search data.
  • the end user can then provide language that distinguishes the claimed invention over the prior art and submit the patent application, the certified search, and the distinguishing language to the central system for filing.
  • the system can determine an appropriate researcher and offer the opportunity to provide the end user with real time chat with a researcher. If the end user accepts, a chat window, or equivalent communication method/portal may be opened between the end user and researcher via the central system. The end user can provide patent application data and the researcher can provide relevant prior art. When the session is complete, the system can charge a fee to the end user and submit a portion of that fee to the researcher. The recorded chat session may be attached to the patent application file.
  • a system 400 can be configured to perform various functions, such as those described above, by performing various method steps in order to accomplish one or more given tasks.
  • programs or modules that may be employed by a system according to the present disclosure include the following programs which may have the following architectures and/or capabilities: [0201] Central Server
  • a system such as the one described herein may further include a number of databases configured to store and associate the various types of data that are used by the system to perform the functions described above.
  • Exemplary database architectures useful for the presently-described system include:
  • Researcher Database 421 which may collect, store and associate data such as: a. Researcher ID b. Researcher Profile c. Researcher Billing and Account Information d. Researcher Search Score
  • End User Database 422 which may collect, store and associate data such as: a. End User ID b. End User Profile c. End User Billing Info d. End User Score
  • Patent Application Database 423 which may collect, store and associate data such as: a. Creation Date b. Patent Application ID c. Patent Application Status d. End User ID e. Researcher ID f. Patent Application Data g. Research Report ID
  • Prior Art Database 424 which may collect, store and associate data such as: a. Prior Art ID b. Prior Art Content c. Prior Art Date
  • Researcher Schedule Database 425 which may collect, store and associate data such as: a. Researcher ID b. Patent Application ID 1 -N c. Patent Application Research Target Date 1-N
  • Research Report Database 426 which may collect, store and associate data such as: a. Research Report ID b. Patent Application ID c. Prior Art ID 1-N
  • a system such as that described herein will be configured to perform various functions, such as those described above, by performing various method steps in order to accomplish one or more given tasks.
  • methods that may be performed by a system according to the present disclosure include the following:
  • a new search engine may be provided, and/or any existing search engine may be improved to include the disclosed methods.
  • any search engine such as those provided by Google or Yahoo might be modified to incorporate one or more of the disclosed features, methods or inventions. Improving an existing search engine provides many benefits, including, the ability to retain and make use of all the existing features and functions of any such existing search engine. Adding one or more of the disclosed embodiments may also serve to provide any such search engine with additional features and benefits that can help to differentiate such existing or new search engine over any one or more of its competitors that are either unwilling or unable to incorporate the disclosed invention.
  • Another advantage of making use of an existing search engine is that the end user would have access to the existing infrastructure and database access already in existence within such search engine's reach.
  • search engines e.g., Google
  • these tools already have extensive feature sets and data access.
  • these tools already have searched or otherwise cataloged millions of web pages and other information sources.
  • creating a new search engine may prove generally more desirable in certain applications where the existing search engine relies on outdated and/or is otherwise generally of poor quality or lacks basic functionality and/or is difficult to use.
  • a new search engine may be patterned off an existing engine and/or may be constructed with minimal or without such influences.
  • end users or new or existing search engine or other websites and/or applications may permit and/or enable the entry or attachment of, or otherwise permit, one or more end users to import and/or provide patent applications or other documents, including text and/or graphics and/or hyperlinks or notes associated with any of the above and/or any other relevant data, files, images, documents, survey question responses, notes and/or hyperlinks to any one or more of the above and/or any combination of the abive.
  • patent and other information including, for example, survey responses, notes, documents, images, advertisements, white papers, or other items or any relevancy or mapping information and/or other documents and/or hyperlinks is/are accessed from existing or newly created databases and/or one or more indices and/or a new or modified search engine or other tool and/or a combination of the above.
  • the disclosed system periodically searches for and/or stores information and/or references in the prior art to each word and/or group of words, phrases, and/or documents, notes and/or synonyms and/or antonyms in the patent application or document, IDS, and/or the examiner's, applicant's or third party's notes, or other database information and creates one or more hyperlinks and/or indices and/or database entries to or that reference such information and/or words and/or documents and/or references and/or synonyms and/or antonyms directly from the words of the patent application or other document(s), notes, survey responses or database information and/or its synonyms and/or antonyms or otherwise.
  • Methods to create or modify search engines are well known and understood within the prior art and by any person of ordinary skill. For example, methods to design and build a search engine are disclosed and discussed by the authors of the following books, including, for example "Understanding Search Engines: Mathematical Modeling and Text Retrieval (Software, Environments, Tools), Second Edition, by Michael W. Berry and Murray Browne, which is incorporated by reference. Methods to create web pages, hyperlinks and hypertext are well known in the prior art and any person with ordinary skill in the art can design and create such hyperlinks.
  • end users can click on or otherwise activate any one or more hyperlink(s) and/or index or table of contents or other entries to view one or more lists of any of the prior art and/or other documents that include one or more of such words or group of words and/or their synonyms and/or antonyms and/or reference any such words, group of words, synonyms and/or antonyms.
  • Such hyperlinks and/or index entries may be ordered by any applicable means, for example, such lists may be ordered or sorted based on any one or more of the: number of times the words are found in the reference material, e.g., patent or document, number of times such related references have been accessed, and/or feedback provided by one or more end users, one or more relevancy scores and/or mapping information and/or one or more notes provided by end users and/or as may be generated by any applicable computing means, such as lexical or grammatical analysis or any other applicable means including genetic algorithms, relative age of one or more such references, e.g., references to a word in a more recently created document, may be sorted in preference older document entries, extent of usage, depth or breath of the map, e.g., if a word is used more frequently in a greater number of documents, especially those documents that may also have been deemed relevant, such word or its related index entry or hyperlink may be sorted above other index entries or hyperlinks that have fewer cross references and/or fewer documents,
  • relevancy scores may be determined, in whole or in part, through the use of manual and/or automated means.
  • other methods to determine relevancy between and among documents and/or websites are well known within the prior art, including, for example, the methods discussed in the book entitled "Text Databases and Document Management: Theory and Practice, by Amita Goyal Chin, which is incorporated by reference.
  • prior usage of the system may be tracked via any applicable means, including, for example, as end users submit and/or click on hyperlinks and/or index entries and/or use any one or more features of the system, the system could record such usage activity and rank future search results and/or modify system performance based upon such usage information.
  • the system could, for example, determine how many times a given hyperlink or index entry is clicked and then, optionally, determine the relevancy of the hyperlinked or indexed document, for example, such relevancy may be based upon any applicable means including the frequency with one or more end users click such hyperlink or index and/or the amount of time one or more end users spend reviewing such hyperlinked or indexed document, and/or using feedback provided by any one or more end users, such as feedback provided via a score, relevancy ranking, weighting ranking, notes, or by clicking on or answering questions that provides or permits the calculation of such relevancy scores based upon such responses. Exemplary methods to provide for such feedback using notes and or survey response questions are disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Nos.
  • end users can scroll through or otherwise review a document using any applicable means, for example, by title or abstract, relevancy, and/or line by line, paragraph by paragraph, and/or page by page and the system displays the most relevant documents associated with line, paragraph or page.
  • Such display or list of relevant documents may appear in a separate web browser pages or tabs, and/or in a popup or other user interface, e.g., a list displayed directly on the display alongside the application's text or graphics.
  • one or more of the words and/or groups of words are placed into one or more search boxes in the GUI, where they can be clicked or otherwise selected by the end user to view potentially related prior art.
  • search engine windows e.g. an improved Google search window
  • search engines could immediately conduct searches on such word or words and display a partial or comprehensive search result in the search window or another window.
  • end users are constantly being presented with search results. End users may periodically review such results to determine if any one or more result is meaningful or could prove use or otherwise deserves further review or investigation.
  • the end user can select or otherwise indicate how he wants to view the relevant prior art.
  • selection or indication may be provided through any applicable means, and includes, but is not limited to the use of and/or ranking by the:
  • the system in addition to finding prior art based on the words of the patent application, also lists synonyms and/or antonyms of the word or groups of words or phrases. For example, the end user can click on one or more relevant synonyms and the system can do a prior art search based on those relevant synonyms.
  • the synonym list can be generated from words that merchants who purchase keywords from a search engine select as common words when creating a web-based advertisement. Methods for creating such a list of synonyms are disclosed in US Patent Application No. 11/697,443 entitled “Self-Teaching Thesaurus," filed April 6, 2007 which is incorporated by reference.
  • each section of a patent application can be searched in the manner described above and search results can be weighted and/or sorted and/or filtered based on which section of the cited prior art contains the word, group of words or synonyms and/or antonyms and/or any one or more of the end user's search, sort, select and/or display preferences. For example, if an end user is interested in or is reviewing abstracts of patents, the potential applicability or relevancy of a given word or phrase may be greater if such word or phrase appears within the abstract section of one or more other patents, as opposed to appearing in the claims section of one or more other patents. In addition or in the alternate, relevancy of one or more words may be determined by the appearance of the word or words in any or all of the sections of a patent or patent application, whether or not such patent is pending or has previously issued
  • the synonyms and antonyms list can be established or affected by end user actions, preferences and/or feedback.
  • the system can provide a list of words that it expects or determines are synonyms based on the text of the patent application.
  • the end user can indicate which words on the list are synonyms.
  • the system can use the indication by the end user to further refine its synonym list for later searches.
  • the system can improve the usefulness of the system by improving its ability to determine which words or group of words or phrases are generally more relevant and separate those from other words, groups of words or phrases that might typically be considered relevant, i.e., if searching a generic or generally available thesaurus vs. use of a customized thesaurus as disclosed herein and/or via use of end user feedback or usage tracking. Therefore, the disclosed invention provides both initial and ongoing performance results over existing search methods.
  • patent prior art reference may be cited as more relevant if a section of it uses the same or similar language as a patent application submitted or being drafted by an end user. For instance, if the claim of a prior art patent uses the same or similar words as a patent application, it may be considered as generally more relevant than a prior art patent that uses the same words in the background of the application or patent.
  • the system may determine relevancy using any applicable means, including any one or any combination of:
  • patent document A is determined to be generally more relevant (according to this measure).
  • patent document A is determined to be generally more relevant (according to this measure).
  • patent document A is determined to be generally more relevant (according to this measure).
  • end users may have the option to indicate to the system which of the results, in whole or in part, are actually relevant by, e.g., requesting to see the abstract, requesting to view the whole document, requesting to download part or all of the document(s), requesting to save such part or whole of the whole document(s) in a 'folder' on the system of saved results.
  • Feedback from end users may affect their individual future search results and/or search algorithms and/or may affect all or a class of end user's future results. Such affects on groups or classes of end users may carry significant weighting, and/or may only affect such future searches in smaller incremental ways. A combination of these may also apply.
  • end user A determines certain patents or other prior art documents are relevant to his particular patent search, such knowledge may be useful in determining relevancy for future prior art searches conducted by end user A, and/or such information may affect end user B's future prior art searches, particularly if end user B has or does conduct searches within the same filed of use and/or uses the same or similar lists of synonyms, antonyms and/or other words, groups of words or phrases, and/or tends to determine that the same or similar lists of patents or prior art and/or search strings and/or responses to survey questions regarding any of the forgoing are the same or are similar to end user A.
  • a 'relevancy function' that aggregates all or groups of the measures provided by end user or other feedback using any applicable means.
  • this relevancy function can be based upon, in whole or in part, and/or modified using various feedback techniques (e.g. neural networks, expert or rules based systems and/or genetic algorithms).
  • feedback techniques e.g. neural networks, expert or rules based systems and/or genetic algorithms.
  • Use and applications of rules based, expert systems and/or genetic algorithms are well known in the prior art and may be implemented using any applicable means.
  • methods to develop rules, expert systems and/or genetic algorithms are discussed and disclosed in various issued and pending patents and reference and other materials, including the following books entitled: "Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization, and Machine Learning", by David E.
  • searches can be rated by inventors, attorneys, examiners and/or any other authorized person, entity, or system.
  • the search rating can be tied, in whole or in part, or have an influence on, a rating of the searcher or end user, and/or may be associated with particular prior art or other documents.
  • attributes, characteristics, qualifications and/or other criteria relating to one or more end users that search may have a relevance weight for subsequent searches that is greater or less than other end users. For example the relative weight of a patent examiner's opinion or feedback may have a greater influence when determining relevancy scores or rating than the weight of an opinion or feedback of an independent inventor.
  • weighting tends to consider feedback from qualified professionals more heavily than that of laypersons. For example, patent examiners and/or other qualified personnel the USPTO may carry more weight than a given patent attorney, which may, in turn, carry more weight than that of a given inventor.
  • weighting criteria may also be based in whole or in part upon other factors or learned information regarding an end user's past performance or feedback.
  • a given end user A has provided scores and/or rankings, e.g., one or more relevancy scores, and other end users confirm such score or ranking as accurate or generally useful
  • end user A's future feedback or rankings or scores may carry more weight than another given end user, e.g., end user B, who may not have yet provided any feedback or scores, or if end user B has provided such feedback but such feedback has yet to be verified by the system or via other end user verification methods, then such end user B's current or future feedback or rankings may not carry as much weight as end user A's.
  • end user A's feedback was determined to carry more weight, however, if additional information were available regarding end user B, for example, if end user B is a patent examiner, then end user B's feedback or rankings may carry the same or even greater weight than end user A, based upon such additional information as it may be assumed that a patent examiner's feedback is more valuable than another end user that is a lay person.
  • the database of the computer or system or server that is conducting the search may affect the search results and/or their sort order.
  • This search engine generates results based on information contained in the searcher's computer other than search history. For example, an end user may choose to provide and/or the system may track additional information regarding the end user and/or his search preferences.
  • Such information and preferences may include any applicable criteria or information such as: the end user's typical or primary field of use, custom list of synonyms or antonyms, custom relevancy scores and ranking results or criteria, previous acceptance or rejection of one or more search results or prior art data, e.g., if an end user determines a particular piece of prior art or other information or data is not relevant, such end user may flag such prior art or data so that it may not appear on subsequent future searches which may or may not be similar to such historical searches, and/or the system may be designed such that each end user or class of end user has a dedicated search algorithm, for example, instead of using a genetic algorithm for all end users, one or more genetic algorithms may be used, stored, modified, etc., for each end user and/or for each class or category of end users.
  • any applicable criteria or information such as: the end user's typical or primary field of use, custom list of synonyms or antonyms, custom relevancy scores and ranking results or criteria, previous acceptance or rejection of one or more search results or prior art data,
  • GA' s for patent examiners
  • GA' s for patent attorneys that provide patent services for devices
  • GA' s for patent attorneys that provide patent services for business method patents.
  • Any suitable means may be used to determine the number of end user classifications for such purposes, including, for example, use of another superset of GA's that determines applicable categorizations of end user types. In this fashion, the system is continually learning and determining into which categories each end user or groups of end users should fall, thereby improving system performance results across one or all of such groups.
  • the disclosed invention may be practiced in the real or virtual world.
  • a video game or virtual environment may provide for a virtual patent office or other system that permits the registration of intellectual property. Such system may also permit the inclusion of the disclosed invention.
  • a video game may include a virtual patent office. Exemplary methods and systems for providing protection of intellectual property in a virtual environment are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Patent Application Nos.
  • a system may permit improvements to itself.
  • a video game may permit the inclusion by end users of modules or plug-ins, which provide additional features or other improvements relating to the virtual environment, video game or improves game play.
  • Exemplary methods and systems for providing such plug-in support are disclosed in US Patent Application No. 11/697,475 entitled “Method and System to Provide Certified Third Party Plug-ins into a Patent Drafting System," filed April 6, 2007 which is hereby incorporated by reference.
  • the disclosed invention may be applied to such virtual environment, world or video game(s) or any combination of the forgoing.
  • use of modules or plug-ins, such as those disclosed herein may be delivered and/or used within the virtual world.
  • hyperlinks and or indices may include one or more advertisements and/or hyperlinks to one or more advertisements and/or survey questions. Delivery and timing of such advertisements and/or survey questions may be accomplished via any applicable means. For example, in order to determine or gather information about the relevancy of certain prior art to a given patent application, the system may submit survey questions to one or more end users to gather such relevancy data. In another example, merchants or other advertisers may desire to attach one or more advertisements and/or surveys to one or more keywords, hyperlinks, and/or prior art documents, or words, phrases, and other data.
  • a typical data processing system generally includes one or more of a system unit housing, a video display device, memory, processors, operating systems, drivers, graphical user interfaces, and application programs, interaction devices such as a touch pad or screen, and/or control systems including feedback loops and control motors.
  • a typical data processing system may be implemented utilizing any suitable commercially available components to create the gaming environment described herein.
  • a system 500 may comprise a plurality of various hardware and/or software components such as those described below.
  • various hardware and/or software components are described and named according to various functions that it is contemplated may be performed by one or more software or hardware components within the system.
  • the system may incorporate any number of programs configured to perform any number of functions including, but in no way limited to those described below.
  • programs and multiple databases are described, the various functions and/or databases may, in fact, be part of a single program or multiple programs running in one or more locations.
  • Exemplary programs include:
  • Exemplary database architectures include:
  • Word Database 521 which may collect, store and associate data such as:
  • Word ID a Word Count ID b. Word c. Primary Definition d. Hyperlinks 1 - N (e.g., sources / locations of use) e. Alternative Definitions 1 - N
  • Change Tracking Database 522 which may collect, store and associate data such as:
  • Figure Database 523 which may collect, store and associate data such as:
  • Document Database 524 which may collect, store and associate data such as:
  • Document ID a Document Description
  • Document Owner ID c. Hyperlinks (e.g., document locations) 1 - N d. Class 1 - N e. Subclass 1 - N f. Type 1 - N g. Subtype 1 - N h. Date / Time Stamps
  • Hyperlink Database 525 which may collect, store and associate data such as:
  • Lexicon Database 526 which may collect, store and associate data such as:
  • Lexicon e.g., Word or Document or Image
  • Usage Database 527 which may collect, store and associate data such as
  • User Score Database 528 which may collect, store and associate data such as:
  • Score Rules Database 529 which may collect, store and associate data such as:
  • User Search Preferences Database 531 which may collect, store and associate data such as:
  • Relevancy Database 533 which may collect, store and associate data such as:
  • User Database 534 which may collect, store and associate data such as:
  • User Type Database 535 which may collect, store and associate data such as:
  • Receive End User Preferences / Feedback / Usage Tracking Information including: a. Filter Criteria or Rules b. Sort Criteria or Rules c. Relevancy Information d. Weighting Factors, Criteria or Rules e. Security Preferences f. Feedback / Tracking Preferences g. Notes h. Usage habits / patterns / preferences i. Display preferences [0283] Security Application
  • Modify applicable / affected criteria including, but not limited to any relevant settings such as those relating to any one or more or part or all of a/an/the: a. Genetic or other learning algorithms b. Relevancy or scoring algorithms c. System, end user and/or other settings, weights, preferences, sort, selection, display criteria. d. End user or system weighting, criteria, sort, filter and/or display and/or other preferences or system settings e. Mapping information f. Synonyms and/or antonyms g. Definitions h. Figures i. Text j. Documents k. Hyperlinks 1. Advertisements m. Notes n. Any or all other data as desired / requested / necessary 11. Update databases [0288] Usage Tracking Program
  • Display Advertisement e.g., load and display attached movie file
  • Load Database(s) Receive request from drafting or third party display tool for word, definition, synonym, antonym, figure and/or document display (any one or any combination or all of the forgoing)
  • Await Payment 10. Receive payment indication
  • the invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed, and those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the invention is readily applicable to many other diverse embodiments and applications as are reflected in the range of real world financial institutions, instruments and activities. Accordingly, the subject matter of the present disclosure includes all novel and nonobvious combinations and subcombinations of the various systems, methods configurations, embodiments, features, functions, and/or properties disclosed herein.
