System and method for prior art analysis

A patent portfolio management system, the system comprising:

• a patent matter database, wherein the database includes data about the patent matters, the data including for at least one patent matter:
• a claim set or statement of invention, and
• a priority date for the claim set or statement of invention;
• a database of prior art documents, wherein the prior art database includes data about the prior art documents, the data including for at least one prior art document
• a priority date or publication date of the at least one prior art document,
• a hardware-implemented analytics module including at least one processor to:
• identify the priority date or publication date of the at least one prior art document and, based on the identification, associate one or more prior art documents with a first patent matter in the patent matter database;
• automatically identify a pool of keywords for the first patent matter and associated prior art documents based on the number occurrences of the keywords in the first patent matter and associated prior art documents;
• perform an automatic keyword analysis on the first patent matter and associated prior art documents simultaneously;
• automatically identify, based on the analysis, keywords occurring uniquely in the first patent matter as potential claim elements differentiating the claim set or statement of invention over the disclosures contained in the one or more prior art documents.

A patent portfolio management system comprising:

• a network;
• a patent matter database, accessible on the network, and including data about the patent matters, the data including for at least one patent matter:
• a claim set or statement of invention, and
• a priority date for the claim set or statement of invention;
• a prior art document database, accessible on the network, and including data about the prior art documents, the data including for at least one prior art document a priority date or publication date of the at least one prior art document;
• and
• a server, operatively connected to the network, wherein the server includes:
• a processor,
• a memory,
• software operable on the processor to:
• identify the priority date or publication date of the at least one prior art document and, based on the identification, associate one or more prior art documents with a first patent matter in the patent matter database;
• automatically identify a pool of keywords for the first patent matter and associated prior art documents based on the number of occurrences of the keywords in the first patent matter and associated prior art documents;
• perform an automatic keyword analysis on the first patent matter and associated prior art documents simultaneously,
• automatically identify, based on the analysis, keywords occurring uniquely in the first patent matter as potential claim elements differentiating the claim set or statement of invention over the disclosures contained in the one or more prior art documents.