Systems, methods and user interfaces in a patent management system
AssigneeBlack Hills IP Holdings, LLC
InventorSteven W. Lundberg
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A prior art date analyzer system and method are provided. The system comprises a search engine to retrieve data from an external patent database, the data including at least one priority date for a patent matter stored in the database. The system further comprises an analytics module to receive input identifying national prior art rules, analyze the retrieved data to identify criteria relevant to the rules, and determine automatically the likely effective date of the reference.
Claims5
A prior art date analyzer system for determining an effective date of a patent reference, the system comprising:
- a search engine to retrieve data from an external patent database, the data including at least one date for a patent reference stored in the database, the at least one date including one or more of a priority, filing, publication and grant date of the reference;
- and
- an analytics module, executing on one or more computer processors, to
- receive data relating to the qualification of the at least one date as an effective date of the patent reference based on at least one national prior art rule relating to such qualification,
- analyze the data retrieved by the search engine to identify the at least one date of the reference relevant to qualification as an effective date of the patent reference, and
- determine automatically, based on the at least one national prior art qualification rule, one or more of the priority, filing, publication and grant date as the likely effective date of the reference.
A patent management system comprising:
- a network;
- at least one database, accessible on the network, and storing data including at least one date for a patent reference stored in the database, the at least one date including one or more of a priority, filing, publication and grant date of the reference;
- and
- a server, operatively connected to the network, wherein the server includes:
- a processor,
- a memory,
- software operable on the processor to:
- receive data relating to the qualification of the at least one date as an effective date of the patent reference based on at least one national prior art rule relating to such qualification,
- analyze the data retrieved by the search engine to identify the at least one date of the reference relevant to qualification as an effective date of the patent reference, and
- determine automatically, based on the at least one national prior art qualification rule, one or more of the priority, filing, publication and grant date as the effective date of the reference.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.