  • a reference to "another embodiment” in describing an embodiment does not necessarily imply that the referenced embodiment is mutually exclusive with another embodiment (e.g., an embodiment described before the referenced embodiment), unless expressly specified otherwise.
  • the phrase "at least one of, when such phrase modifies a plurality of things means any combination of one or more of those things, unless expressly specified otherwise.
  • the phrase "at least one of a widget, a car and a wheel” means either (i) a widget, (ii) a car, (iii) a wheel, (iv) a widget and a car, (v) a widget and a wheel, (vi) a car and a wheel, or (vii) a widget, a car and a wheel.
  • determining and grammatical variants thereof (e.g., to determine a price, determining a value, determine an object which meets a certain criterion) is used in an extremely broad sense.
  • the term “determining” encompasses a wide variety of actions and therefore “determining” can include calculating, computing, processing, deriving, investigating, looking up (e.g., looking up in a table, a database or another data structure), ascertaining and the like.
  • determining can include receiving (e.g., receiving information), accessing (e.g., accessing data in a memory) and the like.
  • determining can include resolving, selecting, choosing, establishing, and the like.
  • determining can include estimating, predicting, guessing and the like.
  • a processor e.g., one or more microprocessors, one or more microcontrollers, one or more digital signal processors
  • a processor will receive instructions (e.g., from a memory or like device), and execute those instructions, thereby performing one or more processes defined by those instructions.
  • a "processor” may include one or more microprocessors, central processing units (CPUs), computing devices, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, or like devices or any combination thereof.
  • CPUs central processing units
  • the apparatus can include, e.g., a processor and those input devices and output devices that are appropriate to perform the method.
  • programs that implement such methods may be stored and transmitted using a variety of media (e.g., computer readable media) in a number of manners.
  • hard- wired circuitry or custom hardware may be used in place of, or in combination with, some or all of the software instructions that can implement the processes of various embodiments.
  • various combinations of hardware and software may be used instead of software only.
  • Nonvolatile media include, for example, optical or magnetic disks and other persistent memory.
  • Volatile media include dynamic random access memory (DRAM), which typically constitutes the main memory.
  • Transmission media include coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics, including the wires that comprise a system bus coupled to the processor. Transmission media may include or convey acoustic waves, light waves and electromagnetic emissions, such as those generated during radio frequency (RF) and infrared (IR) data communications.
  • RF radio frequency
  • IR infrared
  • Computer-readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, DVD, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM, a FLASH-EEPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, a carrier wave as described hereinafter, or any other medium from which a computer can read.
  • Various forms of computer readable media may be involved in carrying data (e.g. sequences of instructions) to a processor.
  • data may be (i) delivered from RAM to a processor; (ii) carried over a wireless transmission medium; (iii) formatted and / or transmitted according to numerous formats, standards or protocols, such as Ethernet (or IEEE 802.3), SAP, ATP, BluetoothTM, and TCP/IP, TDMA, CDMA, and 3 G; and / or (iv) encrypted to ensure privacy or prevent fraud in any of a variety of ways well known in the art.
  • a description of a process is likewise a description of a computer- readable medium storing a program for performing the process.
  • the computer-readable medium can store (in any appropriate format) those program elements which are appropriate to perform the method.
  • an apparatus includes a computer / computing device operable to perform some (but not necessarily all) of the described process.
  • a computer-readable medium storing a program or data structure include a computer-readable medium storing a program that, when executed, can cause a processor to perform some (but not necessarily all) of the described process.
  • databases may, in a known manner, be stored locally or remotely from any device(s) which access data in the database.
  • Various embodiments can be configured to work in a network environment including a computer that is in communication (e.g., via a communications network) with one or more devices. The computer may communicate with the devices directly or indirectly, via any wired or wireless medium (e.g.
  • Each of the devices may themselves comprise computers or other computing devices, such as those based on the Intel® Pentium® or CentrinoTM processor, that are adapted to communicate with the computer. Any number and type of devices may be in communication with the computer.
  • a server computer or centralized authority may not be necessary or desirable.
  • the present invention may, in an embodiment, be practiced on one or more devices without a central authority.
  • any functions described herein as performed by the server computer or data described as stored on the server computer may instead be performed by or stored on one or more such devices.
  • a typical data processing system generally includes one or more of a system unit housing, a video display device, memory, processors, operating systems, drivers, graphical user interfaces, and application programs, interaction devices such as a touch pad or screen, and/or control systems including feedback loops and control motors.
  • a typical data processing system may be implemented utilizing any suitable commercially available components to create the environment described herein.
  • the mere usage of the ordinal numbers “first” and “second” before the term “widget” does not indicate any other relationship between the two widgets, and likewise does not indicate any other characteristics of either or both widgets.
  • the mere usage of the ordinal numbers “first” and “second” before the term “widget” (1) does not indicate that either widget comes before or after any other in order or location; (2) does not indicate that either widget occurs or acts before or after any other in time; and (3) does not indicate that either widget ranks above or below any other, as in importance or quality.
  • the mere usage of ordinal numbers does not define a numerical limit to the features identified with the ordinal numbers.
  • a single device / article may alternatively be used in place of the more than one device or article that is described.
  • a plurality of computer-based devices may be substituted with a single computer-based device.
  • the various functionality that is described as being possessed by more than one device or article may alternatively be possessed by a single device / article.
  • the functionality and / or the features of a single device that is described may be alternatively embodied by one or more other devices which are described but are not explicitly described as having such functionality / features.
  • other embodiments need not include the described device itself, but rather can include the one or more other devices which would, in those other embodiments, have such functionality / features.
  • Devices that are described as in communication with each other need not be in continuous communication with each other, unless expressly specified otherwise. On the contrary, such devices need only transmit to each other as necessary or desirable, and may actually refrain from exchanging data most of the time. For example, a machine in communication with another machine via the Internet may not transmit data to the other machine for long period of time (e.g. weeks at a time). In addition, devices that are in communication with each other may communicate directly or indirectly through one or more intermediaries.
  • a product may be described as including a plurality of components, aspects, qualities, characteristics and / or features, that does not indicate that all of the plurality are essential or required.
  • Various other embodiments within the scope of the described invention(s) include other products that omit some or all of the described plurality.
  • an item in the enumerated list can be a subset (a specific type of) of another item in the enumerated list.
  • the enumerated list "a computer, a laptop, a PDA” does not imply that any or all of the three items of that list are mutually exclusive - e.g., an item can be both a laptop and a computer, and a "laptop" can be a subset of (a specific type of) a "computer”.
  • an enumerated list of items does not imply that any or all of the items are collectively exhaustive or otherwise comprehensive of any category.
  • the enumerated list "a computer, a laptop, a PDA" does not imply that any or all of the three items of that list are comprehensive of any category.
  • an enumerated listing of items does not imply that the items are ordered in any manner according to the order in which they are enumerated.
  • Computers, processors, computing devices and like products are structures that can perform a wide variety of functions. Such products can be operable to perform a specified function by executing one or more programs, such as a program stored in a memory device of that product or in a memory device which that product accesses. Unless expressly specified otherwise, such a program need not be based on any particular algorithm, such as any particular algorithm that might be disclosed in this patent application. It is well known to one of ordinary skill in the art that a specified function may be implemented via different algorithms, and any of a number of different algorithms would be a mere design choice for carrying out the specified function. [0350] Therefore, with respect to a means or a step for performing a specified function in accordance with 35 U. S. C.
  • structure corresponding to a specified function includes any product programmed to perform the specified function.
  • Such structure includes programmed products which perform the function, regardless of whether such product is programmed with (i) a disclosed algorithm for performing the function, (ii) an algorithm that is similar to a disclosed algorithm, or (iii) a different algorithm for performing the function.

Abstract

A method and system for rating the relevance of pror art references for patent application is provided. The method comprises receiving an electronic version of a patent application from and end-user, comparing the patent application with the contents of a prior art database, identifying prior art references that are relevant to the prior art, and determining a relevance rating for at least one of the identified prior art references.

Description

Enhanced Patent Prior Art Search Engine
[0195] Protecting intellectual property through patent systems is a vital part of most countries' national economies and well as the global economy. However, many patent systems are facing a number of challenges due to the increased technical complexity of patent applications as well as with the challenge of hiring and training new patent examiners to cope -with the increasing number of applications being filed. [0196] In 2000, 311,807 patent applications were filed in the U.S. Tins number increased to 409,532 applications in 2005. Globally, 145,300 applications were filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty in 2006, representing a 6.4% growth over the previous year. This trend has held steady since 1995 with the number of applications filed increasing every year.
[0197] The problems in the protection of intellectual property rights are further compounded by virtual reality games. Hundreds of thousands of players access games known as massive multi-player online games OVIMOGs) and massive muhi-player online role playing games (MMORPGs). Players of these games customarily access a game repeatedly (for duratk>n.$ typically ranging from a few minutes to several days) over a given period of time, which may be days, weeks, months or even years. Many of these games purport to give intellectual property rights to the players in their virtual creations. However, these games lack a structured system for evaluating and granting such rights.
[0198] Given the increasing number of applications being filed and the increased demand for protection of intellectual property, it would be advantageous to provide alternate methods for assigning and distributing applications for examinations. Such alternate methods would relieve some of the pressure on patent systems, allowing examiner's to focus on the aspects of their duties that require human involvement
Brief Description of the Drawings
l [0199] Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a system 100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
[0200] Fig. 2 is a block diagram of a system 100' according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
[0201] Fig. 3 is a block diagram of a system 10 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
[0202] Fig. 4 is a block diagram of a system 400 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
[0203] Fig. 5 is a block diagram of a system 500 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
Detailed Description
[0204] According to various embodiments, the present disclosure provides search engine that stores or otherwise has access to patent applications and other forms of prior art, including documents, articles, blogs, white papers, web sites, survey question responses and/or notes, among other prior art and other electronic materials. Furthermore, the search engine has the ability to query, search, and/or index the electronic materials.
[0205] According to various embodiments:
[0206] Advertisement - includes any communication via any medium to any one or more end users or any person or third party. Advertisements may include text, audio, video, icons, graphics, images, etc. Advertisements may include an offer for sale, for profit or not, and may or may not include a discount, for any services, products, financial instruments, e.g., insurance, annuities, securities, e.g., stocks, bonds, options, etc. and/or any other good or service, and/or may provide information about any of the forgoing or anything, such as a request for donations to political or charitable or any other entity or organization. Or, an advertisement might be used or designed to provide information to inform or educate any constituent and/or may include communications in support of any one or more objectives such as public relations, publicity, product placement or introduction, sponsorship, underwriting, public notice or service announcement or any other objective or purpose.
Alert - includes the transfer, delivery or storage of information or otherwise communicating with, by, between or among any two or more of the following, including, but not limited to any real or virtual: a) end user, b) game owners, c) game or other servers, d) player or player characters, e) NPCs, f) exchanges, g) game devices or controllers, h) cell phone or other communications hardware and/or networks, i) databases, j) software applications, k) legal agencies, 1) governing bodies, m) software interfaces, n) any person, o) and/or any combination of any of the above, which may be initiated by and/or based upon an alert event or other action. Exemplary methods to determine alert events and/or to send alerts are disclosed for example, in U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 11/676,848 "Virtual Environment with Alerts" filed February 20, 2007 which is incorporated herein by reference.
[0207] Alert Event - includes any change in, of or to any condition or state, and includes any action, opposite action, unexpected action, desire for action, or failure to act, and thus Alert Event includes, but is not limited to any one or more of:
1. When or after any one or more variables or data changes or is expected or is about to change within an application, service, API, communications network or one or more databases, or database variables or element, e.g., a balance is reached or exceeded
2. When an end-user acts, e.g., clicks on a word or link, or fails to act as or when expected.
3. An amount of time elapses with or without an action.
4. When or after information is transmitted and/or shared (e.g. via a communications package or other mechanism) between two or more applications, services, servers, financial institutions, or any other entities, e.g., a message sent between two servers to provide information about one or more hyperlinks.
[0208] Approval Queue- includes a queue of documents and or prior art associated with those documents that is awaiting an approval mark from an entity such as a patent examiner
[0209] Boilerplate - includes any text, word, words, or phrases and/or part or all of a document which may be readily or otherwise reused with little or no modification and/or to serve as the basis of a new phrase or document, which use may save time and effort in the creation of said phrase or document. Boilerplate may include standard documents, terms, conditions, words, phases, etc., that can be incorporated or reused in multiple applications.
[0210] Blog - includes a user-generated website or other system where entries may be made in journal or other style and may be displayed in a reverse chronological or other order. Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. Blogs may include and/or combine or use text, images, and may include links, including hyperlinks to other blogs, web pages, documents, words, and other media related to its topic or subject matter. The term "blog" is derived from the term "Web log." "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
[0211] Certified Component-includes any piece of software that is a component of a total software solution that has been approved for use by an entity such as the USPTO
[0212] Certified Definition-includes the definition of a word or phrase as it relates to a class or subclass of patentable inventions that is approved by an central entity such as the USPTO
[0213] Certified Font-includes any font that is approved by a central entity such as the patent office for use in an invention disclosure or figures associated with such a disclosure.
[0214] Certified Icon-includes any icon that can be used in a figure to be submitted with a patent application to identify a standard component of invention that is approved for it use by a central entity.
[0215] Certified Plug-in-inc hides any software module that can be inserted into a larger software program and used to perform a sub function of the total function of the total system that is approved by a certification party such as the USPTO
[0216] Certified Shape-shall include any visual shape that can be used to identify a component in a patent or other drawing that is approved by a central entity such as the patent office for use in a figure associated with an invention disclosure
[0217] Certified Template-shall include a group of certified shapes, certified Icons, and or certified fonts that can be used in a figure associated with an invention disclosure and that is approved by a central entity such as the patent office.
[0218] Class, in the context of a patent application, -includes a class of patents or other digital documents in an electronic database [0219] Click-through - includes the process of an end user selecting or otherwise activating a hyperlink
[0220] Document Map or Map - includes a visual representation of a group of documents or other items or objects, such as patents that shows the relationship of those documents, objects or items to one another. For example, a map might be of a group of documents and their relevancy to each other. Or, a map might include a visual representation.
[0221] End User - includes any person or entity, real or virtual that makes use of or otherwise practices any part or all of the disclosed invention and/or any software application or tool disclosed herein or otherwise. End users include, for example, patent applicants, patent examiners, patent attorneys, patent examiner supervisors, document review specialists, diagram or figure design engineers, survey respondents, search tool users, and other persons. In certain embodiments, an end user may be an application, application program interface, reporting or other tool or automated process. [0222] Genetic Algorithm - includes any software application or module that can improve results with use.
[0223] Hyperlink or link - includes a set of instructions or code, which may be embedded, or otherwise associated with or connected to, an element, word, object, icon, document, figure, map, file attachment, or other displayed area within a document which, when selected, clicked or otherwise activated by an end user, may cause a computer to perform one or more functions. Examples of functions that might be performed include, but are not limited to, displaying new or additional information, redirecting to a different area of the same or a new document, displaying an advertisement, soliciting and/or capturing information, opening a form that requires end user input, and/or displaying new information that is generally associated with and/or related to the hyperlinked element. New or additional information and/or webpage(s) may or may not be displayed using a separate or new web browser page or popup window or interstitial. Hyperlinks are commonly identified through the use of an underline and/or color coding, e.g., HYPERLINK, but this is not necessarily required or desired. Hyperlinks may be activated by any applicable means, including, but not limited to, left or right clicking on or near the link, placing a pointer on or near the link (briefly, temporarily or not), touching the area, e.g., via use of a touch screen or other pointing mechanism, and/or automatically, e.g., based upon date or time, or other action or inaction of the end user. For example, in some situations, failure to respond within a given timeframe may cause execution or delay of execution of a hyperlink. A hyperlink may be associated with other hyperlinks, e.g., hyperlinks within hyperlinks, documents, programs, words, phrases, or other information or actions. For example, if an end user right clicks on a hyperlink, one or more options may appear, permitting the end user some degree of flexibility in the action or actions taken. The terms link and hyperlink shall have corollary meanings.
[0224] Information Disclosure Statement (IDS)-includes the definition provided by the
United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
[0225] IDS Report-includes a document that references all prior art material associated with a patent application or invention disclosure
[0226] Image-includes figures, pictures, drawings, document images, e.g., document snapshots, etc.
[0227] Improvement Module-includes a sub module that is embedded in a total system that is used to improve upon the total system or other sub modules embedded in that system.
[0228] Keyword - includes any word or words that are identified as being "of interest."
A keyword may be of interest because it is a word that generally helps to describe the content of the document in which it is used, or for other reasons.
[0229] Lexicon-includes a group of words with corresponding definitions that is broken into classes and subclasses that are associated with the class and subclass of documents in a database such as the digital database of filed and or issued patents of the
USPTO
[0230] Mapping-includes the process of associating documents to one another and providing a visual representation of the relationships of those documents.
[0231] Merchant - includes any person that desires to sell a good or service or desires to have one or more end users to review, select, or click a hyperlink in a document and/or receive other information and/or perform other tasks and/or receive information associated with one or more keywords selected by such merchant.
[0232] Notes - includes any computer file or data or any free form or other text, graphics, figures and/or any files such as any audio, video, e.g., JPEG or MPEG, pictures, e.g., GIF, or other files, such as, PDF, XLS, XML, TXT, DOC, RTF, or any other known files such as those described on the websites: http://filext.com/ and http://www.computeruser.com/resources/dictionary/filetypes.html, which are incorporated herein by reference. Notes may be attached or associated with any one or more of the following, any electronic element, word or words, phrase, document, figure, hyperlink, webpage, database, table, file, or any other electronic media. Notes may include any description, hyperlink, figure, document or file associated or attached to any of the forgoing and/or any combination of the forgoing. In certain embodiments, notes may contain or refer or reference other notes, e.g., notes within notes. Exemplary methods to provide attachment of notes into documents and/or associate notes with documents, or words, or other data are disclosed in US Patent Application Nos.
11/690,095 "Facilitating Certified Prior Art Note Taking and Method for Using Same," filed March 22, 2007; 11/697,480 entitled "Note Overlay System," filed April 6, 2007; and 11/697,486 entitled "Document Examiner Comment System," filed April 6, 2007; each of which is incorporated herein by reference.
[0233] Patent Application-includes an invention disclosure that has been filed with a registration entity such as the USPTO
[0234] Patent Application Drafting Tool-includes a web based software program that assists in the drafting and filing of patent applications with a registration entity such as the USPTO. An exemplary patent application drafting tool is described in U.S. Patent
Application No. 11/627,263, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
[0235] Patent Drafting Engine-includes a software module that can partially or completely draft and/or modify an existing draft patent application and/or file those applications with a registration entity such as the USPTO.
[0236] Patent Figure-includes any figure or document attached to a patent application
[0237] Patent Section-includes any section of a patent application or invention disclosure such as the background, summary, title, abstract and or claims.
[0238] Patentability Score-includes a score assigned by one or more people, e.g., an end user, or computer programs to a patent application that relate to its strength of patentability in categories such as novelty, obviousness, and usefulness.
[0239] Plug-in - includes any software application or module or one or more computer instructions, which may or may not be in communication with other software applications or modules, and may include any file, image, graphic, icon, audio, video or any other attachment. Plug-ins may be comprised of any one or more set of computer instructions using any computer programming language.
[0240] Relevancy-includes how relevant a word, phrase, patent section, patent figure or document is to another word, phrase, patent section, patent figure or document
[0241] Rules - includes computer instructions that can provide application direction and/or decision making and includes both inference and reactive rules. Rules may include permissions, limitations, method steps, alert event conditions, alert contents, workflow instructions, security measures, business process management instructions, if/then/else instructions and/or any supporting data, variables, or computing instructions and/or logic.
