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WO2006118404A1 - An operating methods for patent information sysytem - Google Patents

An operating methods for patent information sysytem Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2006118404A1
WO2006118404A1 PCT/KR2006/001627 KR2006001627W WO2006118404A1 WO 2006118404 A1 WO2006118404 A1 WO 2006118404A1 KR 2006001627 W KR2006001627 W KR 2006001627W WO 2006118404 A1 WO2006118404 A1 WO 2006118404A1
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
patents
citation
ids
file
seed
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/KR2006/001627
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Il-Soo Kim
Sik Choi
Original Assignee
Wisdomain
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Wisdomain filed Critical Wisdomain
Publication of WO2006118404A1 publication Critical patent/WO2006118404A1/en

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Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F16/00—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
    • G06F16/90—Details of database functions independent of the retrieved data types
    • G06F16/93—Document management systems

Definitions

  • the present invention relates, in general, to a patent analysis system and, more particularly, to a method and system, which can promptly search for patents that are cited by a plurality of patents, or other patents that cite the plurality of patents, and provide information about the patents.
  • An object of the present invention is to provide a method of operating a patent information system, which can easily, promptly and simultaneously find collateral patents connected to previous/subsequent patents.
  • a method of operating a patent information system comprises an input step of cited patent search means receiving IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit before or after a step of receiving a citation mode for analysis; a search step of the cited patent search means searching a patent database for one or more patents corresponding to patents previous to, patents subsequent to, and patents collateral to the seed patents depending on the citation mode, based on the received seed patent IDs, as search result patents, and finding the search result patents; a relationship number calculation step of citation number calculation means calculating a number of times each search result patent has a previous citation relationship, subsequent citation relationship, or collateral citation relationship with the seed patents; and an output step of output means receiving IDs of the search result patents and the number of relationships, from the cited patent search means and the citation number calculation means, respectively, and outputting the IDs and the number of relationships in association with each other.
  • another method of operating a patent information system comprises a connection step of connecting citation file creation means to a patent database for storing information about patents; a step of the citation file creation means receiving IDs of predetermined patents and IDs of previous patents, cited by the predetermined patents, from the patent database connected thereto, and creating citation files that have the IDs of the predetermined patents as file names and have the IDs of the previous patents as file contents, based on the received patent IDs; an input step of cited patent search means receiving IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit before or after a step of receiving a citation mode for analysis; a search step of the cited patent search means searching the patent database for one or more patents corresponding to patents previous to, patents subsequent to, and patents collateral to the seed patents depending on the citation mode, based on the received seed patent IDs, as search result patents, and finding the search result patents; a relationship number calculation step of citation number calculation means calculating a
  • the present invention relates to a method of operating a patent analysis system or a patent information system, which finds previous patents or subsequent patents related to seed patents, or collateral patents indirectly connected to the seed patents through previous/subsequent application, starting with the seed patents. If the present invention is used, desired patents can be precisely and easily found using some of the desired patents even if only some of the desired patents are known.
  • Such an operating method according to the present invention is used as a means for extending patents from seed patents, and is advantageous in that, if a subsequent procedure using a patent reduction means for reducing an extended patent group into cases having the same applicant or inventor as the seed patents, or cases having technical classifications such as International Patent Classification (IPC), United States Patent Classification (UPC) or F-term, is successively performed, a patent search method that is more precise than a conventional simple search method using keywords is possible.
  • IPC International Patent Classification
  • UPC United States Patent Classification
  • F-term F-term
  • FIG. 1 is a configuration view showing examples of seed patents, previous patents, subsequent patents and collateral patents to describe a method of operating a patent information system according to an embodiment of the present invention
  • FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically showing the construction of a patent information system according to a first embodiment of the present invention
  • FIG. 3 is a flowchart sequentially showing the operation of the patent information system of FIG. 2;
  • FIG. 4 is a block diagram schematically showing the citation file creation module of a patent information system according to a second embodiment of the present invention;
  • FIG. 5 is a block diagram schematically showing the construction of the citation file analysis module of the patent information system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
  • FIG. 6 is a diagram showing examples of citation files created by the citation file creation module of the patent information system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
  • FIG. 7 is a diagram showing examples of collective citation files created for respective patents in the patent information system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
  • FIGS. 8 to 10 are diagrams showing examples of screens for citation relationship analysis, output by the patent information system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
  • Each rectangular box in FIG. 1 indicates a single patent, and the arrow connected to each box indicates the direction in which a corresponding patent cites a previous patent. That is, respective arrows indicate previous/subsequent application relationships in such a way that a patent I cites a patent G as a previous patent, and a patent M cites a patent J as a previous patent.
