Patent Application
20120054170
The present application claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2009-0045537 filed on May 25, 2009 which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The present invention relates to a method of providing a by-viewpoint patent map, which suggests directions of idea developments or intuitively provides various kinds of information about patent documents, and more particularly to, a method of providing a by-viewpoint patent map, which helps researchers to develop a variety of ideas by performing patent searches on patent documents with by-viewpoint classification codes such as F-term codes and displaying the number of patent documents based on classification titles from the search results, and a storage medium where software is stored for realizing the method.
In general, a patent applicant who wants to obtain his/her patent rights needs to refer to and search patent documents in order to decide whether there was/is a prior art or not. Most patent document searches require a keyword input.
Recently, the importance of evaluation on these patent documents which may be used as a standard for measuring the technological levels of research institutions of enterprises, countries, and universities is gradually increasing. For example, the accurate evaluation of the patent levels or directions of enterprises and so on is indispensable to the technological strategies of the enterprises, the investor s investment decision, and the judgment on the researcher s ability, and it is applied similarly to research institutions of countries or universities.
With the recent technological developments, the number of patent applications is increasing, and thus, the quantity of patent documents is also increasing. Accordingly, searching of patent documents needs to be conducted for preventing the redundant researches, or confirming the right infringement, or searching a prior art before filing the patent application, or examining the technological development of other companies, or promoting the research and development. However, the searching of the patent documents is not easily accomplished generally.
In a related art search system for searching or examining these patent documents, a large quantity of unnecessary information may be included if inadequate keywords are selected. In such a case, examining the patent documents itself requires more time.
In order to analyze these enormous patent documents, there are conventional patent classification standards such as International Patent Classification (IPC) or US Patent Classification (UPC). However, since these patent classification standards just simply classify massive technical fields through a top-down method, there is limitations in using them for idea developments.
The Japan Patent Office (JPO) develops and distributes an F-term code classification table based on different classification standards. That is, patent documents are classified by viewpoints. The F-term classifies patent documents by problem, solution, and application fields.
A method of utilizing this classification table for idea developments is required.
Embodiments provide a by-viewpoint patent map available for idea developments and research and development processes.
Embodiments also provides a method of generating an intuitive and easily understandable by-viewpoint patent map by classifying patents, which are searched by rearranged by-viewpoint classification titles, through an already existing patent classification table.
In one embodiment, a method of providing a by-viewpoint patent map includes: searching patent documents to which by-viewpoint classification codes are assigned; extracting the by-viewpoint classification codes from the searched patent documents; classifying the searched documents by the by-viewpoint classification codes; grouping the by-viewpoint classification codes into a first viewpoint and a second viewpoint; generating a by-viewpoint patent map based on classification titles assigned to the by-viewpoint classification codes; and displaying the generated by-viewpoint patent map.
The generating of the by-viewpoint patent map may include extracting and recording the number of patent documents that belong to classification titles corresponding to the first viewpoint and the second viewpoint.
The method may include: arranging the classification titles corresponding to the first viewpoint and the second viewpoint on a horizontal axis and a vertical axis, respectively; and displaying the number of the searched patent documents corresponding to the arranged classification titles.
The first viewpoint and the second viewpoint may be problem and solution, respectively.
The generating of the by-viewpoint patent map may include: displaying a list of new classification titles of the first viewpoint; receiving one, selected by a user, of the displayed classification titles; and displaying classification titles of the second viewpoint with respect to the selected classification title.
In another embodiment, a method of providing a by-viewpoint patent map includes: searching patent documents; generating a by-viewpoint patent map that indicates classification according to a first viewpoint and a second viewpoint based on the search results; displaying a list of classification titles of the first viewpoint; receiving one, selected by a user, of the displayed classification titles of the first viewpoint; and displaying classification titles of the second viewpoint with respect to the selected classification title.
The generating of the by-viewpoint patent map may include: extracting by-viewpoint classification codes from the searched patent documents; classifying the searched patent documents by the by-viewpoint classification codes; grouping the by-viewpoint classification codes into the first viewpoint and the second viewpoint; and generating a by-viewpoint patent map based on classification titles assigned to the by-viewpoint classification codes.
The generating of the by-viewpoint patent map may include extracting and recording the number of patent documents that belong to classification titles corresponding to the first viewpoint and the second viewpoint.
The first viewpoint and the second viewpoint may be problem and solution, respectively.
The first viewpoint and the second viewpoint may be selected by a user from a plurality of viewpoints.
In further another embodiment, a method of providing a by-viewpoint patent map includes: searching patent documents; and generating a tree map with respect to a first viewpoint and a second viewpoint by using the searched patent documents and displaying the tree map; wherein the displaying of the tree map comprises: displaying classification titles of the first viewpoint; receiving one, selected by a user, of the displayed classification titles of the first viewpoint; and displaying classification titles of the second viewpoint with respect to the selected classification title.
The first viewpoint and the second viewpoint may be problem and solution, respectively.
The method may further include: after the searching of the patent documents, displaying technical fields related to the by-viewpoint classification codes with respect to the searched patent documents; and selecting one of the displayed technical fields.