[0242] Rules Based - includes any system or application or module that uses or relies on one or more rules.
[0243] Search Relevancy-includes how relevant sections of a document are to a word, phrase, patent section, patent figure, or document are when producing search results for a query. For example, the abstract of a patent document can have higher search relevancy than the background of a patent document when conducting prior art searches using a prior art search software tool.
[0244] Search Weight-shall mean the score that one section of a document has to other sections of a document when conducting searches against a database of documents in which that document is included.
[0245] Subclass-includes a subclass of patent documents as defined by the USPTO.
Subclass can also include any sub classification of a database of electronic documents.
[0246] Synonym - is any word or group of words that have the same or similar meaning of another word or group of words and/or that may be interchangeable. The opposite of synonym is antonym.
[0247] Thesaurus-includes an electronic database of words that have been mapped to indicate similarities in word definitions. The thesaurus may be broken into classes and subclasses that relate to the classes and subclasses of documents stored in an electronic database and/or accessed via such database [0248] Virtual - includes anything that is not real, in whole or in part, and/or anything real, in whole or in part; which may be simulated, represented, presented or depicted in a virtual environment, video game or displayed on a screen.
[0249] Virtual Environment - any technology that permits one or more end users to interact with a real, imaginary or virtual computer simulated environment.
[0250] Virtual World - includes a world created in an online game such as World of
Warcraft, or a virtual community such as Second Life, Eve or There.com
[0251] Video Game-shall mean any massive multi online player game such as World of Warcraft and any virtual world such as Second Life
[0252] Web page - includes any resource, form, or any information that is accessible via the Internet and that is suitable or exists on the world wide web. A web page usually includes information in any applicable format, e.g., HTML or XHTML. Web pages may include hyperlinks or provide other means of navigation to other web pages. Web pages may be accessed by any applicable means, including, but not limited to: any computing or internet enabled devices, e.g., personal computers, laptops, PDAs, cell phones, video game controllers, or any other communications device, which may be local or remote to the computer or server where such web page(s) may exist or reside.
[0253] Word - includes one or more groups of letters including titles, indices, text, headings, descriptions, diagrams, etc., and documents (in whole or in part), phrases (i.e., groups of two or more words), synonyms, antonyms, icons, graphics, drawings, schematics, blueprints, pictures, audio and/or video, and/or any combination of the forgoing, The words "Word" and "Words" shall have corollary meanings.
[0254] Turning first to Fig. 1, a general system 100 is shown. System 100 is suitable for any of the below-described applications. As shown, the system includes one or more program modules 10, which are in electronic communication with one or more databases 20. Databases 20 may be hosted on the same server as program modules 20
(which themselves may or may not be hosted on the same server). Alternatively, some or all of databases 20 may be hosted on other or remote locations/servers.
[0255] According to one or more embodiments, the present invention provides an automated web-based patent application preparation and submission tool. In one embodiment, an end user can draft a patent application using an online tool. Once the patent application or portion thereof is created, the document can be submitted to: (i) a researcher for further research, (ii) a patent attorney for further drafting, or (iii) the patent office.
[0195] The information submitted into the tool may be analyzed automatically and/or in real time by the system in order to perform various functions. For example, based on the information submitted, the system can recommend alternate language for sections or draft missing parts of the total patent application. For the purposes of the present disclosure, information is considered to be analyzed automatically any time it is analyzed by the system with the system having to receive additional input, such as a request or command, from the user. It will be appreciated, that computer implemented systems are subject to various operating constraints, such as server loads, processing speeds, and the like, with which those of skill in the art will be familiar and, accordingly, "real time" analysis may not necessarily be instantaneous, but is rather intended to mean that results are automatically provided to the user as soon as they are available, given the various system operating constraints.
[0196] Recommendations for alternate language or missing portions may be based on patent applications or other non-copyright protected publications describing similar inventions. For example, the system may use a genetic algorithm to determine like patent applications as the end user is entering the description of his invention. Because patent practitioners often act as their own lexicographers and coin new terminology to describe inventions, such new terminology can be shared immediately and made available to other patent practitioners. In this manner, the system can act as an ever changing virtual dictionary of language for new patent applications. An example of a genetic algorithm that can perform this function is the Semetric program offered by Engenium.
[0197] As another example, the system can perform real time prior art search based on the disclosure as the end user types words into the tool. The system could be configured to dynamically display the most relevant prior art choices based on the words and letters being typed. The prior art being displayed would then change in real time as the end user types in more words to describe the invention. It will be appreciated that such real time searching could be used for any type of searching and not just searching for prior art for inventions. [0198] Suggestions for alternate language and missing portions or prior art or other searches need not necessarily be performed in real time, but may also or alternatively be performed after a disclosure is submitted by the end user, for example in order to receive an initial review prior to filing, or only upon the end user's request. [0199] According to another embodiment, the system may utilize a genetic algorithm to specify a class and subclass for a patent application. The system may analyze an application in real time, or after it has been submitted, and determine the appropriate class and subclass. The genetic algorithm may or may not allow for the incorporation of classification data from previously submitted applications which are identified by the system or the end user as being similar to the current application. [0200] According to another embodiment, the system may track and/or identify information that is missing from the patent application that is required for filing the patent application with the patent office. The end user can review missing parts for a particular patent application and fill them in as desired. The end user can also leave missing information fields open for subsequent completion, for example, by researchers and/or patent practitioners.
[0201] According to another embodiment, one or more notes could be submitted by an end user or other individual in connection with a document, including, for example, an application as it is being drafted, a submitted or filed application, a patent publication, an issued patent, a non-patent reference, an office action, a examiner or practitioner communication, a judicial or review-board decision, or the like. These notes may or may not be viewable to other users and may or may not be used by the system for any suitable purpose, including, for example, preparation or examination of the present application, preparation or examination of other applications, system maintenance, and the collection and dissemination of statistical information. Moreover, notes may or may not be submitted in response to additions, suggestions, or notes from the system or other individuals. Any suitable type of file, including, but not limited to a jpg, digital video, recording, voice message, or textual document could be added to or associated with a document as a note.
[0202] As a non-limiting example, an end user may add notes to the alternate language and missing portion suggestions provided to or by the system. These notes can be used by the genetic algorithm to generate improved alternate language and missing portion suggestions for later invention submissions by the same and/or other end users. Moreover, these notes could be readable by subsequent end users and could be used to assist in the drafting of later patent applications.
[0203] According to another embodiment, the present disclosure provides for a system in which a practitioner can elect from between multiple post-drafting processing options. The system may or may not require that the application have been drafted using a web-based drafting tool such as that described above. According to this embodiment, once an end user has completed drafting a patent application, the end-user can select whether he wants to:
1. Submit the patent application to a researcher
2. Submit the patent application to an attorney for further drafting
3. Submit the patent application to the Patent Office for filing
[0204] In an alternate embodiment, the system can recommend one of the previous three choices to an end user based on the current status of an application. According to this embodiment, the system analyzes the patent application document and compares it to previously filed patent applications. The patent application is scored and the system determines whether the application should be sent to a researcher, an attorney, or to the patent office.
[0205] If the end user elects to submit the patent application to a researcher, the system can select or suggest an optimal researcher from its database of researchers based on inventions researched by those researchers and the relevance of those inventions to the invention currently being submitted by the end user. Alternatively or additionally, the system could select or suggest a researcher based on whether a particular researcher has capacity to conduct research on the patent application. If the end user is allowed to select a researcher, a list of applicable researchers could be provided to the user by the system. The list could be sorted or sortable based on relevancy, expected timeframe for research completion, cost, location, or other factors.
[0206] As a further embodiment, if the end user is allowed to select a researcher, researchers could bid on the opportunity to research the patent application. Bids could include any number of relevant factors including but not limited to, cost for research, type of fee rate (i.e. flat fee, hourly, etc.), type and extent of results provided, and timeframe for returning results. [0207] Moreover, the system could be configured to provide to the end user contact information for each selected or suggested researcher. The end user could then contact the selected or suggested researcher via the system interface and submit the patent application to the researcher for review. A contract can be set up, i.e., drafted and executed automatically, between the end user and the patent researcher using the system. [0208] According to an embodiment, the researcher receives the patent application, creates a research report, and submits the research report to the end user. The research report may be submitted to the end user via the central system. According to some embodiments, the end user can review the prior art cited in the research report and rate its relevance to the invention disclosed. The relevance rankings can be used to match that researcher to subsequent patent applications. The end user can also submit notes distinguishing the application over the prior art cited and/or alter the application, such as to include distinguishing language.
[0209] According to an embodiment, the system may be configured to facilitate fee transactions between the end user and the researcher. The system may or may not impose a surcharge for facilitating the fee transactions. For example, once an application has been submitted to a researcher, the system may charge the researcher with a finder's fee. The system could also charge the end user with a researcher finder fee, or, the two parties could split a single fee. Alternatively the system could charge the researcher, who, in turn could charge the end user some, or all, of the fee amount. Alternatively or additionally, once the report has been received by the end user, a research report fee can be charged to the end user and some or all of the fee can be remitted to the researcher. [0210] Alternatively or additionally, the system may be configured to submit the application to an automated searching program configured to produce search results using, for example, a genetic algorithm search program. A genetic algorithm search program is described, for example, previously incorporated U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 11/462/621, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60/727,191. [0211] If the end user elects to submit the patent application to an attorney (or agent) for additional drafting, the system can determine an optimal attorney from its database of attorneys. The determination may be based on any number of factors including, for example, estimated fee, past applications filed by the attorney, attorney's capacity, estimated turn-around, etc. For example, the system may be configured to identify past inventions/applications filed and prosecuted by attorneys in the database and further determine the relevance of those inventions to the invention currently being submitted by the end user.
[0212] Moreover, attorneys may be asked or required to provide the system with information regarding their fees for preparation including billing rates and fees for past applications, current availability, estimated turn-around time, contact information, etc. Accordingly, the system can select or suggest an attorney based on such information. For example, a given attorney may be selected or suggested based on whether or not the system determines that attorney has capacity to assist the inventor in enhancing the application. Once one or more attorneys are selected by the system or the end user, the system can provide the attorneys' contact information to the end user using any suitable method. According to one embodiment, the end user may receive an attorney's contact information via the web-based form.
[0213] Furthermore, the end user may be able to automatically submit the patent application to the attorney via the web-based service. The attorney may then review the application for further refinement. Changes, additions, and alterations made by the attorney may be tracked by the system. Once the attorney has completed the application, the end user may be able to log in or otherwise access the completed application via the system to order to review and approve changes made by the attorney to the application. [0214] If the end-user is not completely satisfied with the changes made by the first attorney, the application, with or without the first attorney's changes, may be submitted to a second attorney and such process repeated until the end-user is satisfied with the application. Once final approval is received from the end-user, the patent application can be submitted to the patent office by the system.
[0215] The determination of an appropriate attorney may be made at the time the end user opts to submit the draft application to an attorney or while the end user is drafting the application. Moreover, rather than waiting until the end user believes he has "finished" the application, the end user may be able to contact the attorney via the system while drafting the application. For example, while the end user is entering the patent application data into the system, the system can determine an appropriate attorney and offer the opportunity to provide the end user with real time chat with the attorney, if the end user accepts, a chat window is opened between the end user and attorney via the central system. The end user can provide patent application data and the attorney can add and edit the data. When the session is complete, the system can charge a fee to the end user and submit a portion of that fee to the attorney. The recorded chat session is attached to the patent application file.
[0216] The system may be configured to facilitate fee transactions and contract formation between the attorney and the end-user. The system may or may not impose a surcharge for such facilitation. For example, when an end user contacts an attorney, a finder's fee can be charged to both the attorney and the end user. Furthermore the system may facilitate with the drafting and execution of a contract between the end user and attorney specifying terms and conditions so that the attorney can complete the application. The system may or may not utilize a standard contract which may or may not be modifiable by the end user and/or the attorney. Once the attorney's changes are made, the system may be configured to charge the fee specified by the contract to the end user for enhancing the patent application and submit some or all of the fee to the attorney.
[0217] Once the end user elects to submit the patent application to the patent office, the system may be configured to determine if all information fields have been completed. Once the system has determined that all information fields have been completed, the system generates the appropriate forms, and submits the patent application, along with the appropriate forms to the patent office. An electronic receipt confirmation is received from the patent office and stored by the central system as well as being transmitted to the end user. The central system charges a filing fee to the end user and remits a portion of that fee to the patent office. If all fields have not been completed, the system steps the applicant through each open field, providing examples and information about each field, its use, etc.
[0218] According to a further embodiment, the system may be configured to time stamp the patent application file as additions are made by the various parties who can access it. Moreover, the system could time and date stamp and store all files that are entered into the system and so that a record of the invention is maintained. [0219] According to yet another embodiment, the end user may be allowed to determine whether or not an application filed with the system is to be treated as public or private data. If the filed application is be treated as public data, and thus useful as prior art against other inventions, the end user may further be allowed to identify the application as an invention registration rather than as an application. Just like a filed patent application, an invention registration can be assigned a filing date and used as prior art against later filed applications, but may not be subjected to further examination. [0220] An end user preparing a patent application may desire to get into contact with other end users that are preparing or have prepared other similar patent applications. Accordingly, the system of the present disclosure may be configured to facilitate communication between end users who are or have worked on similar patent applications. According to this embodiment, when the system receives patent application data from an end user, the system may perform a search to find other end users that are working or have worked on similar patent applications and allow the end users to communicate with one another. Such communication may or may not be anonymous. According to one example, the system receives patent application data from an end user and then uses that patent application data to search against other end user profiles in the system. The system generates a list of end user profiles that are relevant to the patent application data and scores them based on relevance. The system then outputs the list of relevant end users to the end user submitting the patent application data. According to some embodiments, end users may be able to opt in to or out of being a member of this service.
[0221 ] The system may require the use of a user ID and password associated with a specific log in profile or other mechanism to protect privacy and ensure that end users are accessing only the information they are entitled to access. For example, a given user may only be given access to or receive help from applications written by himself, other members of his firm or corporation, other applications for the same inventor or assignee, or other practioners who have opted in to a program. In cases where an end user is an entity with multiple individuals who access the system, each individual may have the same or a separate log in profile.
[0222] In addition to a formal web browser interface, the system may incorporate a smaller interface, like a toolbar on a browser or a freestanding toolbar / text field that floats, and/or is hidden but present as an icon (e.g., in the bottom right hand corner in Windows XP). For example, a text field may be ever present on the screen. A user may be able to type a patent number, application number, attorney docket number, etc (along with any necessary password, confirmation number or the like), hit enter and be automatically directed to a search results screen, draft history screen, prosecution history screen, or some other desirable location.
[0223] In a further embodiment, the system may be configured to make new matter added as part of a continuation in part (CIP) or other application easily identifiable. For example, new matter could be red-lined, highlighted, or otherwise identified by altering the font or in some other recognizable manner as the application is being prepared, or at the time of submission or filing.
[0224] Furthermore, any of the processes described above, such as generation of suggested language, suggested researchers, and suggested attorneys could be performed for the new material. As a further embodiment, a new search request or automated research report could be automatically generated for the new subject matter in the CIP. [0225] According to yet another embodiment, the system may be configured to ensure that all submissions for filing comply with any formalities requirements. For example, the system may ensure that all submitted figures fall within the current guidelines for margins size, line thickness, font size, etc. Such compliance may be determined each time a submission is made, whether an initial filing, response to an office action, filing of a continuation, divisional, continuation-in-part of the like. [0226] According to yet another embodiment, the system could generate a clarity score for the patent application. An AI system could be trained to identify patent applications that clearly define an invention vs. applications that do not. End Users and patent examiners could provide a clarity rating for prior art. Based on the ratings assigned, an AI system can analyze newly filed patent applications and assign clarity scores to them.
[0227] The system can be built using any suitable architectural method.
Examples of suitable architectural methods include, but are not necessarily limited to: 1) a simple, table based method 2) a rules based system or 3) an artificial intelligence (AI) system such as Neural Net, or Bayesian Algorithm.
[0228] Those having skill in the art will recognize that there is little distinction between hardware and software implementations. The use of hardware or software is generally a choice of convenience or design based on the relative importance of speed, accuracy, flexibility and predictability. There are therefore various vehicles by which processes and/or systems described herein can be effected (e.g., hardware, software, and/or firmware) and that the preferred vehicle will vary with the context in which the technologies are deployed.
[0229] At least a portion of the devices and/or processes described herein can be integrated into a data processing system with a reasonable amount of experimentation. Those having skill in the art will recognize that a typical data processing system generally includes one or more of a system unit housing, a video display device, memory, processors, operating systems, drivers, graphical user interfaces, and application programs, interaction devices such as a touch pad or screen, and/or control systems including feedback loops and control motors. A typical data processing system may be implemented utilizing any suitable commercially available components to create the gaming environment described herein.
[0230] Accordingly, the presently described system may comprise a plurality of various hardware and/or software components. An exemplary system 100' is shown in Fig. 2 and described below. However, it will be understood that a nearly unlimited number of variations are possible and that such description is intended to provide a non- limiting example of an implementation that could be utilized but should not be used to define the entire scope of the invention.
[0231] Accordingly, a system 100' configured to perform the various functions described above may incorporate a number of software modules configured to perform various tasks. Exemplary software modules useful for the presently-described system include:
1. User interface 102 - this program allows the end user to interface with system 100'.
2. Patent Words and Phrases Dictionary Program 104 -this program generates like words and word phrases based on patent application text entered by an end user. These words and phrases may then be stored in a database such as Patent Words and Phrases Database 124, described below.
3. Patent Application Text Enhancement Program 106 - this program identifies words and phrases in an end user's patent application and associates these words and phrases with alternative words and phrases from the patent words and phrases dictionary program 104.
4. Web Based Filing Program 108 - this program allows patent applications to be created and electronically filed with the patent office.
5. Profile Score Generation Program 110 -this program scores the relevance of end users to one another and to patent applications and prior art.
