Method and system for related art citation management

A method of maintaining a citation status of a related art reference for a first patent document in a patent family, the method comprising:

• adding the related art reference to a first record in a patent docketing system;
• and
• setting the citation status to a first citation status value in response to adding the related art reference to the first record, wherein the first record pertains to one of the first patent document and a second patent document in the patent family,
• wherein at least one of the preceding actions is performed on at least one electronic hardware component.

A docketing server comprising:

• at least one memory device for storing one or more intellectual asset records;
• a controller operatively connected to the at least one memory device, wherein the controller:
• presents a citation matrix for a first patent document in a patent family, wherein the citation matrix is presented as a table, the table comprising at least one row and at least one column;
• populates the table with at least one patent document identifier and at least one related art reference identifier, wherein the at least one patent document identifier comprises an identifier of the first patent document;
• and
• displays a citation status for each combination of a patent document identifier of the at least one patent document identifier and a related art reference identifier of the at least one related art reference identifier, wherein the combination is denoted as an intersection of a row of the at least one row and a column of the at least one column.