In still further another embodiment, a system for providing a by-viewpoint patent map includes: a storage medium for storing a program that provides a by-viewpoint patent map; and a display module for displaying the by-viewpoint patent map, wherein the program searches patent documents and generates a by-viewpoint patent map that indicates classification according to a first viewpoint and a second viewpoint based on the search results; and the display module displays a list of classification titles of the first viewpoint and, when one of the displayed classification titles is selected by a user and is received, displays classification titles of the second viewpoint with respect to the selected classification title.
The program may include: a patent document database; a search engine for searching patent documents from the patent document database; a by-viewpoint classification code extracting module for extracting a by-viewpoint classification codes from the patent documents searched by the search engine; a by-viewpoint separating module for grouping the searched patent documents by the viewpoints; and a by-viewpoint patent map generating module for generating a by-viewpoint patent map based on a viewpoint and a classification title of the by-viewpoint classification code.
The by-viewpoint patent map generating module may store a by-viewpoint patent map providing program that extracts and may record the number of patent documents that belong to classification titles corresponding to the first viewpoint and the second viewpoint.
The first viewpoint and the second viewpoint may be problem and solution, respectively.
The first viewpoint and the second viewpoint may be selected from a plurality of viewpoints.
In still further another embodiment, a storage medium for storing a by-viewpoint patent map providing program includes: a patent document database; a search engine for searching patent documents from the patent document database; a by-viewpoint classification code extracting module for extracting a by-viewpoint classification codes from the patent documents searched by the search engine; a by-viewpoint separating module for grouping the searched patent documents into a first viewpoint and a second viewpoint; and a by-viewpoint patent map generating module for generating a by-viewpoint patent map based on a viewpoint of the by-viewpoint classification codes and a classification title.
The by-viewpoint patent map generating module may extract and record the number of patent documents that belong to classification titles corresponding to the first viewpoint and the second viewpoint.
The details of one or more embodiments are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.
Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.
Hereinafter, the image sensor and a method for manufacturing the same according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in detail.
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
The F-term code classifies patent documents by a technical theme (or, a technical field) and then classifies techniques of a corresponding theme by various viewpoints such as problem, solution, application fields.
A theme code of the F-term code of
In
Each code name is assigned to sub-codes. A code name includes simple sentences for describing each viewpoint and is a kind of a classification title for representing which classification each sub-code indicates.
A code name of the remaining sub-codes 14 that do not end with “00” represents specific contents that a corresponding sub-code means. For example, since AA02 15 belongs to AA00, it represents classification by viewpoint of problem, and more specifically, it means classification that belongs to a purpose for increasing capacity to obtain communication capacitance.
Points in front of each code name represent a hierarchical structure of each code. According to classification, sub-codes AA01, AA02, AA08, and AA10 with one point are the highest hierarchy and sub-codes with two or three points belong to the sub hierarchy. The more points there are, the more specific classification is.
Referring to
The original F-term code of
The F-term codes at the left of
In the above-mentioned embodiment, the lookup table of
Since a process for generating the intermediate classification table of
In this case, a text mining technique may be used. The text mining technique is one of text analysis techniques and relates to a technique for calculating frequency of a word in data such as texts or sentences, or calculating similarity between texts based on the frequency, or classifying similar texts.
By applying the text mining on code names (or, classification titles) provided to the F-term codes of
According to the present invention, the text mining is not for a long sentence but for a short sentence provided from the F-term code classification table. Therefore, similarity may be determined very accurately.
In the embodiment, although the F-term code that the JPO distributes is used as one example, any by-viewpoint classification codes for patent document classification besides the F-term code (that is, a patent classification code with a plurality of viewpoint codes) may be applied to the above-mentioned processes.
A patent bibliography database 41 is a database of patent documents that are a target of patent search. The patent bibliography database 41 may be a database of a government agency such as the industrial property digital library (IPDL) of Japan, European Patent Office database, and a private patent document database.
A search engine 46 searches the patent bibliography database 41 based on search conditions such as a keyword, a filing data, a published filing data, and an applicant that a user inputs. In this embodiment, it is assumed that a keyword for a thin film transistor (TFT) among liquid crystal display (LCD) techniques is inputted and then its search is performed.
An F-term extracting module 47 extracts an F-term code from the patent documents that the search engine 46 searches. As mentioned below, if the searched patent documents are not the Japan patent documents, the Japan patent corresponding to the searched patent documents is searched and substituted.
A viewpoint separating module 48 classifies the searched patent documents by the extracted F-term code using F-term databases 42 and 43 as shown in
In
As shown in
A classification title rearranging module 49 performs a rearrangement process that merges viewpoint classification titles into a group by the substantially same ones as shown in
In
Furthermore, in
In
When the arrangement process proceeds from
As mentioned below, without using the lookup table, the rearrangement process may be performed on the classification titles of
A tree map generating module 50 and a matrix map generating module 51 generate a by-viewpoint patent map based on the rearranged viewpoint and classification title of
The matrix map crating module 51 generates a by-viewpoint patent map of a matrix map form as shown in
According to embodiments, a display module for displaying the generated by-viewpoint patent map may be further included.