[0232] System 100' may further include a number of databases configured to store and associate the various types of data that are used by the system to perform the functions described above. Exemplary databases useful for the presently-described system include: [0233] End User Database 112, which may store and associate data such as:
1. End User ID
2. End User Name
3. End User Address
4. End User Contact Info
5. End User Billing Info
6. Profile Score ID
[0234] Patent Application Database 114, which may store and associate data such as:
1. Patent Application ID Number
2. End User ID
3. Patent Application Title
4. Patent Application Abstract
5. Patent Application Description/Specification
6. Patent Application Invention Class and Sub Class
7. Patent Application Inventor Name
8. Patent Application Inventor City
9. Patent Application Inventor State
10. Patent Application Inventor Country
11. Patent Application Attorney or Agent 12. Patent Application PCT Information
13. Patent Application Date of Invention
14. Patent Application Background of the invention
15. Patent Application Invention Figures
16. Patent Application Assignee Name
17. Patent Application Assignee City
18. Patent Application Assignee State
19. Patent Application Assignee Country
20. Patent Application Claims
21. Patent Application Search ID
22. Patent Application Researcher
23. Patent Application Filing Date
24. Patent Application Status
25. Profile Score ID
26. Published/Unpublished Flag
[0235] Patent Application Status Database 116, which may store and associate data such as:
1. Patent Application Registered
2. Submitted to manual Search
3. Manual Search Received
4. Submitted to Attorney
5. Attorney Review Complete
6. Submitted to Formal Search
7. Formal Search Complete
8. Received Distinguishing Language Over Prior Art
9. Filed
10. Patent Examiner Review
11. Response to Examiner Review
12. Patent Abandoned
13. Final Rej ection
14. Patent Issued
[0236] Attorney Database 118, which may store and associate data such as: 1. Attorney ID
2. Attorney Name
3. Attorney Address
4. Attorney Billing Info
5. Profile Score ID
[0237] Prior Art Database 120, which may store and associate data such as:
1. Prior Art ID
2. Prior Art Title
3. Prior Art Abstract
4. Prior Art Description/Specification
5. Prior Art Invention Class and Sub Class
6. Prior Art Inventor Name
7. Prior Art Inventor City
8. Prior Art Inventor State
9. Prior Art Inventor Country
10. Prior Art Attorney or Agent
11. Prior Art PCT Information
12. Prior Art Date of Invention
13. Prior Art Background of the invention
14. Prior Art Invention Figures
15. Prior Art Assignee Name
16. Prior Art Assignee City
17. Prior Art Assignee State
18. Prior Art Assignee Country
19. Prior Art Claims
20. Profile Score ID
21. Related Prior Art Notes IDs 1 -N
22. Prior Art Search Score
23. Published/Unpublished Flag
[0238] Prior Art Note Database 122, which may store and associate data such as:
1. Note ID
2. End User ID(s) 3. Patent Application ID
4. Prior Art ID(s)
5. Note Title
6. Note Description
7. Note Class
8. Note Subclass
9. Note Keyword(s) 1-N
10. Profile Score ID
[0239] Patent Words and Phrases Dictionary Database 124, which may store and associate data such as:
1. Word ID
2. Word
3. Like Words 1-N
4. Common phrases using word or like words 1-N
5. Used in Patents 1-N
6. Profile Score ID
[0240] Researcher Database 126, which may store and associate data such as:
1. Researcher ID
2. Researcher Name
3. Researcher Address
4. Researcher Billing Info
5. Profile Score ID
[0241] Researcher Queue 128, which may store and associate data such as:
1. Researcher ID
2. Patent Application ID
3. Patent Application Queue Number
[0242] Certified Search Database 130, which may store and associate data such as:
1. Search ID
2. Patent Application ID
3. Prior Art ID 1-N
4. Distinguishing Language Over Prior Art 1-N 5. Prior Art Score
6. Novelty Score
7. Usefulness Score
8. Non-obvious Score
9. Search Score
10. Clarity Score
[0243] Profile Database 132, which may store and associate data such as:
1. Profile Score ID
2. Profile Type
3. Patent Class 1 -N
4. Patent Subclass 1 -N
[0244] End User Profile 134, which may store and associate data such as:
1. Profile Score ID
2. Patent Application(s) Class 1 -N
3. Patent Application(s) Sub Class 1-N
4. Invention Keywords 1-N
[0245] Profile Type Database 136, which may store and associate data such as:
1. End User
2. Attorney
3. Researcher
4. Word
5. Patent Application
6. Prior Art
[0246] Transaction Database 138, which may store and associate data such as:
1. Transaction ID
2. Transaction Date
3. Transaction Type
4. End User ID (1-N)
5. Researcher ID (1-N)
6. Attorney ID (1-N)
7. Transaction Amount [0247] Transaction Type and Fee Database 140, which may store and associate data such as:
1. Transaction Type
2. Transaction Fee (1 -N)
3. Fee Applied to Account Type (1-N)
[0248] Accordingly, a system such as that described herein will be configured to perform various functions, such as those described above, by performing various method steps in order to accomplish one or more given tasks. Non- limiting examples of methods that may be performed by a system and the steps that the system may execute in order to perform these methods are described below: [0249] Draft initial patent application:
1. Receive patent application information
2. Receive request for alternate language and missing part suggestions
3. Determine similar patent applications and prior art
4. Determine alternate language and missing portion suggestions based on similar applications
5. Output alternate language and missing portion suggestions
6. Receive patent application modifications based on alternate language and missing portion suggestions
[0250] Specify class and subclass:
1. Receive patent application data
2. Determine patent class and subclass based on patent application data
3. Assign class and subclass to patent application based on data received.
[0251] Enhance alternate language and missing portion suggestions based on user input
1. Output alternate language and missing portion suggestions based on patent application information
2. Receive relevance score and/or notes on alternate language and missing portion suggestions
3. Store relevance score and/or notes with patent applications and prior art for subsequent use. (Note: the scores can take into account both the prior art and the current invention being submitted, so that the relevance can be determined for later patent applications that are similar to the current application being filed.) [0252] Submit initial application to researcher
1. Receive patent application from end user
2. Receive request to send application to researcher
3. Determine researcher based on patent application, researcher history, and researcher availability
4. Output researcher contact information
5. Receive request to submit application to researcher
6. Submit application to researcher
7. Bill end user account a researcher finders fee
8. Bill researcher account a finder's fee
9. Receive a completed research report
10. Submit report to end user
11. Bill end user account for completed report
12. Remit payment to researcher for completed report. [0253] Rate Researcher based on Research Report Feedback
1. Submit research report to end user
2. Receive feedback for prior art cited in research report
3. Store feedback with prior art cited for subsequent search matches
4. Receive feedback for researcher
5. Store feedback with researcher record for subsequent search matches [0254] Submit initial application to attorney for completion
1. Receive patent application from end user
2. Receive request to send application to attorney
3. Determine attorney based on patent application, attorney history, and attorney availability
4. Output attorney contact information
5. Receive request to submit application to attorney
6. Submit application to attorney
7. Bill attorney account a finder's fee 8. Bill end user account an attorney finder's fee
9. Receive completed application
10. Notify end user application has been received [0255] Submit application to patent office
1. Receive patent application
2. Determine if there are missing parts
3. Output list of missing parts
4. If there are no missing parts, generate appropriate filing forms
5. Submit application to patent office
6. Bill end user account a filing fee
7. Remit filing fee to patent office
8. Receive notice from patent office that application was received
9. Store notice and output notice to end user.
[0256] Submit application to central system for time and date stamp
1. Receive patent application data
2. Receive indication that patent application should be submitted for a disclosure date
3. Time and Date stamp patent application data
4. Receive request to make patent application data public or private
5. Store patent application data with time stamp and public or private flag.
[0257] Find like inventors
1. Receive Patent Application Data
2. Search Patent Application Data against End User Profiles
3. Determine relevant end user profiles
4. Score relevant end user profiles
5. Output end user profiles in order of their scores
[0143] According to one further embodiment, a system is provided wherein prior art searches for patent-related document are automatically generated. An end user can submit a patent application to a central system, for example via the web-based form described above. Of course it will be appreciated that this system could be implemented using any standard mechanism for submitting a patent application and that known methods, such as scanning and OCR, can be used to turn applications submitted in paper form into electronic applications which can then be entered into the presently described system.
[0144] Once the patent application is submitted, the system uses a genetic algorithm or other similar mechanism to automatically identify relevant prior art. The system may output the prior art in order of its relevancy. Relative relevancy may be determined based on a score generated by the system. The end user may also be able to review the identified prior art and rate its relevance to the patent application submitted. [0145] The end user can also submit notes about related to the identified prior art. The submitted notes and relevance rating are stored with the prior art and may be used as criteria on subsequent patent application searches. Over time prior art is given a stand-alone relevance score and a relevance score for each patent application in which it was cited. Relevance may be based on any number of suitable factors which may be determined solely by the system and/or may be determined by the end-user's actions. For example, if the end-user ultimately includes a prior art reference found and presented by the system, that particular piece of prior art may be assumed to have been relevant. If the end-user decides not to include a particular prior art reference that has been found by the system, that piece of prior art may or may not be considered not to be relevant.
[0146] The end user can elect to save the search results with the patent application. The end user can also write language to distinguish the patent application over the prior art search results and/or amend the claims of the patent application to distinguish over the prior art cited. Any language in the patent application that is added, altered, or deleted by the end user in response to the automated search results may be identified by the system as an "amendment" to the application. The central system can certify the search results as being unaltered by the end user, and the patent application and any "amendments" can be submitted along with the certified search results to the patent office for filing.
[0147] As a further embodiment, the system can be used to generate the first office action for a patent application. The automated search results are treated as the first office action. The "amendments" submitted by the end user in response to the automated prior art search can be treated as a response to the first office action. The automated search results along with the end user's "amendments," notes, and comments can then be submitted to an examiner, who can then develop a second office action. The system could therefore be used to automate an entire step of the patent filing and issuance process.
[0148] When the application is published and/or issued, the system could then display the end user's notes to future applicants, whose applications include the same or similar prior art, i.e., to assist them in distinguishing their invention over the same or similar prior art. For example, an end user's notes may identify that a particular invention is not enabled or a particular combination is not obvious. These types of comments could then be useful to other practitioners, particularly if a given argument was found to be persuasive by an examiner.
[0149] In another embodiment, the automated search tool described herein can also be used to find prior art on issued patents. The end user submits the issued patent to the system and the system finds the most relevant prior art with a date prior to the filing date of the submitted issued patent. The system can assemble the prior art on each issued patent in real time, i.e. when the prior art request is submitted. Alternatively, the system can classify issued patents with prior art all the time and have pre-assembled search reports available on issued patents. The central system can certify the search results so that they can be used by multiple parties who can use them as the basis for invalidating a patent or determining the novelty of an issued patent. The system maintains a database of all searches and search results for any issued patents, and for any new searches for the pending application. This information helps the system to determine a relevancy score, i.e., if another applicant uses the same or similar search, the results, prior art, notes, etc., from the first application could be available to any subsequent application.
[0150] Regardless of whether the system is used to search a patent application or an issued patent, the system can generate a novelty score of the document over the prior art it cites as relevant. The novelty score can be generated by the system based on how close the prior art cited comes to disclosing the invention disclosed in the document submitted by the end user.
[0151] Researchers can use manual searching or other automated search engines to complete any search, this may be especially useful when the system is new and just beginning to build a prior art database. The researchers can then enter or list any relevant prior art and, optionally, assign their own relevancy score. This data would be used to train the system to conduct and enhance its own searches. Additionally the system could pay attorneys and researchers to provide this feedback. The feedback could be ranked by comparing it to the feedback from other end users. Researchers and Attorneys who provided the most relevant feedback could be paid the greatest fees. [0152] According to yet another embodiment, end users can submit prior art to a confidential database where it can be used as prior art for newly submitted patent applications, but it remains unpublished. Patent examiners can access such prior art and use it to distinguish over submitted patent applications. The search system can use the unpublished prior art and cite is as references to newly submitted patent applications. The search system can additionally generate novelty scores for the newly submitted patent applications based on the unpublished prior art. Should an examiner cite unpublished prior art as a reason for not issuing a patent, the end user can request at least one second opinion from another examiner.
[0153] End users can also submit unpublished prior art as prior art for an issued patent. The system can use the unpublished prior art to generate a novelty score for the issued patent. Patent examiners can review the issued patent in light of the unpublished prior art and determine if the patent can remain valid. In this manner, file wrappers for issued patents can continue to grow after a patent has issued. The ever-growing file wrapper can be used to determine the value of a patent for licensing purposes. An issued patent with a low novelty score can have a lower licensing value then an issued patent with a higher novelty score.
[0154] The system can search both public and unpublished prior art. In the case of public prior art, the system can cite references and output them to the end user. (And can, optionally, insert references in the end user's application). In the case of unpublished prior art, the system can generate a novelty score and certify the search results. The end user can elect to continue filing the patent based on the novelty score. The unpublished, certified results can be reviewed by a patent examiner in determining whether or not to issue a patent on the claimed invention.
[0155] As a non-limiting example, a piece of prior art may be determined to be relevant based on: 1. The number and use of similar phrases, or words or synonyms in the patent application and the prior art
2. The relevance score that prior art has been given to patent applications similar to the current application.
3. The number of times a piece of prior art has been cited in patent applications in the same field, class, and subclass of the patent application.
4. The relevance of the prior art to other patent applications previously filed by the end user in the class and sub class of the patent application
5. Common attorney or agent between the patent application and the prior art.
6. The relationship of the end user of the patent application to the end users that are inventors, attorneys, or assignees of the prior art.
7. Information found in one or more invention fields may be considered during the automated prior art search. Non-limiting examples of invention fields that may be considered suitable for review during the invention search include: i. Title ii. Abstract iii. Issue Date iv. Patent Number v. Application date vi. Application Serial Number vii. Application Type viii. Assignee Name ix. Assignee City x. Assignee State xi. Assignee Country xii. International Classification xiii. Current US Classification xiv. Primary Examiner xv. Assistant Examiner xvi. Inventor Name xvii. Inventor City xviii. Inventor State xix. Inventor Country xx. Government Interest xxi. Attorney or Agent xxii. PCT Information xxiii. Foreign Priority xxiv. Reissue Data xxv. Related US App Data xxvi. Referenced By xxvii. Foreign References xxviii. Other References xxix. Claims xxx. Description/Specification
[0156] As a further embodiment, as patent application data is entered, the system could determine relevant prior art and output results in real time via the web- based application. Prior art could be incorporated into the patent application as the application is being drafted. (Output formats could be a simple listing, sorted or unsorted in order of relevancy, tree structure, showing links, or a "web" mapping, showing links among all patents and other prior art, published or otherwise). [0157] If an end user indicates that a particular prior art reference cited is particularly relevant to the patent application, the system can retrieve prior art that is relevant to the prior art reference in real time and display it to the end user either automatically or by request. As end-users indicate manual relevancy scores, the system could weight that information based upon the end-user's role (applicant, researcher, and attorney) and/or based upon their proven ability to effectively score in the past. All end- users can score each other's performance, which may also affect the system's weighting of such scores (individually and collectively).
[0158] As the end-user is typing in a search term or phrase, the system could simultaneously: a) retrieve the relevant prior art, continuously updating the list as the search term or phrase is changed or completed and b) offer up completed terms or phrases that are similar (i.e., past searches) or relevant to the current search. In other words, multiple search windows could open up on the end user desktop showing completed search phrases that might be of interest to the current searcher. These searches could also be displayed based upon relevancy and/or how recent the search was submitted and/or popularity, i.e., how often it has been used.
[0159] The system could build up a profile for each user that helps the system better understand the type of patent applications that a given user files, searches on, etc.
So that the system would know that, for example, an end user files a lot of process patents and very few devices. Mostly software related, etc. This information could aid any of the online tools and search engines to place a higher priority on the most applicable prior art, suggestions, etc.
[0160] The system could highlight the relevant sections of prior with different colors to reflect the degree of potential infringement. The end user and patent examiner can add feedback to the cited prior art reference to indicate whether the reference was flagged with the appropriate color. This feedback could be used by an artificial intelligence algorithm to improve the generation of relevant prior art for subsequent searches.
[0161] End users and patent examiners can add notes to a patent application or prior art reference. Such notes could be presented in any suitable form including, for example, in the form of a rollover pop up window.
[0162] Keyword analysis can determine the common use of rare vs. common words in two documents. Common words can then be discarded. The matching of rare words between documents could affect the relevance score between the documents.
[0163] In another embodiment, the results of a search may be based both on the invention being submitted and previous inventions submitted by the end user.
[0164] The system can be built using any suitable architectural method.
Examples of suitable architectural methods include, but are not necessarily limited to: 1) a simple, table based method 2) a rules based system or 3) an artificial intelligence (AI) system such as Neural Net, or Bayesian Algorithm.
[0165] Those having skill in the art will recognize that there is little distinction between hardware and software implementations. The use of hardware or software is generally a choice of convenience or design based on the relative importance of speed, accuracy, flexibility and predictability. There are therefore various vehicles by which processes and/or systems described herein can be effected (e.g., hardware, software, and/or firmware) and that the preferred vehicle will vary with the context in which the technologies are deployed.
[0166] At least a portion of the devices and/or processes described herein can be integrated into a data processing system with a reasonable amount of experimentation. Those having skill in the art will recognize that a typical data processing system generally includes one or more of a system unit housing, a video display device, memory, processors, operating systems, drivers, graphical user interfaces, and application programs, interaction devices such as a touch pad or screen, and/or control systems including feedback loops and control motors. A typical data processing system may be implemented utilizing any suitable commercially available components to create the gaming environment described herein.
[0167] Accordingly, the presently described system may comprise a plurality of various hardware and/or software components. A suitable exemplary system 10 is shown in Fig. 3. However, it will be understood that a nearly unlimited number of variations are possible and that such description is intended to provide a non-limiting example of an implementation that could be utilized but should not be used to define the entire scope of the invention.
[0168] Accordingly, a system 10 configured to perform the various functions described above may incorporate a number of software modules configured to perform various tasks. Exemplary software modules useful for the presently-described system include:
1. Certified Search Program 12 -This program conducts an AI prior art search for a submitted patent application and links the search results to a patent application
2. Novelty Score Program 14 -This program generates a novelty score of a patent application as they relate to the certified search results.
3. Generate End User Profile Program 16 -this program generates an end user profile based on patent applications submitted by an end user. [0169] System 10 may further include a number of databases configured to store and associate the various types of data that are used by the system to perform the functions described above. Exemplary databases useful for the presently-described system include: [0170] End User Database 18 a. End User ID b. End User Name c. End User Address d. End User Contact Info e. End User Billing Info f. Profile Score ID [0171] Patent Application Database 20 a. Patent Application ID Number b. End User ID c. Patent Application Title d. Patent Application Abstract e. Patent Application Description/Specification f. Patent Application Invention Class and Sub Class g. Patent Application Inventor Name h. Patent Application Inventor City i. Patent Application Inventor State j . Patent Application Inventor Country k. Patent Application Attorney or Agent
1. Patent Application PCT Information m. Patent Application Date of Invention n. Patent Application Background of the invention o. Patent Application Invention Figures p. Patent Application Assignee Name q. Patent Application Assignee City r. Patent Application Assignee State s. Patent Application Assignee Country t. Patent Application Claims u. Patent Application Search ID v. Patent Application Researcher w. Patent Application Filing Date x. Patent Application Status y. Profile Score ID z. Published/Unpublished Flag
[0172] Patent Application Status Database 22 a. Patent Application Registered b. Submitted to Formal Search c. Formal Search Complete d. Received Distinguishing Language Over Prior Art e. Patent Application Filed f. Patent Examiner Review g. Response to Examiner Review h. Patent Abandoned i. Final Rejection j. Patent Issued [0173] Attorney Database 24 a. Attorney ID b. Attorney Name c. Attorney Address d. Attorney Billing Info e. Profile Score ID [0174] Prior Art Database 26 a. Prior Art ID b. Prior Art Title c. Prior Art Abstract d. Prior Art Description/Specification e. Prior Art Invention Class and Sub Class f. Prior Art Inventor Name g. Prior Art Inventor City h. Prior Art Inventor State i. Prior Art Inventor Country j . Prior Art Attorney or Agent k. Prior Art PCT Information
1. Prior Art Date of Invention m. Prior Art Background of the invention n. Prior Art Invention Figures
0. Prior Art Assignee Name p. Prior Art Assignee City q. Prior Art Assignee State r. Prior Art Assignee Country s. Prior Art Claims t. Profile Score ID u. Related Prior Art Notes IDs 1 -N v. Prior Art Search Score w. Published/Unpublished Flag [0175] Prior Art Note Database 28 a. Note ID b. End User ID(s) c. Patent Application ID d. Prior Art ID(s) e. Note Title f. Note Description g. Note Class h. Note Subclass
1. Note Keyword(s) 1-N j. Profile Score ID
[0176] Virtual Dictionary Database 30 a. Word ID b. Word c. Like Words 1-N d. Common phrases using word or like words 1-N e. Used in Patents 1-N f. Profile Score ID [0177] Certified Search Database 32 a. Search ID b. Patent Application ID c. Prior Art ID d. Novelty Score e. Usefulness Score f. Non-obvious Score g. Search Score
[0178] Distinguishing Language Database 34 a. Patent Application ID b. Prior Art ID c. Referenced Section of Prior Art ID d. Distinguishing Language over Referenced Section of Prior Art ID [0179] Profile Database 36 a. Profile Score ID b. Profile Type c. Patent Class 1 -N d. Patent Subclass 1 -N [0180] End User Profile 38 a. Profile Score ID b. Patent Application(s) Class 1 -N c. Patent Application(s) Sub Class 1-N d. Invention Keywords 1-N [0181] Profile Type Database 40 a. End User b. Attorney c. Word d. Patent Application e. Prior Art
[0182] Transaction Database (for search, novelty score, and filing fees) 42 a. Transaction ID b. Transaction Date c. Transaction Type d. End User ID (I-N) e. Transaction Amount
[0183] Transaction Type and Fee Database 44 a. Transaction Type b. Transaction Fee (1 -N) c. Fee Applied to Account Type (1-N)
[0184] Accordingly, a system such as that described herein will be configured to perform various functions, such as those described above, by performing various method steps in order to accomplish one or more given tasks. Non-limiting examples of methods that may be performed by a system and the steps that the system may execute in order to perform these methods are described below: [0185] Submit patent application and receive relevant search results