  • each alphabet letter is the identification (ID) of a specific patent, and is introduced to describe the present invention. Therefore, the ID can be replaced with a unique ID required to specify a corresponding patent in actual use, such as a publication number or a registration number.
  • the term "patent” may mean patent applications that have been just published, as well as registered patents, or furthermore may representatively mean all intellectual properties, such as utility models, designs, or trademarks, with which previous/subsequent application relationships, for example, the use or conflict thereof, can be formed.
  • a citation relationship is determined through substantial examination by the office of patent administration of each country.
  • IDS Information Disclosure Statement
  • a previous patent directly mentioned by an applicant in an Information Disclosure Statement (IDS), etc. existing under the patent system of the United States, can also be included in the citation relationship.
  • the user of the present invention can find specific patents and detect the citation relationships of the specific patents. That is, the user intends to find a plurality of patents having a specific applicant or specific technical classification through a search, and to detect patents, which the found patents cite as previous patents, or subsequently filed patents (hereinafter referred to as "subsequent patents") , which cite the found patents as prior arts.
  • the specific patents are the bases for starting the examination of citation relationships, and then can be especially designated as seed patents or a seed patent group.
  • FIG. 1 patents J, K and H, existing in a looped curve indicated by a dotted line, correspond to the seed patents .
  • patents G, D and F will be found to be previous patents of the seed patents J, K and H, and patents M and L will be found to be subsequent patents that cite the seed patents as previous patents.
  • the present invention introduces a new concept of patent citation relationship, that is, the collateral patent.
  • the term "collateral patent” in the present invention means a patent that is not directly connected to seed patents through the relationship of previous/subsequent applications, but is indirectly connected to the seed patents through previous patents or subsequent patents.
  • FIG. 1 with respect to the previous patent G of the seed patent J, patent I also cites patent G as a previous patent, so that patent I has a relationship of a collateral patent with patent J through patent G.
  • the seed patent J, K or H has patent L as a subsequent patent.
  • patent C also has patent L as a subsequent patent
  • patent C is the collateral patent of the seed patents.
  • Patent N has a collateral relationship with the seed patents through the subsequent patent L and the previous patent F.
  • collateral patents cannot be found using only the relationship of previous/subsequent applications with seed patents, but has the same previous or subsequent patents as the seed patents, so that the collateral patent can be considered to be filed in the same period as the seed patents or in a similar time interval to that of the seed patents, and, furthermore, the collateral patent may have a technically equal relationship or technically interchangeable relationship with the seed patents .
  • each patent means the number of direct/indirect relationships formed between the corresponding patent and seed patents.
  • the number means the number of times the previous patent is cited by the seed patents
  • the number means the number of times the subsequent patent cites the seed patents
  • the number means the number of indirect relationships between the collateral patent and the seed patents.
  • the collateral patent I is indirectly connected to the seed patents through patents G and F and, thus, the number of indirect relationships is two.
  • the patent F is relatively frequently cited, it is cited only once by seed patents and, thus, the number of citations is one.
  • FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the components of a patent information system, required in the first embodiment, for respective modules.
  • two or more patents among the patents stored in the patent database shown in FIG. 2 must be stored in association with information about patents previous thereto. That is, since the present invention relates to a patent analysis system and method for finding patents previous to, patents subsequent to, or patents collateral to at least two patents, the above basic precondition is required.
  • the input step of the cited patent search means receiving IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit is performed.
  • the input unit denotes a hardware device, such as a keyboard or mouse used in a scheme for arranging and inputting patent numbers into a search window on a computer screen provided by a typical patent database, and/or a software module, such as the input window.
