Prior art management
OwnerSteven W. Lundberginventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
System and method permit prior art management. A method may comprise maintaining a database of patent portfolios and a database of patents with each patent stored in the database of patents associated with one or more patent portfolios stored in the database of patent portfolios. A method and system of prior art management may include maintaining a database of prior art portfolios, a database of patent matters, and a database of prior art reference citations, at least some of the prior art reference citations being associated with at least one of the patent matters stored in the database. Prior art references may be cross-cited between patent matters and portfolios.
Claims17
A computer implemented method of managing prior art comprising:
- maintaining a database of prior art portfolios, a database of patent matters, and a database of prior art reference citations, at least some of the prior art reference citations being associated with one or more of the patent matters stored in the database of patent matters;
- loading a selection of patent matters into a first prior art portfolio;
- identifying at least one source patent matter in the first prior art portfolio;
- causing the prior art reference citations associated with the at least one source patent matter to flow to and be associated with at least one other patent matter contained in the first prior art portfolio.
A system comprising:
- a database of prior portfolios, a database of patent matters, and a database of prior art reference citations, at least some of the prior art reference citations being associated with one or more of the patent matters stored in the database of patent matters;
- and
- a web server engine configured to load a selection of patent matters into a first prior art portfolio;
- a tracking module configured to identify prior art reference citations associated with at least one source patent matter contained in the first patent portfolio;
- a mapping module configured to cause the reference citations associated with the at least one source patent matter to flow to and be associated with at least one other patent matter contained in the first prior art portfolio.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.