1. Receive patent application
2. Determine relevant prior art for patent application
3. Generate relevance score for each piece of relevant prior art
4. Sort relevant prior art in order of relevance score
5. Output sorted relevant prior art
6. Receive feedback on relevant prior art
7. Store feedback on relevant prior art with prior art record.
[0186] Receive distinguishing language of relevant prior art and submit patent application, relevant prior art, and distinguishing language to patent office
1. Receive patent application
2. Generate and Output relevant prior art
3. Receive distinguishing language of relevant prior art
4. Submit patent application, relevant prior art, and distinguishing language to patent office
[0187] Generate novelty score of patent application based on relevant prior art
1. Receive patent application
2. Determine relevant prior art for patent application
3. Generate novelty score for patent application based on relevant prior art 4. Output novelty score based on prior art
[0188] Generate end user profile
1. Receive patent application
2. Determine relevant prior art
3. Store relevant prior art with End User Profile
[0189] Determine relevant prior art based on end user profile and patent application data
1. Receive end user log in
2. Retrieve end user profile
3. Receive Patent Application
4. Determine relevant prior art for patent application based on patent application data and end user profile
5. Generate relevance score for each piece of relevant prior art based on patent application data and end user profile
6. Sort relevant prior art in order of relevance score
7. Output sorted relevant prior art
[0190] End User Rates Relevance of Prior Art Cited
1. Receive patent application data
2. Generate prior art based on application data
3. Output prior art based on application data
4. Receive relevance rating of prior art from end user
5. Store relevance rating of prior art with prior art for subsequent scoring [0191] Certified Search of Issued Patent
1. Retrieve Issued Patent Record
2. Generate prior art based on Issued Patent Data
3. Apply relevancy score to prior art
4. Store prior art and score with Issued Patent record. [0192] Real Time Output of Prior Art as Patent is Drafted
1. Receive patent application data
2. Determine prior art based on patent application data
3. Output prior art based on patent application data
4. Receive request to incorporate prior art into patent application data 5. Incorporate prior art into patent application data [0193] Retrieve more prior art relevant to cited prior art
1. Receive patent application data
2. Determine prior art based on patent application data
3. Output prior art based on patent application data
4. Receive request for additional prior art relevant to output prior art
5. Determine additional prior art relevant to output prior art
6. Output additional prior art
[0194] Submit patent application for time stamp
1. Receive patent application data
2. Receive request for time stamp
3. Receive unpublished or published preference
4. Time stamp patent application data
5. Store patent application data with time stamp and unpublished or published preference
6. Publish patent application data if published preference is received [0195] According to yet another embodiment, the present disclosure provides a system and method for providing certified third party searches. According to one aspect of this embodiment, an end user may prepare and submit a patent application to a central search system. The central system may be similar to the one described above, or may be a dedicated searching system. Either the system or an end user determines or identifies one or more criteria about the application to help identify an appropriate searcher. For example, the system or end user may identify a class and subclass for the patent application. Based on the patent class and subclass (or other criteria), a list of potential researchers is generated. The system or end user may select a specific researcher from the list based on any number of factors, including, but not limited to, the queue of patent applications each researcher has, the class and sub class (or other criteria) of the patent being filed, and the class and subclasses for which the researcher is considered an expert. According to one aspect, a researcher can be selected based on keywords in the patent application.
[0196] According to one embodiment, the invention is submitted to the researcher in such a way that the system does not disclose identifying information about the end user or assignee to the researcher. The researcher conducts a prior art search and attaches relevant digital prior art to the patent application record. The researcher can highlight sections of the prior art and site specific sections of the prior art as relevant to specific sections of the patent application. Alternatively, a researcher can embed specific sections of prior art and/or notes into a patent application.
[0197] The researcher may submit the patent application with added prior art data to the system. The system may then certify the search.
[0198] According to an embodiment, an end user may receive a notice indicating that the researcher has completed a certified search for the patent application. The end user can log in to the system and retrieve the patent application along with the certified search data. The end user can then provide language that distinguishes the claimed invention over the prior art and submit the patent application, the certified search, and the distinguishing language to the central system for filing.
[0199] According to another embodiment, while the end user is entering the patent application data into the system, the system can determine an appropriate researcher and offer the opportunity to provide the end user with real time chat with a researcher. If the end user accepts, a chat window, or equivalent communication method/portal may be opened between the end user and researcher via the central system. The end user can provide patent application data and the researcher can provide relevant prior art. When the session is complete, the system can charge a fee to the end user and submit a portion of that fee to the researcher. The recorded chat session may be attached to the patent application file.
[0200] Accordingly, as shown in Fig. 4, a system 400 can be configured to perform various functions, such as those described above, by performing various method steps in order to accomplish one or more given tasks. Non-limiting examples of programs or modules that may be employed by a system according to the present disclosure include the following programs which may have the following architectures and/or capabilities: [0201] Central Server
1. Researcher Selection Program 411
2. Certified Search Program 412
3. Billing Program 413 [0202] A system such as the one described herein may further include a number of databases configured to store and associate the various types of data that are used by the system to perform the functions described above. Exemplary database architectures useful for the presently-described system include:
1. Researcher Database 421, which may collect, store and associate data such as: a. Researcher ID b. Researcher Profile c. Researcher Billing and Account Information d. Researcher Search Score
2. End User Database 422, which may collect, store and associate data such as: a. End User ID b. End User Profile c. End User Billing Info d. End User Score
3. Patent Application Database 423, which may collect, store and associate data such as: a. Creation Date b. Patent Application ID c. Patent Application Status d. End User ID e. Researcher ID f. Patent Application Data g. Research Report ID
4. Prior Art Database 424, which may collect, store and associate data such as: a. Prior Art ID b. Prior Art Content c. Prior Art Date
5. Researcher Schedule Database 425, which may collect, store and associate data such as: a. Researcher ID b. Patent Application ID 1 -N c. Patent Application Research Target Date 1-N
6. Research Report Database 426, which may collect, store and associate data such as: a. Research Report ID b. Patent Application ID c. Prior Art ID 1-N
[0203] Accordingly, a system such as that described herein will be configured to perform various functions, such as those described above, by performing various method steps in order to accomplish one or more given tasks. Non- limiting examples of methods that may be performed by a system according to the present disclosure include the following:
[0204] Select Researcher
1. Receive Patent Application Data
2. Determine Appropriate Researcher based on Patent Application Data
3. Submit Patent Application to Researcher [0205] Real Time Chat with Researcher
1. Receive Patent Application Data
2. Determine Appropriate Researcher based on Patent Application Data
3. Determine if Researcher is available for Real Time Chat
4. If Researcher is available for real time chat, output offer for real time chat to end user
5. Receive acceptance of offer from end user
6. Initiate Chat session
7. Receive indication that chat session is complete
8. Store chat session with patent application data
9. Determine fee for chat session
10. Charge end user account fee
11. Remit a portion of the fee to the Researcher [0206] Create Certified Search
1. Output Patent Application 2. Receive Research Results
3. Store Results with Patent Application Data
4. Output notice to end user that certified search is complete
5. Determine fee for certified search
6. Apply fee to end user account
7. Remit a portion of fee to researcher account [0207] File Patent Application
1. Output Patent Application Data with Certified Search
2. Receive Distinguishing Language
3. Store Distinguishing Language with Patent Application Data
4. File Patent Application Data, Certified Search, and Distinguishing Language with Patent Office
5. Determine Fee
6. Apply fee to end user account
[0208] In another embodiment, a new search engine may be provided, and/or any existing search engine may be improved to include the disclosed methods. For example, any search engine such as those provided by Google or Yahoo might be modified to incorporate one or more of the disclosed features, methods or inventions. Improving an existing search engine provides many benefits, including, the ability to retain and make use of all the existing features and functions of any such existing search engine. Adding one or more of the disclosed embodiments may also serve to provide any such search engine with additional features and benefits that can help to differentiate such existing or new search engine over any one or more of its competitors that are either unwilling or unable to incorporate the disclosed invention. Another advantage of making use of an existing search engine is that the end user would have access to the existing infrastructure and database access already in existence within such search engine's reach. Many of these search engines, e.g., Google, already have extensive feature sets and data access. Moreover, these tools already have searched or otherwise cataloged millions of web pages and other information sources. Conversely, creating a new search engine may prove generally more desirable in certain applications where the existing search engine relies on outdated and/or is otherwise generally of poor quality or lacks basic functionality and/or is difficult to use. In such cases, a new search engine may be patterned off an existing engine and/or may be constructed with minimal or without such influences.
[0209] In certain embodiments, end users or new or existing search engine or other websites and/or applications may permit and/or enable the entry or attachment of, or otherwise permit, one or more end users to import and/or provide patent applications or other documents, including text and/or graphics and/or hyperlinks or notes associated with any of the above and/or any other relevant data, files, images, documents, survey question responses, notes and/or hyperlinks to any one or more of the above and/or any combination of the abive. In other embodiments, patent and other information, including, for example, survey responses, notes, documents, images, advertisements, white papers, or other items or any relevancy or mapping information and/or other documents and/or hyperlinks is/are accessed from existing or newly created databases and/or one or more indices and/or a new or modified search engine or other tool and/or a combination of the above.
[0210] In certain embodiments, the disclosed system periodically searches for and/or stores information and/or references in the prior art to each word and/or group of words, phrases, and/or documents, notes and/or synonyms and/or antonyms in the patent application or document, IDS, and/or the examiner's, applicant's or third party's notes, or other database information and creates one or more hyperlinks and/or indices and/or database entries to or that reference such information and/or words and/or documents and/or references and/or synonyms and/or antonyms directly from the words of the patent application or other document(s), notes, survey responses or database information and/or its synonyms and/or antonyms or otherwise. Exemplary methods to provide for survey questions and gathering of data are disclosed by applicants in U.S. Patent Application Nos. 60/774,177, entitled "Survey Based Qualification of Keyword Searches," 11/278,123, also entitled "Survey Based Qualification of Keyword Searches" 11/562,738 "Survey Based Qualification of Keyword Searches" and 11/608,150, entitled "Map and Inventory Based On-Line Purchases" which applications are incorporated herein by this reference.
[0211] Methods to create or modify search engines are well known and understood within the prior art and by any person of ordinary skill. For example, methods to design and build a search engine are disclosed and discussed by the authors of the following books, including, for example "Understanding Search Engines: Mathematical Modeling and Text Retrieval (Software, Environments, Tools), Second Edition, by Michael W. Berry and Murray Browne, which is incorporated by reference. Methods to create web pages, hyperlinks and hypertext are well known in the prior art and any person with ordinary skill in the art can design and create such hyperlinks. Methods to design and create hypertext and/or hyperlinks are discussed and disclosed by the authors of the following reference and other materials, including, for example: "Intelligent Hypertext: Advanced Techniques for the World Wide Web (Lecture Notes in Computer Science), by Charles Nicholas and James Mayfield," "Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites [ILLUSTRATED], by Louis Rosenfeld (Author), Peter Morville," Creating Web Pages with HTML Simplified, by Sherry Willard Kinkoph (Author)," "Master Visually Web Design (With CD-ROM) by Carrie F. Gatlin and Michael S. Toot," and "Creating Internet Intelligence: Wild Computing, Distributed Digital Consciousness, and the Emerging Global Brain (IFSR International Series on Systems Science and Engineering), by Ben Goertzel." Each of the above is hereby incorporated by reference. [0212] In another embodiment, by creating hyperlinks and/or otherwise indexing such words and group of words, and/or synonyms and/or antonyms, etc., a cross referenced index and/or set of hyperlinks and/or indices is/are made available for subsequent analysis, searching and use. For example, using an application or user interfaced designed for such purposes, end users can click on or otherwise activate any one or more hyperlink(s) and/or index or table of contents or other entries to view one or more lists of any of the prior art and/or other documents that include one or more of such words or group of words and/or their synonyms and/or antonyms and/or reference any such words, group of words, synonyms and/or antonyms. Such hyperlinks and/or index entries may be ordered by any applicable means, for example, such lists may be ordered or sorted based on any one or more of the: number of times the words are found in the reference material, e.g., patent or document, number of times such related references have been accessed, and/or feedback provided by one or more end users, one or more relevancy scores and/or mapping information and/or one or more notes provided by end users and/or as may be generated by any applicable computing means, such as lexical or grammatical analysis or any other applicable means including genetic algorithms, relative age of one or more such references, e.g., references to a word in a more recently created document, may be sorted in preference older document entries, extent of usage, depth or breath of the map, e.g., if a word is used more frequently in a greater number of documents, especially those documents that may also have been deemed relevant, such word or its related index entry or hyperlink may be sorted above other index entries or hyperlinks that have fewer cross references and/or fewer documents, and/or based upon prior usage information. Maps and relevancy scores may be determined by any applicable means, including those described herein and in the disclosures which have been incorporated herein by reference.
[0213] Exemplary systems and methods related to keyword-based advertising in a document database are described in U.S. Patent Application Nos. 11/668,586 "Targeted Advertising Based on Invention Disclosures," filed January 30, 2007; 11/668,596, "Keyword Advertising in Invention Disclosure Documents," filed January 30, 2007; 11/697,437 "Merchant Tool for Embedding Advertisement Hyperlinks to Words in a Database of Documents" filed April 6, 2007; andl 1/697,443 "Merchant Tool for Embedding Advertisement Hyperlinks to Words in a Database of Documents," filed April 6, 2007; each of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
[0214] Use and applications of rules based, expert systems and/or genetic algorithms are well known in the prior art and may be implemented using any applicable means. For example, methods to develop rules, expert systems and/or genetic algorithms are discussed and disclosed in various issued and pending patents and reference and other materials, including the following books entitled: "Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization, and Machine Learning", by David E. Goldberg, and "An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms," by Melanie Mitchell, and "Expert Systems: Design and Development," by John Durkin," and "Logical Foundations for Rule-Based Systems (Studies in Computational Intelligence)," by Antoni Ligeza, each of which are incorporated by reference.
[0215] In other embodiments, relevancy scores may be determined, in whole or in part, through the use of manual and/or automated means. In addition to the novel relevancy ranking methods disclosed herein, other methods to determine relevancy between and among documents and/or websites are well known within the prior art, including, for example, the methods discussed in the book entitled "Text Databases and Document Management: Theory and Practice, by Amita Goyal Chin, which is incorporated by reference.
[0216] In another embodiment, prior usage of the system may be tracked via any applicable means, including, for example, as end users submit and/or click on hyperlinks and/or index entries and/or use any one or more features of the system, the system could record such usage activity and rank future search results and/or modify system performance based upon such usage information. The system could, for example, determine how many times a given hyperlink or index entry is clicked and then, optionally, determine the relevancy of the hyperlinked or indexed document, for example, such relevancy may be based upon any applicable means including the frequency with one or more end users click such hyperlink or index and/or the amount of time one or more end users spend reviewing such hyperlinked or indexed document, and/or using feedback provided by any one or more end users, such as feedback provided via a score, relevancy ranking, weighting ranking, notes, or by clicking on or answering questions that provides or permits the calculation of such relevancy scores based upon such responses. Exemplary methods to provide for such feedback using notes and or survey response questions are disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Nos. 60/774,177, entitled "Survey Based Qualification of Keyword Searches," 11/278,123, also entitled "Survey Based Qualification of Keyword Searches" 11/562,738 "Survey Based Qualification of Keyword Searches" and 11/608,150, entitled "Map and Inventory Based On-Line Purchases" which applications are incorporated herein by this reference. [0217] In another embodiment, end users can scroll through or otherwise review a document using any applicable means, for example, by title or abstract, relevancy, and/or line by line, paragraph by paragraph, and/or page by page and the system displays the most relevant documents associated with line, paragraph or page. Such display or list of relevant documents may appear in a separate web browser pages or tabs, and/or in a popup or other user interface, e.g., a list displayed directly on the display alongside the application's text or graphics.
[0218] In addition or in the alternate, one or more of the words and/or groups of words, e.g. phrases or search strings, and/or other words in the patent application are placed into one or more search boxes in the GUI, where they can be clicked or otherwise selected by the end user to view potentially related prior art. As words or groups of words are placed into one or more search engine windows, e.g. an improved Google search window, such search engines could immediately conduct searches on such word or words and display a partial or comprehensive search result in the search window or another window. In this fashion, end users are constantly being presented with search results. End users may periodically review such results to determine if any one or more result is meaningful or could prove use or otherwise deserves further review or investigation.
[0219] According to another embodiment, the end user can select or otherwise indicate how he wants to view the relevant prior art. Such selection or indication may be provided through any applicable means, and includes, but is not limited to the use of and/or ranking by the:
1. number of similar words used
2. earliest filing date
3. latest filing date
4. inventor
5. percentage match to the word or words
6. synonyms
7. antonyms
8. relevancy or popularity scores
9. ranking or sorting criteria provided by the end user that controls whether or not one or more variables are used, and/or how the results are sorted, listed and/or filtered.
10. combination of any two or more of the above
[0220] In another embodiment, in addition to finding prior art based on the words of the patent application, the system also lists synonyms and/or antonyms of the word or groups of words or phrases. For example, the end user can click on one or more relevant synonyms and the system can do a prior art search based on those relevant synonyms. The synonym list can be generated from words that merchants who purchase keywords from a search engine select as common words when creating a web-based advertisement. Methods for creating such a list of synonyms are disclosed in US Patent Application No. 11/697,443 entitled "Self-Teaching Thesaurus," filed April 6, 2007 which is incorporated by reference. [0221] In another embodiment, each section of a patent application can be searched in the manner described above and search results can be weighted and/or sorted and/or filtered based on which section of the cited prior art contains the word, group of words or synonyms and/or antonyms and/or any one or more of the end user's search, sort, select and/or display preferences. For example, if an end user is interested in or is reviewing abstracts of patents, the potential applicability or relevancy of a given word or phrase may be greater if such word or phrase appears within the abstract section of one or more other patents, as opposed to appearing in the claims section of one or more other patents. In addition or in the alternate, relevancy of one or more words may be determined by the appearance of the word or words in any or all of the sections of a patent or patent application, whether or not such patent is pending or has previously issued
[0222] In another embodiment, the synonyms and antonyms list can be established or affected by end user actions, preferences and/or feedback. For example, the system can provide a list of words that it expects or determines are synonyms based on the text of the patent application. The end user can indicate which words on the list are synonyms. The system can use the indication by the end user to further refine its synonym list for later searches. By combining the end user feedback, preferences and/or by tracking behaviors of two or more, or large sets or classes of end users, the system can improve the usefulness of the system by improving its ability to determine which words or group of words or phrases are generally more relevant and separate those from other words, groups of words or phrases that might typically be considered relevant, i.e., if searching a generic or generally available thesaurus vs. use of a customized thesaurus as disclosed herein and/or via use of end user feedback or usage tracking. Therefore, the disclosed invention provides both initial and ongoing performance results over existing search methods.
