1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of information retrieval. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system that facilitates efficiently searching through patent-related documents.
2. Related Art
The relentless growth of the Internet has been largely fueled by the development of sophisticated search engines, which enable users to easily comb through billions of web pages looking for specific pages of interest. Although such search engines are well-suited for searching through web pages, they are not well-suited for searching through certain types of documents, such as patents, which have a specific format and which are searched in very specific ways.
There exist a number of web sites that enable users to browse through patent-related documents, but none of these web sites provide this capability through user interface which is both intuitive and easy-to-use.
Hence, what is needed is a method and an apparatus that facilitates searching for patent-related documents without the shortcomings of existing systems.
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that displays a patent. This system provides a user interface, which is configured to display panels containing different sections of the patent, wherein the panels for the different sections of the patent are visible at the same time. In this way, a user does not have to navigate to view the different sections of the patent.
In a variation on this embodiment, if less than a specified amount of data would appear in the panels, the display is configured to present a scanned version of the front page of the patent instead of the panels.
In a variation on this embodiment, a panel is a contiguous two-dimensional region in the display which can have any shape.
In a variation on this embodiment, the panels for the different sections of the patent can include: (1) a patent summary panel, which displays the abstract of the patent and also displays information associated with the patent, including: the patent number, the filing date, the issue date, the names of the inventors and the assignee; (2) a citations panel which displays documents which are cited by the patent; and (3) a claims panel which displays one or more claims in the patent. Note that one or more of the panels can be dynamically configured to facilitate presentation. For example, a panel for a particular section of a patent can be sized to display all of the content in the section. On the other hand, if there is no content in the section, then the panel can be eliminated from the display.
In a further variation, the citations panel displays the cited documents in ranked order, wherein each cited document is ranked based on a number of references to the cited document.
In a variation on this embodiment, the display also includes links to corresponding sections in a scanned version of the patent, wherein the sections include: the abstract, the description, and the claims of the patent.
In a variation on this embodiment, the display includes a search box for the patent, which allows a user to enter a query to search for specific terms in the patent.
In a variation on this embodiment, the display includes a link to a related document at a patent office web site. In a further variation, the link to the related document can be: a link to a corresponding version of the patent at the patent office website; or a link to an entry for the patent on the public PAIR system at the patent office website.
In a variation on this embodiment, the layout includes a drawings section which displays thumbnail versions of the drawings in the patent. When a user selects on a thumbnail version of a drawing, the user interface displays an expanded version of the drawing.
In a variation on this embodiment, the layout includes a “referenced-by section,” which displays other patents and other related documents which reference the patent.
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates searching through patent-related documents. This system includes a patent database which contains patent related documents. It also includes a user interface, which provides a search box through which the user can enter a query containing search terms. The system additionally includes a searching mechanism, which is configured to process the query by searching in the patent database for matching patents which contain the search terms, and to display any matching patents. If the searching mechanism cannot find a patent containing a search term, and if the search term is similar to a term which appears in one or more patents, the searching mechanism is configured to suggest that the similar search term be used in place of the search term in a subsequent query.
In a variation on this embodiment, if a user selects a matching patent, the user interface is configured to highlight the search terms while displaying the matching patent.
The following description is presented to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the invention, and is provided in the context of a particular application and its requirements. Various modifications to the disclosed embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments and applications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Thus, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments shown, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the claims.
The data structures and code described in this detailed description are typically stored on a computer-readable storage medium, which may be any device or medium that can store code and/or data for use by a computer system. This includes, but is not limited to, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, magnetic and optical storage devices such as disk drives, magnetic tape, CDs (compact discs), DVDs (digital versatile discs or digital video discs), or other media capable of storing computer readable media now known or later developed.
During a subsequent searching process, a patent search engine 112 receives a query 113 from a user 111 through a web browser 114. This query 113 specifies a number of terms to be searched for in the patent documents. In response to query 113, search engine 112 uses search terms specified in the query to identify patents that satisfy the query. Search engine 112 then returns a response 115 through web browser 114, which includes a list of matching patents, along with references to the identified patents and possibly includes ranking information.
In one embodiment of the present invention, if the search engine cannot find a patent containing a search term, and if the search term is similar to a term which appears in one or more patents, the search engine is configured to suggest that the similar search term be used in place of the original search term in a subsequent query. Alternatively, if the search engine cannot find a patent, the system can enable the user to search the patent office web site to find the patent because the patent office web site may contain some recently issued patents that have not yet been loaded onto the patent database.
In one embodiment of the present invention, if a user selects a matching patent, the user interface is configured to highlight the search terms while displaying the matching patent.
An exemplary layout for an about-this-patent page appears in
The layout also includes a citations panel which displays documents which are cited by the patent. Note that the citations panel can display the cited documents in ranked order, wherein each cited documents can be ranked, for example, based upon a number of references to the cited document.
On the right-hand side of
Also note that the layout can include a referenced-by section (not shown), which displays other patents and other related documents which reference the patent.
The display in
The display in
In one embodiment of the present invention, the display also provides thumbnail versions of the drawings in the patent (not shown in
In one embodiment of the present invention, the display also includes a link to a related document at the patent office web site. (See the link labeled “View Patent at USPTO” on the left-hand side of patent summary section.) This link can navigate to a corresponding version of the patent at the patent office website. Alternatively, the link can navigate to an entry for the patent on the public PAIR system at the patent office website, which enables the user to obtain the file history for the patent.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the system uses OCR techniques to extract textual data from the drawings, which is stored along with the patent. This enables the search engine to search through textual information contained within the drawings.
The foregoing descriptions of embodiments of the present invention have been presented only for purposes of illustration and description. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present invention to the forms disclosed. Accordingly, many modifications and variations will be apparent to practitioners skilled in the art. Additionally, the above disclosure is not intended to limit the present invention. The scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims.
This application hereby claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/874,707, filed on 12 Dec. 2006, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Facilitating Patent Searching,” by inventors William C. Brougher and Doug Banks.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60874707 | Dec 2006 | US |