  • a hardware device such as a keyboard or mouse used in a scheme for arranging and inputting patent numbers into a search window on a computer screen provided by a typical patent database
  • a software module such as the input window.
  • the IDs of the seed patents are the bases for allowing a user to start the analysis of citation relationships, as described above, and, typically, unique numbers, such as the application number, publication number or registration number of a corresponding patent, correspond to the seed patent IDs .
  • the step of the user selecting at least one citation relationship to be analyzed from among a previous citation relationship with the patent previous to the seed patents, a subsequent citation relationship with the patent subsequent to the seed patents, and a collateral citation relationship with the patent collateral to the seed patents is performed.
  • the analysis mode setting means is required to specify a target to be analyzed in an integrated analysis system that enables the analysis of various citation relationships using a single system.
  • the analysis mode setting means may not be separately required in each analysis module.
  • a separate analysis mode setting means may not be required.
  • seed patent IDs and the setting of an analysis mode can be performed in reverse order. That is, seed patent IDs can be input after an analysis mode has been set.
  • the cited patent search means is a means for finding other patents having citation relationship with the seed patents based on the seed patent IDs, and is typically implemented as software, and is combined with the analysis system of the present invention. However, it is apparent that implementation using hardware is also possible.
  • the cited patent search means After selecting a previous citation relationship in an analysis mode, the cited patent search means performs the step of searching the patent database for previous patents, cited by the seed patents, on the basis of the IDs of the seed patents and finding the previous patents . That is, the patents recorded in the patent database of the present invention include the records of the previous patents thereof, so that the cited patent search means directly searches the database for patents previous to the seed patents in real time on the basis of the records.
  • the citation number calculation means which is implemented as software or hardware and is connected to the analysis system of the present invention, performs the citation number calculation step of calculating the number of times each previous patent, found at the above step, is cited by the seed patents.
  • This step is required to find the number of relationships, indicated over respective patent IDs by Arabic numbers in FIG. 1.
  • an output means such as a PC monitor controlled by a Central Processing Unit (CPU) , an Operating System (OS), etc., and a driver thereof, receiving the IDs of the previous patents and the number of times each previous patent is cited from the cited patent search means and the citation number calculation means, respectively, and outputting the previous patent IDs and the number of citations in association with each other, is performed.
  • the cited patent search means performs the step of searching the patent database for subsequent patents that cite the seed patents, on the basis of the seed patent IDs, and finding the subsequent patents, and then outputs the found subsequent patents through the same procedure.
  • the cited patent search means first finds previous patents, cited by the seed patents, on the basis of the seed patent IDs, and thereafter finds a group of patents that cite the previous patents as previous patents .
  • the group of patents is found using a method differing from a method of finding collateral patents in subsequent patents, which will be described later. Therefore, if there is a need to distinguish the above two types of collateral patents, the former group of patents is designated as a group of first collateral patents.
  • the first collateral patent group may include the above seed patents, but a collateral relationship with the seed patents is intended to be found, so that the additional step of filtering out only the seed patents is performed, thus finding only pure first collateral patents.
  • the cited patent search means primarily searches for subsequent patents that cite the seed patents, on the basis of the seed patent IDs, and then finds a group of patents that are cited by the subsequent patents as previous patents.
  • the found group of patents is designated as a second collateral patent group to allow collateral patent groups to be distinguished.
  • a method of finding collateral patent groups in the present invention a method of finding either one or both of the first and second collateral patent groups can be used.
  • the citation number calculation means performs the step of calculating the number of collateral citation relationships with the seed patents for each patent belonging to at least one of the first and second collateral patent groups.
  • the output means outputs the output step of receiving the IDs of patents of a collateral patent group, for which the number of collateral citation relationships has been calculated, and the number of collateral citation relationships, from the cited patent search means and the citation number calculation means, respectively, and outputting the collateral patent IDs and the number of collateral citation relationships in association with each other .
  • ⁇ Second embodiment method of performing multi- citation analysis from citation files>
  • the above embodiment must search the patent database at each analysis time in real time. Accordingly, if the same or a similar analysis is performed anew whenever the database is updated, inconvenience resulting from increased server load and decreased speed of communication with the server can be expected.