[0223] In another embodiment, when searching prior art, certain or all sections of patents may have different weights associated with such search results. For example, patent prior art reference may be cited as more relevant if a section of it uses the same or similar language as a patent application submitted or being drafted by an end user. For instance, if the claim of a prior art patent uses the same or similar words as a patent application, it may be considered as generally more relevant than a prior art patent that uses the same words in the background of the application or patent.
[0224] In yet another embodiment, when searching for relevant patent documents, there can be several measures of relevancy. For example, the system may determine relevancy using any applicable means, including any one or any combination of:
1. The frequency of a search term: Where a key word appears more often in patent document A than in patent document B, then patent document A is determined to be generally more relevant (according to this measure).
2. The frequency of the appearance of a synonym of the search term. Where a synonym of a key word appears more often in patent document A than in patent document B, patent document A is determined to be generally more relevant (according to this measure).
3. The frequency of the appearance of an antonym of the search term. Where an antonym of a key word appears more often in patent document B than in patent document A, then patent document A is determined to be generally more relevant (according to this measure).
4. User feedback. Where a search produces results, end users may have the option to indicate to the system which of the results, in whole or in part, are actually relevant by, e.g., requesting to see the abstract, requesting to view the whole document, requesting to download part or all of the document(s), requesting to save such part or whole of the whole document(s) in a 'folder' on the system of saved results. Feedback from end users may affect their individual future search results and/or search algorithms and/or may affect all or a class of end user's future results. Such affects on groups or classes of end users may carry significant weighting, and/or may only affect such future searches in smaller incremental ways. A combination of these may also apply. For example, if end user A determines certain patents or other prior art documents are relevant to his particular patent search, such knowledge may be useful in determining relevancy for future prior art searches conducted by end user A, and/or such information may affect end user B's future prior art searches, particularly if end user B has or does conduct searches within the same filed of use and/or uses the same or similar lists of synonyms, antonyms and/or other words, groups of words or phrases, and/or tends to determine that the same or similar lists of patents or prior art and/or search strings and/or responses to survey questions regarding any of the forgoing are the same or are similar to end user A.
5. A 'relevancy function' that aggregates all or groups of the measures provided by end user or other feedback using any applicable means. For example, this relevancy function can be based upon, in whole or in part, and/or modified using various feedback techniques (e.g. neural networks, expert or rules based systems and/or genetic algorithms). Use and applications of rules based, expert systems and/or genetic algorithms are well known in the prior art and may be implemented using any applicable means. For example, methods to develop rules, expert systems and/or genetic algorithms are discussed and disclosed in various issued and pending patents and reference and other materials, including the following books entitled: "Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization, and Machine Learning", by David E. Goldberg, and "An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms," by Melanie Mitchell, and "Expert Systems: Design and Development," by John Durkin," and "Logical Foundations for Rule-Based Systems (Studies in Computational Intelligence)," by Antoni Ligeza, each of which are incorporated herein by reference.
6. Based on a thesaurus of words created from merchants who purchase keywords to display advertisements.
7. Based upon end user responses to one or more survey questions. [0225] In another embodiment, searches can be rated by inventors, attorneys, examiners and/or any other authorized person, entity, or system. The search rating can be tied, in whole or in part, or have an influence on, a rating of the searcher or end user, and/or may be associated with particular prior art or other documents. [0226] In yet another embodiment, attributes, characteristics, qualifications and/or other criteria relating to one or more end users that search, may have a relevance weight for subsequent searches that is greater or less than other end users. For example the relative weight of a patent examiner's opinion or feedback may have a greater influence when determining relevancy scores or rating than the weight of an opinion or feedback of an independent inventor. Using such a discriminatory practice in assigning or otherwise determining relevancy scores, may provide more relevant feedback and/or a more useful, efficient or effective system. In one embodiment, such weighting tends to consider feedback from qualified professionals more heavily than that of laypersons. For example, patent examiners and/or other qualified personnel the USPTO may carry more weight than a given patent attorney, which may, in turn, carry more weight than that of a given inventor. In yet another embodiment, in addition or in the alternate, such weighting criteria may also be based in whole or in part upon other factors or learned information regarding an end user's past performance or feedback. For example, if a given end user A has provided scores and/or rankings, e.g., one or more relevancy scores, and other end users confirm such score or ranking as accurate or generally useful, then such end user A's future feedback or rankings or scores may carry more weight than another given end user, e.g., end user B, who may not have yet provided any feedback or scores, or if end user B has provided such feedback but such feedback has yet to be verified by the system or via other end user verification methods, then such end user B's current or future feedback or rankings may not carry as much weight as end user A's. In yet another embodiment, these concepts can be combined, for example, in the preceding case, end user A's feedback was determined to carry more weight, however, if additional information were available regarding end user B, for example, if end user B is a patent examiner, then end user B's feedback or rankings may carry the same or even greater weight than end user A, based upon such additional information as it may be assumed that a patent examiner's feedback is more valuable than another end user that is a lay person.
[0227] In another embodiment, the database of the computer or system or server that is conducting the search may affect the search results and/or their sort order. This search engine generates results based on information contained in the searcher's computer other than search history. For example, an end user may choose to provide and/or the system may track additional information regarding the end user and/or his search preferences. Such information and preferences may include any applicable criteria or information such as: the end user's typical or primary field of use, custom list of synonyms or antonyms, custom relevancy scores and ranking results or criteria, previous acceptance or rejection of one or more search results or prior art data, e.g., if an end user determines a particular piece of prior art or other information or data is not relevant, such end user may flag such prior art or data so that it may not appear on subsequent future searches which may or may not be similar to such historical searches, and/or the system may be designed such that each end user or class of end user has a dedicated search algorithm, for example, instead of using a genetic algorithm for all end users, one or more genetic algorithms may be used, stored, modified, etc., for each end user and/or for each class or category of end users. For example, there may be one set of GA' s for patent examiners, while there might be another set of GA' s for patent attorneys that provide patent services for devices, and yet another set of GA' s for patent attorneys that provide patent services for business method patents. Any suitable means may be used to determine the number of end user classifications for such purposes, including, for example, use of another superset of GA's that determines applicable categorizations of end user types. In this fashion, the system is continually learning and determining into which categories each end user or groups of end users should fall, thereby improving system performance results across one or all of such groups.
[0228] In certain embodiments, the disclosed invention may be practiced in the real or virtual world. For example, a video game or virtual environment may provide for a virtual patent office or other system that permits the registration of intellectual property. Such system may also permit the inclusion of the disclosed invention. For example, a video game may include a virtual patent office. Exemplary methods and systems for providing protection of intellectual property in a virtual environment are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Patent Application Nos. 11/428,263, "Video Game Environment" filed June 30, 2006; 11/620,563 "Copyright of Digital Works in a Virtual Environment," filed January 5, 2007; 11/689,977, "Digital Rights Management in a Virtual Environment," filed March 22, 2007; 11/671,373 "Video Game with Control of Quantities of Raw Materials" filed February 5, 2007; 11/680,960 "System for the Creation and Registration of Ideas and Concepts in a Virtual Environment," filed March 1, 2007; each of which is incorporated herein by reference.
[0229] Furthermore, such a system may permit improvements to itself. For example, a video game may permit the inclusion by end users of modules or plug-ins, which provide additional features or other improvements relating to the virtual environment, video game or improves game play. Exemplary methods and systems for providing such plug-in support are disclosed in US Patent Application No. 11/697,475 entitled "Method and System to Provide Certified Third Party Plug-ins into a Patent Drafting System," filed April 6, 2007 which is hereby incorporated by reference. [0230] Accordingly, the disclosed invention may be applied to such virtual environment, world or video game(s) or any combination of the forgoing. For example, use of modules or plug-ins, such as those disclosed herein may be delivered and/or used within the virtual world. In the event an agreement between two or more parties may be desired or required to insert any module or plug-in and/or to make use of any such plug- in, methods to ensure that agreements are enforceable and that advertising fees are collected in such virtual environments are desirable. Exemplary methods for providing such contract enforcement and collection of fees are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Patent Application Nos. 11/279,991 "Securing Virtual Contracts with Credit," filed April 17, 2006; 11/624,662 "Securing Contracts in a Virtual World," filed January 18, 2007; 11/559158 "Financing Options in a Virtual World" filed November 13, 2006; 11620,542 "Satisfaction of Financial Obligations in a Virtual Environment Via Virtual and Real World Currency," filed January 5, 2007; 11/421,025 "Financial Institutions and Instruments in a Virtual Environment," filed May 30, 2006, and 11/380,489 "Multiple Purchase Options for Virtual Purchases," filed April 27, 2006; each of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
[0231] In yet another embodiment, hyperlinks and or indices may include one or more advertisements and/or hyperlinks to one or more advertisements and/or survey questions. Delivery and timing of such advertisements and/or survey questions may be accomplished via any applicable means. For example, in order to determine or gather information about the relevancy of certain prior art to a given patent application, the system may submit survey questions to one or more end users to gather such relevancy data. In another example, merchants or other advertisers may desire to attach one or more advertisements and/or surveys to one or more keywords, hyperlinks, and/or prior art documents, or words, phrases, and other data.
[0232] It should be understood that any embodiments herein which refer to a patent are equally applicable to a patent application, and vice versa, unless explicitly stated otherwise with respect to a particular embodiment. Any references to a patent (or to a patent application) are for reasons of brevity only.
[0233] Those having skill in the art will recognize that there is little distinction between hardware and software implementations. The use of hardware or software is generally a choice of convenience or design based on the relative importance of speed, accuracy, flexibility and predictability. There are therefore various vehicles by which processes and/or systems described herein can be effected (e.g., hardware, software, and/or firmware) and that the preferred vehicle will vary with the context in which the technologies are deployed.
[0234] At least a portion of the devices and/or processes described herein can be integrated into a data processing system with a reasonable amount of experimentation. Those having skill in the art will recognize that a typical data processing system generally includes one or more of a system unit housing, a video display device, memory, processors, operating systems, drivers, graphical user interfaces, and application programs, interaction devices such as a touch pad or screen, and/or control systems including feedback loops and control motors. A typical data processing system may be implemented utilizing any suitable commercially available components to create the gaming environment described herein.
[0235] Accordingly, as shown in Fig. 5, a system 500 may comprise a plurality of various hardware and/or software components such as those described below. It will be appreciated that for ease of description, the variously described hardware and software components are described and named according to various functions that it is contemplated may be performed by one or more software or hardware components within the system. However, it will be understood that the system may incorporate any number of programs configured to perform any number of functions including, but in no way limited to those described below. Furthermore, it should be understood that while, for ease of description, multiple programs and multiple databases are described, the various functions and/or databases may, in fact, be part of a single program or multiple programs running in one or more locations.
[0236] Exemplary programs include:
1. Search Program 511
2. Search Weight Program 512
3. Search Relevancy Program 513
4. Hyperlink Program 514
5. Documents Submission Program 515
6. Documents Relevancy Program 516
7. Mapping Program 517
8. Dispute Program 518
[0237] Exemplary database architectures include:
[0238] Word Database 521, which may collect, store and associate data such as:
1. Word ID a. Word Count ID b. Word c. Primary Definition d. Hyperlinks 1 - N (e.g., sources / locations of use) e. Alternative Definitions 1 - N
1. Definition
2. Supplied By - ID
3. Hyperlinks 1 - N f. Synonym ID - I - N
1. Synonym
2. Word ID
3. Relevancy Scores 1 - N
4. Primary Score %
5. Alternative Score %'s 1 - N g. Antonym ID - I - N
1. Antonym
2. Word ID
3. Relevancy Scores 1 - N 4. Primary Score %
5. Alternative Score %'s 1 - N h. Notes 1 - N
1. Note ID
2. Note Short Description
3. Note Long Description
4. Narrative Text
5. Attachment Hyperlinks 1 - N
6. Where Used Hyperlinks 1 - N i. Figure IDs 1 - N j . Change Tracking ID 1 - N
[0239] Change Tracking Database 522, which may collect, store and associate data such as:
1. Change Tracking ID
2. Word ID
3. Change Type (e.g., Add, change, delete)
4. Change Description
5. Date / Time
6. User ID
7. Before Image
8. After image
9. Relevancy or score
10. Notes 1 - N
[0240] Figure Database 523, which may collect, store and associate data such as:
1. Figure ID
2. Figure Description
3. Figure or Attachment
4. Submitted By ID
5. Source ID
6. Editor Application ID
7. Document / Patent Application Where Used ID 1- N a. Hyperlinks 1 - N 8. Notes 1 - N
[0241] Document Database 524, which may collect, store and associate data such as:
1. Document ID a. Document Description b. Document Owner ID c. Hyperlinks (e.g., document locations) 1 - N d. Class 1 - N e. Subclass 1 - N f. Type 1 - N g. Subtype 1 - N h. Date / Time Stamps
1. Submitted / Found / Indexed On
2. Submitted / Found / Indexed By ID or Hyperlink
3. Revised On I - N
4. Revised By l - N
5. Before Image 1 - N
6. After Image 1 - N
2. Notes 1 - N
[0242] Hyperlink Database 525, which may collect, store and associate data such as:
1. Hyperlink ID
2. Hyperlink
3. Description
4. Owner ID
5. Advertiser ID
6. Notes 1 - N
[0243] Lexicon Database 526, which may collect, store and associate data such as:
1. Lexicon Database ID / Name / Location
2. Lexicon (e.g., Word or Document or Image) ID # 1 - N
3. Submitted by ID # 1 - N
4. Examiner ID # 1- N 5. Attorney ID # 1-N
6. Description
7. Notes 1 - N
8. Lexicon Image 1-N
9. Date / Time Submitted
10 Notes 1 - N
[0244] Usage Database 527, which may collect, store and associate data such as
1. Usage Transaction ID
2. Application Id
3. Application Type
4. Date / Time
5. Duration of usage
6. User ID
7. Transaction Type
8. Search Strings / Words Entered 1-N
9. Relevancy Feedback Rankings 1-N
10 Documents Accessed 1-N
11 Duration of Access 1 -N
12 Words Used / Modified / Submitted 1 - N
13 Definitions Used / Modified / Submitted 1-N
14 Mapping Feedback Information 1-N
15 Plug-ins Used 1-N
16 Hyperlinks reviewed / clicked 1-N
17 Advertisements reviewed 1-N
18 Billing Information
[0245] User Score Database 528, which may collect, store and associate data such as:
1. Score ID
2. Date / Time
3. User ID
4. Score / Feedback Rules ID 1 - N
5. Score / Feedback Category 6. Score / Feedback Type
7. Score / Feedback Item
8. Score / Feedback Rankings 1 - N a. Relevancy Ratings b. Usefulness Ratings c. Mapping Feedback d. Mapping Ratings
[0246] Score Rules Database 529, which may collect, store and associate data such as:
1. Rule ID
2. Rule Description
3. Rules 1 - N
[0247] Search Box Database 530
[0248] User Search Preferences Database 531, which may collect, store and associate data such as:
1. User ID
2. Search Preferences 1 - N
3. Sort Preferences 1 - N
4. Display Preferences 1 - N
5. Primary Field of Use
6. Additional Field's of Use 1 - N
7. Display Synonyms Y/N #
8. Display Antonyms Y/N #
9. Display Titles or Summaries of Relevant Documents
10. Display Definitions Y/N # [0249] Document Section Database 532
[0250] Relevancy Database 533, which may collect, store and associate data such as:
1. Relevancy ID
2. Relevancy Type
3. Document / Word / Map ID
4. Relevancy Score Summary 5. Detail Relevancy Transaction Data a. Transaction ID 1 - N
1. Relevancy Type
2. Document / Word / Map ID
3. Relevancy Score Summary
[0251] User Database 534, which may collect, store and associate data such as:
1. User ID
2. User Type
3. Name
4. Account Type
5. Description
6. Terms and Conditions ID
7. Text
8. Notes 1 - N
[0252] User Type Database 535, which may collect, store and associate data such as:
1. User Type ID
2. Type Description
3. Permissions
4. Restrictions
5. Notes 1 - N
[0253] Searcher Computer Type Database 536
[0254] Searcher Computer Database 537
[0255] It will be appreciated that the various software and hardware components described above will be configured to perform a variety of functions and methods. Listed below are some exemplary methods that might be performed by the systems as described herein: [0256] Import Text for Search
1. Receive Patent Data
2. Generate Search Document from Patent Data [0257] Perform Search
1. Apply Search Algorithm to Search Document 2. Generate Appropriate Prior Art Documents from Search Document
[0258] Generate Search Results Page
1. Compile list of Prior Art Documents
2. Output List of Prior Art Documents [0259] Track Usage
1. Receive an indication that a prior art document was reviewed in response to the document being listed in a prior art document list
2. Store indication of review including review details [0260] Usage Creates Score
1. Retrieve indication of review logs
2. Score documents based on logs [0261 ] Score Effects Search Results
1. Apply scores to documents in database
2. Weight document relevancy based on scores
[0262] Display Sections of Documents and Most Relevant Prior Art for That Section
1. Receive Sectional Patent Data
2. Apply Search Algorithm with Sectional Preferences to Document Database
3. Generate list of prior art from document database
4. Sort prior art list using sectional preferences
5. Output list sorted by sectional preference [0263] Place Words in Search Boxes
1. Receive words and/or word phrases
2. Generate prior art for word or word phrases
3. Place word or word phrases in search box if prior art list meets or exceeds criteria
4. Place prior art for words or word phrases in appropriate box [0264] Review Word in Search Boxes
1. Receive a request to review a prior art reference in a search box
2. Output prior art document [0265] Filter Searches Using Preferences 1. Receive/Generate/ and/or Determine search preferences
2. Apply preferences to searches
3. Output modified search result that has been filtered from end user preferences
[0266] Weight Search Results Based on Document Sections
1. Generate search results, including prior art references, for a data submission
2. Apply sectional preference criteria to search results
3. Filter and sort prior art references based on sectional preference criteria
[0267] Weight Search Results Based on Document Status
1. Generate search results, including prior art references, for a data submission
2. Apply Document Status criteria to search results
3. Filter and sort prior art references based on document status criteria [0268] Synonym Search Enhanncement Program
1. Receive data submission
2. Apply synonyms to data
3. Generate search document based on data submission and synonyms
4. Apply Search Engine Algorithm to search document
5. Generate and output search results [0269] Synonym Feedback Program
1. Receive data submission
2. Output list of potential synonyms
3. Receive indication that synonyms are relevant
4. Link relevant synonyms to appropriate sections of data submission [0270] Produce Search Results Based on Relevancy Conditions
1. Receive data submission
2. Apply search engine algorithm to data submission
3. Generate search results
4. Retrieve Relevancy Conditions
5. Apply Relevancy conditions to search results 6. Filter and sort search results based on relevancy conditions
7. Output search results
[0271 ] Weight Relevancy Based on User Type
1. Receive a user type
2. Receive a data submission
3. Generate a relevancy score based on user type
4. Generate Search Results
5. Apply relevancy score to search results
6. Filter and sort search results based on relevancy condtions
7. Output search results
[0272] Create Relevancy Based on Searcher Computer Type
1. Receive a computer type
2. Receive a data submission
3. Generate a relevancy score based on computer type
4. Generate Search Results
5. Apply relevancy score to search results
6. Filter and sort search results based on relevancy condtions
7. Output search results
[0273] Determine Searcher Computer Type
1. Receive a computer log in
2. Analyze computer to determine type
3. Generate computer type
4. Store computer type
[0274] Find references with same words as text entered
1. Receive a data submission
2. Generate prior art documents with completely or partially identical data to submission
3. Score prior art documents based on percentage of likeness to data submission
4. Output prior art documents sorted based on percentage of likeness to data submission
[0275] Find references with synonyms of text entered 1. Receive a data submission
2. Generate a synonym list based on the data submission and rules
3. Generate prior art documents with completely or partially identical data to submission and/or synonym list
4. Score prior art documents based on percentage of likeness to data submission
5. Output prior art documents sorted based on percentage of likeness to data submission
