Computer implemented method for quantifying the relevance of documents

A computer implemented method for quantifying and aggregating the relevance of documents, the documents being represented by document data objects, the method comprising:

• assigning documents to one or more document families, each document family comprising one or more documents;
• calculating, for each document family, a document family coverage score DFCS, the document family coverage score being indicative of the validity of the document family in a category,
• wherein the validity is calculated from one or more first properties of each document belonging to said document family,
• wherein the DFCS of each document family is calculated by summing up weights assigned to each document of the document family, whereby each weight wc is multiplied with a value being indicative of the significance of the country c,
• wherein the DFCS of each document family b at a sheet date is calculated as DFCS (document family b)=Σ([wc*GNIc]/GNIREF),
• wherein wc is a country specific weight of country c, country c having been assigned to the document;
• wherein Σ indicates the sum over all documents of a document family and for all countries c considered:
• wherein GNIc is a parameter being indicative of the significance of country c;
• and
• wherein GNIREF is a reference parameter being indicative of the significance of a reference country REF;
• calculating, for each document family, a document family linkage score DFLS, said document family linkage score being calculated by
• finding one or more document links, each document link connecting a source document to a destination document, each destination document belonging to said document family, each source document belonging to another document family;
• finding one or more document family links, wherein each document family link connects a source document family with said document family, said document family acting as destination document family, wherein the existence of each document family link is derived from the one or more found document links and wherein the DFLS is derived from the existence and weight of the one or more found document family links;
• calculating, for each document family, a document family combined relevance score DFCR by multiplying the document family coverage score DFCS and the document family linkage score DFLS having been calculated for each document family;
• grouping document families into one or more portfolios, each portfolio comprising one or more document families;
• densely displaying, for each document portfolio, an aggregated view in which a plurality of data values are displayed in a summarized form on a graphical user interface with the summarized form providing a visualization of relationships between all documents in the document portfolio, the aggregated view comprising or being derived from one or more aggregated score values, the one or more aggregated score values being calculated by applying an aggregating function on the DFCR, the DFLS, or the DFCS value of the one or more document families of said portfolio,
• wherein the documents are patent documents or patent applications,
• wherein the calculation of the relevance score for each document family further comprises the step of:
• calculating the DFLS value of a first document family whose status depends on a date lying within a time period zx, the time period zx being younger than a threshold time value, by:
• calculating an average DFLS value of all DFLS values having been calculated for one or more second document families of the same portfolio, wherein the status of said one or more second document families of the same portfolio depends on a date lying within a time period zy, the time period zy being older than said threshold value, wherein the date is selected from the group comprising:
• the publication date of the earliest published document belonging to the document family,
• the priority date of the patent family;
• the filing date of the earliest filed patent document belonging to the document family;
• and
• the earliest date of receiving patent protection for any of the patent documents belonging to the document family;
• using the calculated average DSLS value as DSLS value of said first patent family,
• wherein the one or more portfolios of the one or more document families has a data structure that provides an ability to execute a multidimensional drill down analysis.