Method and system for rating patents and other intangible assets

A system comprising:

• an electronic data store configured to at least store data associated with maintainable intellectual property assets;
• and
• a computing system comprising one or more hardware computing devices, said computing system in communication with the electronic data store and configured to at least:
• repeatedly monitor, by an automated web crawler, a plurality of third-party web pages associated with commercial products;
• analyze data accessed by the automated web crawler to determine associations between the commercial products and intellectual property assets;
• store, in the electronic data store, URL address data that links the intellectual property assets with third-party web pages having commercial products determined to be associated with the intellectual property assets;
• store, in the electronic data store, a first series of data comprising selected metrics quantifying certain selected characteristics of a first population of maintainable intellectual property assets for which maintenance fee payments have been made;
• store, in the electronic data store, a second series of data comprising selected metrics quantifying said selected characteristics of a second population of maintainable intellectual property assets for which maintenance fee payments have not been made;
• construct a predictive model based on said stored first and second series of data, said predictive model being operable to generate an estimated ex ante probability that is predictive of the maintenance fee payment having either been paid or not paid relative to each intellectual property asset in said first or second populations of maintainable intellectual property assets;
• provide as input to said predictive model a third series of data comprising selected metrics quantifying said selected characteristics of said particular identified maintainable intellectual property asset of interest and operating said predictive model, by the computer system, to calculate an estimated probability of a maintenance fee payment being made in the future relative to said identified maintainable intellectual property asset of interest;
• estimate a value distribution curve, the shape of the curve generally representing an approximated or assumed distribution of value by percentile rankings within a selected population of maintainable intellectual property assets;
• use said value distribution curve to estimate a value or value range for said particular identified maintainable intellectual property asset of interest based at least in part on a percentile ranking derived from said estimated probability of said maintenance fee either being paid or not being paid in the future relative to said particular identified maintainable intellectual property asset of interest;
• and
• display or cause to be displayed via a graphical user interface of an Internet web browser a dynamically updateable interactive report, the interactive report comprising an indication of the estimated value or value range for said particular identified maintainable intellectual property asset of interest, the interactive report further comprising a clickable hyperlink generated based on the stored URL address data, the clickable hyperlink configured to cause the graphical user interface of the Internet web browser to display a third-party web page associated with a commercial product related to said particular identified maintainable intellectual property asset of interest.

Non-transitory physical computer storage comprising computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a hardware processor, are configured to perform a method for dynamically linking a third-party web page to a dynamically updateable Internet-accessible report estimating a value or value range for a particular identified maintainable intellectual property asset of interest related to a commercial product associated with the third-party web page, the method comprising:

• repeatedly monitoring, by an automated web crawler, a plurality of third-party web pages associated with commercial products;
• analyzing data accessed by the automated web crawler to determine associations between the commercial products and intellectual property assets;
• storing in an electronic database URL address data that links the intellectual property assets with third-party web pages having commercial products determined to be associated with the intellectual property assets;
• storing a first series of data comprising selected metrics quantifying certain selected characteristics of a first population of maintainable intellectual property assets for which maintenance fee payments have been made;
• storing a second series of data comprising selected metrics quantifying said selected characteristics of a second population of maintainable intellectual property assets for which maintenance fee payments have not been made;
• constructing a predictive model based on said stored first and second series of data, said predictive model being operable to generate an estimated ex ante probability that is predictive of the maintenance fee payment having either been paid or not paid relative to each intellectual property asset in said first or second populations of maintainable intellectual property assets;
• providing as input to said predictive model a third series of data comprising selected metrics quantifying said selected characteristics of said particular identified maintainable intellectual property asset of interest and operating said predictive model, by the computer system, to calculate an estimated probability of a maintenance fee payment being made in the future relative to said identified maintainable intellectual property asset of interest;
• estimating a value distribution curve, the shape of the curve generally representing an approximated or assumed distribution of value by percentile rankings within a selected population of maintainable intellectual property assets;
• using said value distribution curve to estimate a value or value range for said particular identified maintainable intellectual property asset of interest based at least in part on a percentile ranking derived from said estimated probability of said maintenance fee either being paid or not being paid in the future relative to said particular identified maintainable intellectual property asset of interest;
• and
• displaying or causing to be displayed via a graphical user interface of an Internet web browser a dynamically updateable interactive report, the interactive report comprising an indication of the estimated value or value range for said particular identified maintainable intellectual property asset of interest, the interactive report further comprising a clickable hyperlink generated based on the stored URL address data, the clickable hyperlink configured to cause the graphical user interface of the Internet web browser to display a third-party web page associated with a commercial product related to said particular identified maintainable intellectual property asset of interest.