[0276] Insert references into search boxes labeled with words and word phrases of the application
1. Receive a data submission
2. Generate search boxes based on words and word phrases in the data submission
3. Apply search engine algorithm to words and word phrases
4. Generate prior art list for each word/word phrase
5. Insert links to prior art references into appropriate search boxes [0277] Establish preferences for viewing prior art
1. Receive a request to create a preference profile for viewing prior art
2. Generate and output a preference profile form
3. Receive form data
4. Create preference profile
5. Store preference profile
[0278] Establish relevance of search result based on which section a word or word phrase is cited
1. Generate a list of prior art in response to a data submission
2. Determine sections of prior art that are most relevant to data submission
3. Score and Sort prior art based on section relevancy
4. Output sorted prior art list
[0279] Receive relevance score of a prior art reference from an end user
1. Generate and output a list of prior art in response to a data submission 2. Receive a relevancy score for each piece of prior art cited
3. Store relevancy score with prior art reference [0280] Refine synonym list based on end user input
1. Generate and output a synonym list in response to a data submission
2. Receive additions/modifications/relevancy ratings for each listed synonym
3. Store additions/modifications/relevancy ratings
4. Modify synonym list in response to additions/modifications/relevancy ratings
[0281 ] Initial Database Loading
1. Create / Load Database(s)
2. Import or receive or input Prior Art, Documents, Words, Definitions, Synonyms and Antonyms, notes, commentary and/or opinions from existing database sources (as appropriate / e.g., one time, and/or from time -to-time)
3. If / as necessary, sign up end users, merchants, examiners, patent attorneys, and third parties
4. Update Database(s)
[0282] End User Preferences Application
1. Load Databases
2. Present Preferences GUI if required
3. Receive End User Preferences / Feedback / Usage Tracking Information, including: a. Filter Criteria or Rules b. Sort Criteria or Rules c. Relevancy Information d. Weighting Factors, Criteria or Rules e. Security Preferences f. Feedback / Tracking Preferences g. Notes h. Usage habits / patterns / preferences i. Display preferences [0283] Security Application
1. Load Database(s)
2. Determine if requested action and/or end user is permitted
3. If not, notify application and/or end user
4. If yes, permit requested step and/or loading of application or other authorized action(s)
5. Update Database(s) [0284] Opt In / Sign Up Application
1. Load Databases
2. Receiving Indication of new user sign up
3. Record any and all or available information regarding one or more patent applicants, end users, examiners, attorneys and/or third parties
4. Update databases
[0285] Periodic Text / Document Import Application
1. Load Databases
2. Receive indication or determine need for text / Document Importation
3. Determine text / documents to import into one or more databases
4. Import or receive or permit entry of text and/or documents
5. Update databases [0286] Search Tool Application
1. Load Databases
2. Present Search GUI
3. Receive Prior Art or Document or other Search String Request
4. If desired, needed or requested, retrieve synonyms and display in separate search string box
5. Receive indication that end user prefers or clicks on synonym or otherwise has activated one or more hyperlinks
6. Determine if additional information and/or a survey is needed or desired
7. If needed or desired, execute survey program
8. Determine if advertisement should be displayed 9. Display advertisement if desired, needed, requested
10. Based upon available information, e.g., search string, synonyms and/or survey results, Search any or all available and/or participating databases and/or data warehouses
11. Retrieve results including prior art, other documents, synonyms, antonyms, advertisements, notes, hyperlinks, cases, and other search results data based upon any one or more of the forgoing and/or other search criteria
12. Determine weights, sort, filter and other system and/or end user search criteria of end user requesting search
13. Determine relevancy of results text / data / documents, etc. based upon any one or more criteria including: a. User Type b. User Preferences, weighting criteria c. Computer Type d. Search Engine Type or Provider Preferences e. Relevancy Conditions / Information f. Document results section weighting g. Survey Questions and/or responses h. Past or present end user feedback
14. Determine if results data should be displayed in one or more separate page(s), popup or other window(s)
15. Display results, in whole or in part, based upon relevancy, weighting factors, document section information, and/or in sorted / filtered order and/or store results in certified or encrypted database for subsequent user or examiner or third party access, and/or other available relevancy, sorting, display options criteria
16. Display one or more of the following, in whole or in part, if indicated, requested, needed or otherwise desired including, but not limited to: a. Results data b. Prior art c. Relevancy information d. End user weighting, criteria, sort, filter and/or display and/or other preferences or system settings e. Mapping information f. Synonyms and/or antonyms g. Definitions h. Figures i. Text j. One or more Documents k. Hyperlinks 1. Advertisements m. Notes n. Any or all other data as desired / requested / necessary 17. Update Databases [0287] Feedback and Performance Improvement Application
1. Load Databases
2. Receive indication of end user or system activity
3. Determine if end user feedback is indicated, required, necessary offered or is otherwise submitted or provided
4. Determine feedback category, including any one or more of the following categories/items, including the relevancy, accuracy, usefulness, completeness, effectiveness or appeal of any one or more of the following system settings, and/or data including, but not limited to: a. Results data b. Prior art c. Relevancy information d. End user weighting, criteria, sort, filter and/or display or other preferences or system settings e. Mapping information f. Synonyms and/or antonyms g. Definitions h. Figures i. Text j. One or more Documents k. Hyperlinks
1. Advertisements m. Notes n. Ease of application or feature use o. Any or all other data as desired / requested / necessary
5. Request feedback and/or changes to and/or opinions regarding or relating to one or more affected end users regarding one or more feedback categories as defined / determined above and receive feedback information including at least one or more of the following, including, but not limited to: a. Relevancy rankings b. Scores c. Weighting factors or weights d. Sorting preferences e. Filtering preferences f. Display preferences g. Subjective criteria h. Notes
6. Use on screen feedback option or survey to solicit feedback
7. Receive end user feedback
8. Determine and update relevancy, weighting criteria and/or other scores
9. If feedback warrants, or so indicates, request additional feedback on the feedback
10. Modify applicable / affected criteria including, but not limited to any relevant settings such as those relating to any one or more or part or all of a/an/the: a. Genetic or other learning algorithms b. Relevancy or scoring algorithms c. System, end user and/or other settings, weights, preferences, sort, selection, display criteria. d. End user or system weighting, criteria, sort, filter and/or display and/or other preferences or system settings e. Mapping information f. Synonyms and/or antonyms g. Definitions h. Figures i. Text j. Documents k. Hyperlinks 1. Advertisements m. Notes n. Any or all other data as desired / requested / necessary 11. Update databases [0288] Usage Tracking Program
1. Load Databases
2. Receive indication of end user or system activity
3. Store activity
4. When / if requested generate usage tracking / activity reports
5. Display reports and/or export data as requested / desired / needed
6. Determine if activity affects or is related to and/or is otherwise correlated to/with and/or could improve any results data including or system performance, including for example: a. Relevancy and/or scoring calculation methods or algorithms b. Advertising results c. Click through results d. Conversion rates e. End user feedback f. End user skills g. Search methods or algorithms h. Hyperlink use or relevancy i. Sort and/or filter methods, calculations and/or options
7. Provide performance data to genetic algorithm
8. Modify methods and/or algorithms and/or end user or other options based upon performance data
9. Update Databases
[0289] Patent Drafting Tool / Application
1. Load Database(s)
2. Display GUI
3. Display one or more Search String Box(es)
4. Receive activity indication / request from end user
5. Determine if one or more subroutines or applications should be executed
6. Execute one or more of the following subroutines as applicable / necessary / desired
7. Update database(s) [0290] Security
1. Load Database(s)
2. Determine if requested action and/or end user is permitted
3. If not, notify application and/or end user
4. If yes, permit requested step and/or loading of application or other authorized action(s)
5. Update Database(s)
[0291 ] Word Creation / Modification Application
1. Load Database(s)
2. Display Word Entry / Revision GUI, if required
3. Receive input from user to add/modify/delete word and/or associated synonym, antonym and/or primary / alternative definition(s)
4. If applicable a. Place word in one or more authorization queues b. Receive authorization / certifications as applicable and/or required to accept such add/modify/delete word and/or associated synonym, antonym and/or primary / alternative defϊnition(s)
5. If applicable, receive relevancy score(s) and/or mapping information
6. Update Database(s) [0292] Word Use / Insertion
1. Load Database(s)
2. Receive one or more requests to search or display one or more words, synonyms, antonyms and/or figures and/or maps
3. Retrieve relevant words, synonyms, antonyms and/or figures or maps
4. Display search / lookup results and, if applicable, other relevant materials
5. Permit user to copy / paste or insert any one or more such words, synonyms, antonyms and/or figures into one or more patent applications or other document(s)
6. Permit end user to submit additions / changes or modifications to such words, synonyms, antonyms and/or figures as applicable
7. Update Database(s)
[0293] Advertisement Creation Application
1. Load Database(s)
2. Display advertising creation / modification GUI
3. Receive request to add / change / delete one or more advertisements
4. Receive advertisement hyperlink contents and associate with one or more words, synonyms, antonyms and/or figures and/or documents
5. Determine if such one or more words, synonyms, antonyms, figures and/or documents have pre-existing hyperlinks by current or third party end user or otherwise
6. If not, determine price to associate hyperlink as applicable
7. If one or more similar hyperlinks already exist, execute hyperlink bid pricing application
8. If approved and priced, insert or otherwise associate said hyperlink with said one or more words, synonyms, antonyms, figures and/or documents. 9. Update Database(s) [0294] Hyperlink Pricing Program
1. Load Database(s)
2. Receive pricing request
3. Determine if more than one user wishes a hyperlink to the same or similar word(s), synonym(s), antonym(s), figure(s) and/or documents
4. Determine pricing and/or auction hyperlink, or, if applicable, position in list of two or more hyperlinks
5. Notify affected parties, e.g., via an alert
6. Receive indication from one or more users as to willingness to pay and price points
7. Continue process until pricing is determined
8. Receive authorizing for final pricing from affected parties, including end users
9. Update Database(s)
[0295] Advertisement Viewing/Use Application
1. Load Database(s)
2. Receive request to display or access advertisement, e.g., user clicks hyperlink or right clicks word
3. Determine if additional browser page or popup or other display method is to be used
4. Display Advertisement, e.g., load and display attached movie file
5. Determine if survey should be presented
6. Present survey
7. Determine if secondary or different advertisement is to be displayed
8. Display advertisement
9. Collect usage information, e.g., impressions for billing purposes
10. Update Database(s)
[0296] Word Definition / Synonym / Antonym / Figure / Document Lookup Tool
1. Load Database(s) 2. Receive request from drafting or third party display tool for word, definition, synonym, antonym, figure and/or document display (any one or any combination or all of the forgoing)
3. Determine relevancy information
4. Retrieve requested information, using relevancy information if applicable / available
5. Determine if additional browser page or popup or other display method is to be used (e.g., interstitial popup window)
6. Determine if application and/or end user has requested filter and/or sort and/or relevancy options
7. Display Requested Information (using filter, sort and/or relevancy information and/or filter criteria if applicable// available)
8. Update Database(s)
[0297] Document Submission / Filing Application
1. Load Database(s)
2. Receive request to submit patent or other document with words, synonyms, antonyms, figures and/or related documents to database, repository or processing agency, e.g., USPTO
3. Capture data and/or image of all relevant materials, including then current definitions, along with Time / Date stamp information
4. If desired, encrypt any or all output materials, e.g., patent application, definitions, words, synonyms, antonyms, figures and/or related documents and/or supporting materials to prevent or otherwise control subsequent access and/or modifications
5. Update Database(s) [0298] Mapping Program
1. Load Databases
2. Receive indication that one or more patent applications, words, synonyms, antonyms and/or other documents or notes have been added or changed or removed from one or more databases
3. Receive or determine relevancy information
4. Determine mapping relationships among the forgoing 5. Monitor patent application, word, synonym, antonym, and/or other documents and/or notes and/or mapping usage
6. Receive feedback from end users and/or determine change in mapping relationships and/or relevancy
7. If desired or required, submit any such changes for review / approval
8. If approved, update mapping relationship data accordingly
9. Update Databases [0299] End User Contest Application
1. Load Database(s)
2. Receive Indication that one or more end users and/or third parties, e.g., patent examiner, contests one or more word definitions, words, synonyms, antonyms, figures and/or other documents and/or supporting materials and/or mappings
3. Determine relevancy / validity of the contest by any one or all of the following if desired / applicable a. Solicit other end user / third party votes / scores / ranking b. Use GA c. Submission to authorized end user or third party d. Preponderance of feedback
4. If contest is determined valid, accept requested changes
5. Otherwise reject requested changes
6. Update Database(s) [0300] Billing Program
1. Load Database(s)
2. Receive indication that billing activity has occurred
3. Determine affected parties, e.g., payer and payee
4. Determine billing rules, terms and conditions
5. Determine billing amounts due
6. Create Invoice and A/P or A/R notices / entries
7. Send Invoices and notices
8. Update Databases
9. Await Payment 10. Receive payment indication
11. Apply payments
12. Notify A/P or A/R systems / and/or affected parties
13. Determine if payments are timely / sufficient
14. If not, execute collections program
15. Update Database(s) [0301] Collections Program
1. Receive indication payments are late and/or insufficient
2. Load Database(s)
3. If applicable, execute one or more of the following steps : a. Send late notice b. Send insufficient payment or funds notice c. Limit or prevent further use until payment terms are partially or fully satisfied, each according to billing terms and conditions and/or rules d. Collect funds due from primary and/or secondary credit cards on file. e. Notify affected parties
4. Update Database(s) [0302] Alerts Program
1. Load Database(s)
2. Determine if Alert Event has occurred
3. Determine Alert Contents based upon alert rules
4. Determine Alert Recipients and Contents and Delivery Method(s)
5. Send Alert(s)
[0303] Of course it will be appreciated that the systems methods described herein are provided for the purposes of example only and that none of the above systems methods should be interpreted as necessarily requiring any of the disclosed components or steps nor should they be interpreted as necessarily excluding any additional components or steps. Furthermore, it will be understood that while various embodiments are described, such embodiments should not be interpreted as being exclusive of the inclusion of other embodiments or parts of other embodiments. [0304] The invention is described with reference to several embodiments.
However, the invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed, and those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the invention is readily applicable to many other diverse embodiments and applications as are reflected in the range of real world financial institutions, instruments and activities. Accordingly, the subject matter of the present disclosure includes all novel and nonobvious combinations and subcombinations of the various systems, methods configurations, embodiments, features, functions, and/or properties disclosed herein.
[0305] A reference to "another embodiment" in describing an embodiment does not necessarily imply that the referenced embodiment is mutually exclusive with another embodiment (e.g., an embodiment described before the referenced embodiment), unless expressly specified otherwise.
[0306] The terms "include", "includes", "including", "comprising" and variations thereof mean "including but not limited to", unless expressly specified otherwise.
[0307] The term "consisting of and variations thereof includes "including and limited to", unless expressly specified otherwise. The terms "a", "an" and "the" mean
"one or more", unless expressly specified otherwise.
[0308] The term "plurality" means "two or more", unless expressly specified otherwise.
[0309] The term "herein" means "in this patent application, including anything which may be incorporated by reference", unless expressly specified otherwise.
[0310] The phrase "at least one of, when such phrase modifies a plurality of things (such as an enumerated list of things) means any combination of one or more of those things, unless expressly specified otherwise. For example, the phrase "at least one of a widget, a car and a wheel" means either (i) a widget, (ii) a car, (iii) a wheel, (iv) a widget and a car, (v) a widget and a wheel, (vi) a car and a wheel, or (vii) a widget, a car and a wheel.
[0311] The phrase "based on" does not mean "based only on", unless expressly specified otherwise. In other words, the phrase "based on" describes both "based only on" and "based at least on".
[0312] The term "represent" and like terms are not exclusive, unless expressly specified otherwise. For example, the term "represents" does not mean "represents only", unless expressly specified otherwise. In other words, the phrase "the data represents a credit card number" describes both "the data represents only a credit card number" and "the data represents a credit card number and the data also represents something else".
[0313] The term "whereby" is used herein only to precede a clause or other set of words that express only the intended result, objective or consequence of something that is previously and explicitly recited. Thus, when the term "whereby" is used in a claim, the clause or other words that the term "whereby" modifies do not establish specific further limitations of the claim or otherwise restricts the meaning or scope of the claim. [0314] The terms "such as", "e.g." and like terms means "for example", and thus does not limit the term or phrase it explains. For example, in the sentence "the computer sends data (e.g., instructions, a data structure) over the Internet", the term "e.g." explains that "instructions" are an example of "data" that the computer may send over the Internet, and also explains that "a data structure" is an example of "data" that the computer may send over the Internet. However, both "instructions" and "a data structure" are merely examples of "data", and other things besides "instructions" and "a data structure" can be "data".
[0315] The term "determining" and grammatical variants thereof (e.g., to determine a price, determining a value, determine an object which meets a certain criterion) is used in an extremely broad sense. The term "determining" encompasses a wide variety of actions and therefore "determining" can include calculating, computing, processing, deriving, investigating, looking up (e.g., looking up in a table, a database or another data structure), ascertaining and the like. Also, "determining" can include receiving (e.g., receiving information), accessing (e.g., accessing data in a memory) and the like. Also, "determining" can include resolving, selecting, choosing, establishing, and the like. It does not imply certainty or absolute precision, and does not imply that mathematical processing, numerical methods or an algorithm process be used. Therefore "determining" can include estimating, predicting, guessing and the like. [0316] It will be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the various processes described herein may be implemented by, e.g., appropriately programmed general purpose computers and computing devices. Typically a processor (e.g., one or more microprocessors, one or more microcontrollers, one or more digital signal processors) will receive instructions (e.g., from a memory or like device), and execute those instructions, thereby performing one or more processes defined by those instructions.
[0317] A "processor" may include one or more microprocessors, central processing units (CPUs), computing devices, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, or like devices or any combination thereof. Thus a description of a process is likewise a description of an apparatus for performing the process. The apparatus can include, e.g., a processor and those input devices and output devices that are appropriate to perform the method. Further, programs that implement such methods (as well as other types of data) may be stored and transmitted using a variety of media (e.g., computer readable media) in a number of manners. In some embodiments, hard- wired circuitry or custom hardware may be used in place of, or in combination with, some or all of the software instructions that can implement the processes of various embodiments. Thus, various combinations of hardware and software may be used instead of software only.
[0318] The term "computer-readable medium" includes any medium that participates in providing data (e.g., instructions, data structures) which may be read by a computer, a processor or a like device. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media. Nonvolatile media include, for example, optical or magnetic disks and other persistent memory. Volatile media include dynamic random access memory (DRAM), which typically constitutes the main memory. Transmission media include coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics, including the wires that comprise a system bus coupled to the processor. Transmission media may include or convey acoustic waves, light waves and electromagnetic emissions, such as those generated during radio frequency (RF) and infrared (IR) data communications. Common forms of computer-readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, DVD, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM, a FLASH-EEPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, a carrier wave as described hereinafter, or any other medium from which a computer can read. [0319] Various forms of computer readable media may be involved in carrying data (e.g. sequences of instructions) to a processor. For example, data may be (i) delivered from RAM to a processor; (ii) carried over a wireless transmission medium; (iii) formatted and / or transmitted according to numerous formats, standards or protocols, such as Ethernet (or IEEE 802.3), SAP, ATP, Bluetooth™, and TCP/IP, TDMA, CDMA, and 3 G; and / or (iv) encrypted to ensure privacy or prevent fraud in any of a variety of ways well known in the art.