The above mentioned system may be configured with computer readable software except for the display module, and the computer readable software may be stored in storage medium such as a hard disk drive (HDD), a flash memory, and so forth.
The matrix map of
There are only two viewpoints in
Various kinds of information may be obtained from the matrix map of
Furthermore, various kinds of information extracted from the searched patent documents may be recorded in the matrix map besides the classification title and the number of patent documents. For example, as shown in
In operation S41, search is performed on a patent document database through a search condition that a user inputs.
In operation S42, it is determined whether patent documents not Japan patent documents are included in the searched patent documents. If there are patent documents that are not Japan patent documents, corresponding family Japan patents are searched and replaced in operation S43. If there is no corresponding family Japan patent, they are classified into non-classifiable patent documents, and then may be excluded during the following classification process, or may be left to a user to be used for the later operations after the classification process is completed.
In operation S44, an F-term code is extracted from the searched patent documents.
The searched patent documents are arranged by the F-term code as shown in
In operation S47, as mentioned above, the rearranged classification titles are given using the lookup table of
In operation S48, a by-viewpoint patent map of a matrix map or a tree map is generated using the rearranged classification table.
The tree map selects two viewpoints from the classification table of
The tree map of
In the classification title list of
According to embodiments, by displaying a matrix map button 104 on a screen, the tree map and matrix map may be displayed in a toggle mode.
In addition, as shown in
The tree map and matrix map are just one embodiment of the by-viewpoint patent map generating module according to the present invention and thus by-viewpoint patent maps of different forms may be generated according to embodiments.
According to the embodiment, the search engine 46 of
Moreover, after the extracting of the F-term code in operation S44 of
For example, if a user thinks that there is still the substantially same classification title after the performing of the rearrangement process to remove duplicates, the automatically generated by-viewpoint patent map as shown in
As shown in
For example, after applicant information is extracted from bibliography information of the searched patent documents, only patent documents about two specific applicants are extracted and then by-viewpoint patent maps 110 and 120 may be generated by each applicant. Next, as shown in
Operations of a patent bibliography database 41, F-term data bases 42 and 43, a search engine 46, an F-term extracting module 47, and a viewpoint separating module 48 are the same as those of
Except that a rearranged classification title is not assigned when patent documents are classified by an F-term code and a by-viewpoint patent map is directly generated, other operations are the same as the first embodiment of
Operations of a patent bibliography data base 41, F-term databases 42 and 43, a search engine 46, an F-term extracting module 47, and a viewpoint separating module 48 are the same as those of
A text mining module 52 performs a text mining operation on each classification title when a viewpoint and a classification title are assigned by the F-term code as shown in
According to the present invention, the text mining operation is not performed on a long sentence or text but is performed on a predetermined short sentence provided from the F-term code classification table, such that similarity may be very accurately determined.
A lookup table generating module 53 classifies classification titles into the same ones or similar ones based on the similarity in order to generate a lookup table.
A classification title rearranging module 54 generates a rearranged classification table like
According to embodiments, the lookup table generating module 53 may be omitted and the classification title rearranging module 54 may arrange classification titles based on data that the text mining module 52 performs a text mining operation.
A tree map generating module 50 and a matrix map generating module 51 generate a viewpoint patent map of a tree map or a matrix map based on the rearranged classification title.
Operations S61 to S66 are the same as those of the first embodiment.
In operation S67, as shown in
In operation S68, based on the rearranged data, a lookup table configured with a new classification title is generated.
In operation S69, the rearranged classification table like
In operation S70, a by-viewpoint patent map is generated based on the rearranged classification title.
According to embodiment, generating of a lookup table of operation S68 based on the rearranged data is omitted and then a rearranged classification table may be generated directly.
According to the present invention, a tool for obtaining differentiated patents by effectively analyzing distribution and contents of a prior art may be provided.
According to the present invention, by suggesting more systemized idea development operations, intuitive and improved idea improvement may be provided.
According to the present invention, when research developers face limitations related to product developments, a by-viewpoint patent map for providing solutions to resolve the limitations may be provided.
According to the present invention, an intuitive and easily understandable by-viewpoint patent map may be provided by classifying an idea into problem and solution and diagrammatizing them in a tree form or a matrix form.
According to the present invention, a method of generating a by-viewpoint patent map reduces consumed time for analyzing extensive patent documents and provides systemized idea development processes.
Although embodiments have been described with reference to a number of illustrative embodiments thereof, it should be understood that numerous other modifications and embodiments can be devised by those skilled in the art that will fall within the spirit and scope of the principles of this disclosure. More particularly, various variations and modifications are possible in the component parts and/or arrangements of the subject combination arrangement within the scope of the disclosure, the drawings and the appended claims. In addition to variations and modifications in the component parts and/or arrangements, alternative uses will also be apparent to those skilled in the art.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2009-0045537 | May 2009 | KR | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/KR2010/002960 | 5/10/2010 | WO | 00 | 10/28/2011 |
