Patent Application
20140067696
1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to document analysis technologies, and more particularly to a system and a method for automatically submitting prior art to patent offices.
2. Description of Related Art
During the prosecution of patent applications, many applicants search for related or prior art by manually entering search terms. The applicant may search the
Internet or go to specific databases such as the USPTO patent data repository. However, this process is tedious and time consuming. Therefore there is room for improvement.
In general, the word “module,” as used hereinafter, refers to logic embodied in hardware or firmware, or to a collection of software instructions, written in a programming language, such as, for example, Java, C, or assembly. One or more software instructions in the modules may be embedded in firmware. It will be appreciated that modules may comprise connected logic units, such as gates and flip-flops, and may comprise programmable units, such as programmable gate arrays or processors. The modules described herein may be implemented as either software and/or hardware modules and may be stored in any type of non-transitory computer-readable storage medium or other computer storage device.
The data processing device 1 communicates with web servers 2 of a plurality of patent offices, such as the USPTO, the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) of China, the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and so on, via the Internet. In addition, the data processing device 1 connects with a first format database 3, a second format database 4, a related information database 5, and a patent documents database 6 through the Internet or an intranet.
The first format database 3 records names and formats of office actions which may refer to any prior art. The office actions are received from the web servers 2 of the plurality of patent offices. For example, the office actions received from the USPTO may include documents with such names as “Office action,” “Advisory action,” “Notice of allowability,” and so on. However, only the “Office action” may refer to prior art, thus the first format database 3 records the name “Office action.” The format indicates where in the office actions the prior art may be mentioned. For example, in the “Office action” document, the prior art may be mentioned below the characters “Claim Rejections-35 USC §102” or “Claim Rejections-35 USC §103.”
The second format database 4 records number formats of patent documents published or issued by the plurality of patent offices. For example, the number format of a Chinese patent documents may include CNXXXXXXXA, CNXXXXXXXB, CNXXXXXXXC, and so on, where each X indicates an Arabic numeral from 1 to 9.
The related information database 5 records all patent applications in a patent family, and all documents relating to each patent application. The documents relating to a patent application includes office actions received from a patent office and documents made by patent applicants in response to the office actions.
The patent documents database 6 stores basic information of patent documents published or issued by the plurality of patent offices. The basic information includes country codes, such as “CN,” “US,” application dates, application numbers, published/issued date, publication/issue number, inventors, applicants, and image texts, and more.
The prior art submission system 10 includes a number of function modules (depicted in
The control device 11 may be a processor, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or a field programmable gate array, (FPGA) for example. The control device 11 may execute the computerized codes of the function modules of the prior art submission system 10 to realize the functions of the prior art submission system 10.
The storage device 12 may include some type(s) of computer-readable non-transitory storage medium, such as a hard disk drive, a compact disc, a digital video disc, or a tape drive. The storage device 12 stores the computerized code of the function modules of the prior art submission system 10 for execution by the control device 12.
In step S1, the download module 100 receives an office action of a patent application (patent application A, hereinafter) from a patent office.
In step S2, the prior art analysis module 101 determines whether a prior art analysis is needed for the received office action according to the first format database 3. As mentioned above, the first format database 3 records names of office actions, which may refer to any prior art. If the name of the received office action is recorded in the first format database 3, the prior art analysis module 101 determines that a prior art analysis is needed for the received office action, then step S3 is implemented. If the name of the received office action is not recorded in the first format database 3, the prior art analysis module 101 determines that a prior art analysis is not needed for the received office action, and the procedure ends.
In step S3, the prior art analysis module 101 determines whether the received office action refers to any prior art according to the first format database 3. As mentioned above, the first format database 3 further records formats indicating where in an office action the prior art may be mentioned.
In step S4, prior art analysis module 101 recognizes mentioned prior art from the received office action according to the second format database 4, obtains basic information of the mentioned prior art from the patent document database 6, and stores the basic information of the mentioned prior art into, for example, the storage device 12. The basic information of the mentioned prior art includes country codes, application dates, application numbers, published/issued date, publication/issue number, inventors, applicants, image texts, and more. As mentioned above, the second format database 4 records number formats of patent documents published or issued by the plurality of patent offices. The prior art analysis module 101 compares the received office action with the number formats of patent documents to recognize the mentioned prior art.
In step S5, the patent family analysis module 102 obtains one or more related patent applications in the same patent family with the patent application A from the related information database 5. As mentioned above, the related information database 5 records all patent applications in a patent family, and all documents relating to each patent application. In the embodiment of the patent application A being a CN patent application, the patent family analysis module 102 obtains related patent applications including a U.S. patent application, a JP patent application, and a TW patent application, for example, which are in the same patent family with the application patent A.
In step S6, the patent family analysis module 102 determines whether any of the related patent applications are needed to be submitted with the mentioned prior art. In one embodiment, when the related patent applications include a U.S. patent application, then, the patent family analysis module 102 determines that any of the related patent applications is needed to be submitted with the mentioned prior art, and then step S7 is implemented. Otherwise, when the related patent applications do not include any U.S. patent application, then the patent family analysis module 102 determines that no related patent application is needed to be submitted with mentioned prior art, and the procedure ends.
In step S7, the submission module 103 generates a blank form for a patent application (the patent application B, hereinafter) which is actually a related patent application needing to be submitted with the mentioned prior art, such as the U.S. patent application. In one embodiment, the blank form is a blank Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) form.
In step S8, the submission module 103 obtains all documents connected to patent application B from the related information database 5. The obtained documents connected to the patent application B include office actions received from a patent office and documents which respond to office actions.
In step S9, having obtained the connected documents, the submission module 103 recognizes prior art that has been submitted to the patent office and retains prior art that needs to be submitted from the mentioned prior art according to the prior art that has been submitted. That is, if the mentioned prior art includes a prior art that has been submitted to the patent office, the submission module 103 omits the prior art that has been submitted to the patent office, and the retained prior art are the prior art that needs to be submitted.
In step S10, the submission module 103 inserts the basic information of the prior art that needs to be submitted into the blank form, and submits the completed form to the patent office.
In step S11, the submission module 103 associates the current office action of the patent application A and the completed form relating to the patent application B, and stores the office action and the completed form into the related information database 5.
It should be emphasized that the above-described embodiments of the present disclosure, including any particular embodiments, are merely possible examples of implementations, set forth for a clear understanding of the principles of the disclosure. Many variations and modifications may be made to the above-described embodiment(s) of the disclosure without departing substantially from the spirit and principles of the disclosure. All such modifications and variations are intended to be included herein within the scope of this disclosure and protected by the following claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012103154483 | Aug 2012 | CN | national |
