Method for Analyzing Patent Claims
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsMohammad Hasan, William Scott Spangler
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A patent evaluation method analyzes key words in the claims and how many patents use those words, to measure the impact of a given patent. For a group of patents in a particular field (e.g., as defined by a patent classification code), the key words can be indexed against the patents having claims in which those key words appear, and in particular with respect to that patent having the earliest reference date (e.g., a publication date such as the date on which the patent issued or any corresponding patent application was published). Output may be presented in the form of a table, which aids in quickly understanding a patent's value compared to other patents in its group. Various visualization and user interaction tools may be employed.
Claims25
A method for use with a given patent having a claim set of one or more claims, said given patent having an identifier and a reference date, the method comprising:
- building a dictionary of terms for each one of a plurality of categories of patents, the categories being based on a taxonomy, each of the patents in the categories of patents having an identifier, a reference date, and a claim set of one or more claims, each category's dictionary including terms from the claim sets of the patents in that category;
- identifying, for each term in each category, a date of first usage corresponding to the earliest reference date among patents in that category having a claim set in which that term is used;
- associating said given patent with an appropriate one of the categories and identifying, within the claim set of said given patent, at least one particular term that is in the dictionary of said appropriate category;
- and
- evaluating said particular term in said given patent associated with said appropriate category by determining the time difference between:
- a) the reference date of said given patent, and
- b) the date of first usage for said particular term in said appropriate category.
A method for use with a given patent having a claim set of one or more claims, said given patent having an identifier and a reference date, the method comprising:
- building a dictionary of terms for a group of patents, each of the patents having an identifier, a reference date, and a claim set of one or more claims, wherein each of the terms occurs in the claim set of at least one of the patents;
- identifying for each term a date of first usage corresponding to the earliest reference date among patents in the group having a claim set in which that term is used;
- identifying, within the claim set of said given patent, at least one particular term that is in the dictionary;
- and
- evaluating said particular term in said given patent by determining the time difference between:
- a) the reference date of said given patent, and
- b) the date of first usage for said particular term.
A method for use with a group of patents each of which has an identifier, a reference date, and a claim set of one or more claims, the method comprising:
- analyzing the claim sets to identify terms appearing in more than a pre-selected percentage of the claim sets, the identified terms forming a list of common terms;
- building a dictionary of terms, each of which appears in at least one claim set but is not one of the common terms;
- and
- for each of the terms in the dictionary:
- i) considering every patent having that term in its claim set to identify which patent has the earliest reference date;
- and ii) for every patent in the group, comparing its reference date with the reference date of said identified patent.
At least one tangible computer-useable medium, said at least one medium having a computer-readable program, wherein the program upon being processed on a computer causes the computer to implement the steps of:
- building a dictionary of terms for a group of patents, each of the patents having an identifier, a reference date, and a claim set of one or more claims, wherein each of the terms occurs in the claim set of at least one of the patents;
- identifying for each term a date of first usage corresponding to the earliest reference date among patents in the group having a claim set in which that term is used;
- identifying, within a claim set of a given patent, at least one particular term that is in the dictionary, said given patent having an identifier and a reference date;
- and
- evaluating said particular term in said given patent by determining the time difference between:
- a) the reference date of said given patent, and
- b) the date of first usage for said particular term.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.