[0320] Thus a description of a process is likewise a description of a computer- readable medium storing a program for performing the process. The computer-readable medium can store (in any appropriate format) those program elements which are appropriate to perform the method.
[0321] Just as the description of various steps in a process does not indicate that all the described steps are required, embodiments of an apparatus include a computer / computing device operable to perform some (but not necessarily all) of the described process.
[0322] Likewise, just as the description of various steps in a process does not indicate that all the described steps are required, embodiments of a computer-readable medium storing a program or data structure include a computer-readable medium storing a program that, when executed, can cause a processor to perform some (but not necessarily all) of the described process.
[0323] Where databases are described, it will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that (i) alternative database structures to those described may be readily employed, and (ii) other memory structures besides databases may be readily employed. Any illustrations or descriptions of any sample databases presented herein are illustrative arrangements for stored representations of information. Any number of other arrangements may be employed besides those suggested by, e.g., tables illustrated in drawings or elsewhere. Similarly, any illustrated entries of the databases represent exemplary information only; one of ordinary skill in the art will understand that the number and content of the entries can be different from those described herein. Further, despite any depiction of the databases as tables, other formats (including relational databases, object-based models and / or distributed databases) are well known and could be used to store and manipulate the data types described herein. Likewise, object methods or behaviors of a database can be used to implement various processes, such as the described herein. In addition, the databases may, in a known manner, be stored locally or remotely from any device(s) which access data in the database. [0324] Various embodiments can be configured to work in a network environment including a computer that is in communication (e.g., via a communications network) with one or more devices. The computer may communicate with the devices directly or indirectly, via any wired or wireless medium (e.g. the Internet, LAN, WAN or Ethernet, Token Ring, a telephone line, a cable line, a radio channel, an optical communications line, commercial on-line service providers, bulletin board systems, a satellite communications link, or a combination of any of the above). Each of the devices may themselves comprise computers or other computing devices, such as those based on the Intel® Pentium® or Centrino™ processor, that are adapted to communicate with the computer. Any number and type of devices may be in communication with the computer.
[0325] In an embodiment, a server computer or centralized authority may not be necessary or desirable. For example, the present invention may, in an embodiment, be practiced on one or more devices without a central authority. In such an embodiment, any functions described herein as performed by the server computer or data described as stored on the server computer may instead be performed by or stored on one or more such devices.
[0326] Those having skill in the art will recognize that there is little distinction between hardware and software implementations. The use of hardware or software is generally a choice of convenience or design based on the relative importance of speed, accuracy, flexibility and predictability. There are therefore various vehicles by which processes and/or systems described herein can be effected (e.g., hardware, software, and/or firmware) and that the preferred vehicle will vary with the context in which the technologies are deployed.
[0327] At least a portion of the devices and/or processes described herein can be integrated into a data processing system with a reasonable amount of experimentation. Those having skill in the art will recognize that a typical data processing system generally includes one or more of a system unit housing, a video display device, memory, processors, operating systems, drivers, graphical user interfaces, and application programs, interaction devices such as a touch pad or screen, and/or control systems including feedback loops and control motors. A typical data processing system may be implemented utilizing any suitable commercially available components to create the environment described herein.
[0328] Where a limitation of a first claim would cover one of a feature as well as more than one of a feature (e.g., a limitation such as "at least one widget" covers one widget as well as more than one widget), and where in a second claim that depends on the first claim, the second claim uses a definite article "the" to refer to the limitation (e.g., "the widget"), this does not imply that the first claim covers only one of the feature, and this does not imply that the second claim covers only one of the feature (e.g., "the widget" can cover both one widget and more than one widget).
[0329] Each claim in a set of claims has a different scope. Therefore, for example, where a limitation is explicitly recited in a dependent claim, but not explicitly recited in any claim from which the dependent claim depends (directly or indirectly), that limitation is not to be read into any claim from which the dependent claim depends. [0330] When an ordinal number (such as "first", "second", "third" and so on) is used as an adjective before a term, that ordinal number is used (unless expressly specified otherwise) merely to indicate a particular feature, such as to distinguish that particular feature from another feature that is described by the same term or by a similar term. For example, a "first widget" may be so named merely to distinguish it from, e.g., a "second widget". Thus, the mere usage of the ordinal numbers "first" and "second" before the term "widget" does not indicate any other relationship between the two widgets, and likewise does not indicate any other characteristics of either or both widgets. For example, the mere usage of the ordinal numbers "first" and "second" before the term "widget" (1) does not indicate that either widget comes before or after any other in order or location; (2) does not indicate that either widget occurs or acts before or after any other in time; and (3) does not indicate that either widget ranks above or below any other, as in importance or quality. In addition, the mere usage of ordinal numbers does not define a numerical limit to the features identified with the ordinal numbers. For example, the mere usage of the ordinal numbers "first" and "second" before the term "widget" does not indicate that there must be no more than two widgets. [0331] When a single device or article is described herein, more than one device / article (whether or not they cooperate) may alternatively be used in place of the single device / article that is described. Accordingly, the functionality that is described as being possessed by a device may alternatively be possessed by more than one device / article (whether or not they cooperate).
[0332] Similarly, where more than one device or article is described herein
(whether or not they cooperate), a single device / article may alternatively be used in place of the more than one device or article that is described. For example, a plurality of computer-based devices may be substituted with a single computer-based device. Accordingly, the various functionality that is described as being possessed by more than one device or article may alternatively be possessed by a single device / article. [0333] The functionality and / or the features of a single device that is described may be alternatively embodied by one or more other devices which are described but are not explicitly described as having such functionality / features. Thus, other embodiments need not include the described device itself, but rather can include the one or more other devices which would, in those other embodiments, have such functionality / features. [0334] Numerous embodiments are described in this patent application, and are presented for illustrative purposes only. The described embodiments are not, and are not intended to be, limiting in any sense. The presently disclosed invention(s) are widely applicable to numerous embodiments, as is readily apparent from the disclosure. One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the disclosed invention(s) may be practiced with various modifications and alterations, such as structural, logical, software, and electrical modifications. Although particular features of the disclosed invention(s) may be described with reference to one or more particular embodiments and / or drawings, it should be understood that such features are not limited to usage in the one or more particular embodiments or drawings with reference to which they are described, unless expressly specified otherwise.
[0335] The present disclosure is neither a literal description of all embodiments of the invention nor a listing of features of the invention which must be present in all embodiments.
[0336] Neither the Title (set forth at the beginning of the first page of this patent application) nor the Abstract (set forth at the end of this patent application) is to be taken as limiting in any way as the scope of the disclosed invention(s). An Abstract has been included in this application merely because an Abstract of not more than 150 words is required under 37 C.F.R. § 1.72(b).
[0337] The title of this patent application and headings of sections provided in this patent application are for convenience only, and are not to be taken as limiting the disclosure in any way.
[0338] Devices that are described as in communication with each other need not be in continuous communication with each other, unless expressly specified otherwise. On the contrary, such devices need only transmit to each other as necessary or desirable, and may actually refrain from exchanging data most of the time. For example, a machine in communication with another machine via the Internet may not transmit data to the other machine for long period of time (e.g. weeks at a time). In addition, devices that are in communication with each other may communicate directly or indirectly through one or more intermediaries.
[0339] A description of an embodiment with several components or features does not imply that all or even any of such components / features are required. On the contrary, a variety of optional components are described to illustrate the wide variety of possible embodiments of the present invention(s). Unless otherwise specified explicitly, no component / feature is essential or required.
[0340] Although process steps, algorithms or the like may be described in a sequential order, such processes may be configured to work in different orders. In other words, any sequence or order of steps that may be explicitly described does not necessarily indicate a requirement that the steps be performed in that order. On the contrary, the steps of processes described herein may be performed in any order practical. Further, some steps may be performed simultaneously despite being described or implied as occurring non-simultaneously (e.g., because one step is described after the other step). Moreover, the illustration of a process by its depiction in a drawing does not imply that the illustrated process is exclusive of other variations and modifications thereto, does not imply that the illustrated process or any of its steps are necessary to the invention, and does not imply that the illustrated process is preferred. [0341] Although a process may be described as including a plurality of steps, that does not imply that all or any of the steps are essential or required. Various other embodiments within the scope of the described invention(s) include other processes that omit some or all of the described steps. Unless otherwise specified explicitly, no step is essential or required.
[0342] Although a product may be described as including a plurality of components, aspects, qualities, characteristics and / or features, that does not indicate that all of the plurality are essential or required. Various other embodiments within the scope of the described invention(s) include other products that omit some or all of the described plurality.
[0343] Unless expressly specified otherwise, an enumerated list of items (which may or may not be numbered) does not imply that any or all of the items are mutually exclusive. Therefore it is possible, but not necessarily true, that something can be considered to be, or fit the definition of, two or more of the items in an enumerated list.
Also, an item in the enumerated list can be a subset (a specific type of) of another item in the enumerated list. For example, the enumerated list "a computer, a laptop, a PDA" does not imply that any or all of the three items of that list are mutually exclusive - e.g., an item can be both a laptop and a computer, and a "laptop" can be a subset of (a specific type of) a "computer".
[0344] Likewise, unless expressly specified otherwise, an enumerated list of items (which may or may not be numbered) does not imply that any or all of the items are collectively exhaustive or otherwise comprehensive of any category. For example, the enumerated list "a computer, a laptop, a PDA" does not imply that any or all of the three items of that list are comprehensive of any category.
[0345] Further, an enumerated listing of items does not imply that the items are ordered in any manner according to the order in which they are enumerated.
[0346] In a claim, a limitation of the claim which includes the phrase "means for" or the phrase "step for" means that 35 U.S. C. § 112, paragraph 6, applies to that limitation.
[0347] In a claim, a limitation of the claim which does not include the phrase
"means for" or the phrase "step for" means that 35 U.S. C. § 112, paragraph 6 does not apply to that limitation, regardless of whether that limitation recites a function without recitation of structure, material or acts for performing that function. For example, in a claim, the mere use of the phrase "step of or the phrase "steps of in referring to one or more steps of the claim or of another claim does not mean that 35 U.S. C. § 112, paragraph 6, applies to that step(s).
[0348] With respect to a means or a step for performing a specified function in accordance with 35 U.S. C. § 112, paragraph 6, the corresponding structure, material or acts described in the specification, and equivalents thereof, may perform additional functions as well as the specified function.
[0349] Computers, processors, computing devices and like products are structures that can perform a wide variety of functions. Such products can be operable to perform a specified function by executing one or more programs, such as a program stored in a memory device of that product or in a memory device which that product accesses. Unless expressly specified otherwise, such a program need not be based on any particular algorithm, such as any particular algorithm that might be disclosed in this patent application. It is well known to one of ordinary skill in the art that a specified function may be implemented via different algorithms, and any of a number of different algorithms would be a mere design choice for carrying out the specified function. [0350] Therefore, with respect to a means or a step for performing a specified function in accordance with 35 U. S. C. § 112, paragraph 6, structure corresponding to a specified function includes any product programmed to perform the specified function. Such structure includes programmed products which perform the function, regardless of whether such product is programmed with (i) a disclosed algorithm for performing the function, (ii) an algorithm that is similar to a disclosed algorithm, or (iii) a different algorithm for performing the function.
[0351] The present disclosure provides, to one of ordinary skill in the art, an enabling description of several embodiments and / or inventions. Some of these embodiments and / or inventions may not be claimed in this patent application, but may nevertheless be claimed in one or more continuing applications that claim the benefit of priority of this patent application. Applicants intend to file additional applications to pursue patents for subject matter that has been disclosed and enabled but not claimed in this patent application.

Claims

What is claimed is:
1. A method comprising: receiving an electronic version of a patent application from and end-user; comparing the patent application with the contents of a prior art database; identifying prior art references that are relevant to the prior art; and determining a relevance rating for at least one of the identified prior art references.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing automated prior art search results to the end-user wherein the prior art search results comprise at least some of the identified prior art references.
3. The method of claim 2 further comprising: receiving comments from the end-user on at least one of the identified prior art references; and storing the comments in such a way that the comments are associated with the identified prior art reference.
4. The method of claim 3 further comprising providing the comments to another end-user in conjunction with the identified prior art reference.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein the "another end-user" is a patent examiner.
6. The method of claim 4 wherein the "another end-user" is a patent practitioner who has received the prior art reference in response to submission of a patent application.
7. The method of claim 2 further comprising receiving amendments to the patent application from the end-user in response to the identified prior art references.
8. The method of claim 7 further comprising storing the amendments in such a way that they can be readily identified as amendments to the application.
9. The method of claim 2 further comprising providing the relevance rating to the end-user.
10. The method of claim 2 wherein identifying prior art references comprises identifying an end-user profile for the end-user.
11. The method of claim 10 wherein the end-user profile includes information related to prior applications submitted by the end-user.
12. The method of claim 10 wherein the end-user profile includes information related to whether or not the end-user is a patent practitioner.
13. A method comprising : receiving a submission from the end-user, wherein the submission comprises: a patent application; and search results generated by an automated system configured to: receive a patent application; compare the content of the patent application with a database of prior art documents; and automatically generate prior art search results comprising prior art documents in the database that are identified as being relevant to the prior art.
14. The method of claim 13 further comprising receiving certification that the search results received in the submission are the search results that were generated by the automated system.
15. The method of claim 13 wherein the submission further comprises comments form the end-user regarding the prior art documents.
16. The method of claim 13 wherein the submission further comprises amendments made by the end-user in response to the prior art documents.
17. The method of claim 16 further comprising providing the submission to a patent examiner.
18. A system comprising : a patent submission module configured to receive an electronic version of a patent application and submit the application to an entity authorized to grant patents; a prior art database; a prior art search module configured to: search the prior art database for prior art references that are relevant to the patent application; and output the results of the prior art search to an end-user.
19. The system of claim 18 further comprising: an amendments module configured to receive amendments to the patent application from the end-user in response to the search results.
20. The system of claim 18 further comprising: a prior art notes module configured to receive comments on a prior art reference from an end-user; and associate the comments with the prior art reference.
21. A method comprising : receiving a patent application in computer readable form from an end user; identifying criteria in the application; maintaining a database of prior art researchers; automatically selecting a prior art researcher from the database based on the identified criteria; and automatically submitting the patent application to a selected researcher.
22. The method of claim 21 wherein identifying criteria in the application is performed automatically.
23. The method of claim 21 wherein the database of prior art researchers comprises information regarding the area of expertise of each researcher in the database.
24. The method of claim 23 wherein the area of expertise is identified by class and subclass.
25. The method of claim 24 wherein the criteria identified in the application is a class and subclass.
26. The method of claim 25 wherein automatically selecting a prior art researcher is performed by comparing the class and subclass of the researcher's area of expertise with the class and subclass of the application.
27. The method of claim 21 wherein receiving a patent application in computer readable form is performed in real time via an automated web-based patent application preparation and submission tool.
28. The method of claim 27 further comprising automatically identifying criteria in real time as the patent application is being prepared.
29. The method of claim 28 wherein automatically selecting a prior art researcher is performed in real time as the application is being prepared.
30. The method of claim 28 further comprising offering the facilitate real time communication between the researcher and the end user as the application is being prepared.
31. The method of claim 21 further comprising ensuring that the researcher does not receive any identifying information about the end user.
32. The method of claim 21 further comprising receiving search results from the researcher.
33. The method of claim 32 further comprising providing the search results to the end user.
34. The method of claim 33 wherein providing the search results to the end user is performed automatically.
35. The method of claim 33 further comprising: receiving additional language from the end user; associating the additional language with the patent application; and filing the patent application and additional language with an official patent examining authority.
36. A method comprising: receiving a patent application as it is being drafted by an end user via a web- based interface; automatically identifying a prior art researcher for the patent application as it is being drafted; facilitating real time web-based communication between the end user and the prior art researcher.
37. The method of claim 36 further comprising concealing any identifying information so that the researcher cannot identify the end user.
38. The method of claim36 wherein automatically identifying a prior art researcher comprises: determining patent application criteria; comparing the criteria with skills associated with a plurality of researchers; and identifying at least one researcher whose skills suit the determined criteria.
39. A system comprising: an automated web-based patent application preparation and submission tool; a researcher database comprising: a list of prior art researchers; and areas of expertise for each researcher; and a researcher assignment tool configured to associate a patent application prepared via the automated web-based patent application preparation and submission tool with a researcher in the researcher database.
40. The system of claim 39 wherein the researcher assignment tool is further configured to associate the patent application with a researcher based on identified criteria in the patent application and the area of expertise of the researcher.
41. A method comprising : receiving a search request from an end user retrieving one or more synonyms of a terms in the search request; displaying the one or more synonyms to the end user; receiving a request from the end user identifying one or more of the displayed synonyms to be included in the search request; and including the identified one or more synonyms in the search request; searching a document database for items that match the search request; retrieving items that match the search request and identifying the items as the search results; determining the relevancy of items in the search results; weighting the items in the search results according to one or more predetermined factors; and displaying the search results based on the determined relevancy and weight.
42. The method of claim 41 further comprising displaying the determined relevancy to the end user.
43. The method of claim 41 wherein at least one of the predetermined factors is provided by the user.
44. The method of claim 41 wherein at least one of the predetermined factors is based on the section of the document in which the search request appears in the search result item.
45. The method of claim 41 wherein the document database includes notes that are associated with documents after the documents are entered into the database.
46. The method of claim 44 wherein the section of the document is a note.
47. The method of claim 41 wherein the document database includes an advertisement that is associated with a document via one or more hyperlinked keywords in the document.
48 The method of claim 47 wherein the document section is an advertisement associated with the document.
49. The method of claim 41 further comprising presenting the end user with a survey question, wherein the answer to the survey question will be used to further define the search request.
50. The method of claim 47 further comprising: receiving a response to the survey question from the end user; and further defining the search request based on the answer to the survey question.
51. A method comprising : receiving a search request from an end user presenting the end user with a survey question, wherein the answer to the survey question will be used to further define the search request; receiving a response to the survey question from the end user; further defining the search request based on the answer to the survey question; searching a document database for items that match the search request; retrieving items that match the search request and identifying the items as the search results; determining the relevancy of items in the search results; weighting the items in the search results according to one or more predetermined factors; and displaying the search results based on the determined relevancy and weight.
52. The method of claim 51 further comprising displaying the determined relevancy to the end user.
53. The method of claim 51 wherein at least one of the predetermined factors is provided by the user.
54. The method of claim 51 wherein at least one of the predetermined factors is based on the section of the document in which the search request appears in the search result item.
55. The method of claim 51 wherein the document database includes notes that are associated with documents after the documents are entered into the database.
56. The method of claim 54 wherein the section of the document is a note.
57. The method of claim 51 wherein the document database includes an advertisement that is associated with a document via one or more hyperlinked keywords in the document.
58 The method of claim 57 wherein the document section is an advertisement associated with the document.
59. The method of claim 51 further comprising: retrieving one or more synonyms of a terms in the search request; and displaying the one or more synonyms to the end user.
60. The method of claim 59 further comprising: receiving a request from the end user identifying one or more of the displayed synonyms to be included in the search request; and including the identified one or more synonyms in the search request.
PCT/US2007/066702 2007-04-16 2007-04-16 Enhanced patent prior art search engine WO2008127338A1 (en)

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PCT/US2007/066702 WO2008127338A1 (en) 2007-04-16 2007-04-16 Enhanced patent prior art search engine

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
PCT/US2007/066702 WO2008127338A1 (en) 2007-04-16 2007-04-16 Enhanced patent prior art search engine

Publications (1)

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