  • the second embodiment of the present invention relates to a method of creating citation files for patent data from a server in advance, storing the created citation files in a storage device connected to the server, or a storage device connected to a terminal, such as the PC of an analyzer, and analyzing the stored files. Therefore, since this method is a scheme of creating new citation files only with respect to updated cases when the database is updated, as in the event of the publication of new patent applications, etc., the method is advantageous in that it can reduce the load on the server, and can also realize prompt analysis.
  • FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the citation file creation module of the present invention for such an embodiment
  • FIG. 5 illustrates an analysis module using the created citation files.
  • connection step of connecting the citation file creation means to the patent database for storing information about patents is performed.
  • the citation file creation means performs the step of receiving the IDs of predetermined patents, that is, all or a considerable number of patents recorded in the database, and the IDs of previous patents cited by the patents, from the patent database, and of creating citation files that have the IDs of the predetermined patents as file names and have the IDs of the previous patents as file contents, based on the received IDs.
  • FIG. ⁇ illustrates an example of a citation file created in this way with reference to the case of FIG. 1.
  • a patent M in FIG. 1 has patents J and N as previous patents, so that a citation file called M. SPT is created, and file contents thereof are recorded as J and N.
  • an extension SPT is an arbitrary notation, here indicating that citation files according to the embodiment of the present invention are in the form of files.
  • the citation file creation means stores the citation files in the citation file storage device.
  • a storage server connected to a server, including a database can be used, or any storage device, such as an internal/external hard disc connected to the user's terminal, for example, a PC, can be used.
  • the creation of the citation files can be performed in such a way that a new citation file is created and stored in the patent database whenever an update of adding data about new patents to the patent database occurs due to the filing or publication of new patent applications. After the citation files are created through such a step, a detailed analysis step is then performed.
  • the input step of the citation file search means receiving the IDs of two or more seed patents from the input unit, together with a command to find IDs of at least one of the patent groups of patents previous, subsequent, and collateral to the seed patents is performed.
  • the analysis mode setting means may also receive at least one of the previous patents, the subsequent patents or the collateral patents, and notify the citation file search means of the received information.
  • the analysis mode setting means functions as a partial module, included in the citation file search means or at least connected thereto, so that the citation file search means generally has a form that includes the analysis mode setting means.
  • the citation file search means performs the step of finding citation files having file names corresponding to the IDs of the seed patents in the storage device. For example, in FIG. 1, if seed patents are J, K and H, files J. SPT, K. SPT and H. SPT are found in the citation file storage device.
  • the output means performs the output step of outputting file contents from the found citation files as the IDs of patents previous to the seed patents. That is, the file contents of the files J. SPT, K. SPT and H. SPT are read, and the files G, D and F are output to a monitor or another output device as patents previous to the seed patents J, K and H.
  • the citation number calculation means may calculate the number of citations, which corresponds to the number of duplications for the duplicated patents of the read file contents, and provide the number of citations to the output device, thus enabling the number of citations or the number of duplications to be output together with file contents.
  • This method is performed in such a way that, if the read file contents are G, D, D and F, a numeral 2 is output together with an output indication of D.
  • a method of outputting a numeral 1 with respect to patents which are not duplicated, as a duplication number can also be included in the method.
  • the citation file search means performs the step of finding citation files, having file contents corresponding to the IDs of the seed patents, in the storage device, and the output means performs the output step of outputting file names of the found citation files as the IDs of patents subsequent to the seed patents, after the creation and storage of the citation files.
  • the output means performs the output step of outputting file names of the found citation files as the IDs of patents subsequent to the seed patents, after the creation and storage of the citation files.
  • FIG. 6 if subsequent patents M and L of the seed patents J, K and H are intended to be found, citation files having the IDs J, K and H of the seed patents as file contents, that is, files M. SPT and L. SPT, are found, and the file names thereof, M and L, are output.
  • the number of duplications can be calculated and output together with corresponding files.
  • the citation file search means performs a first search of finding a first citation file group having file names corresponding to the IDs of the seed patents, for example, the group of files J. SPT, K. SPT and H. SPT in FIG. 6, in the storage device, reading the IDs of previous patents, which are the file contents of the citation files belonging to the first citation file group, that is, G, D, and F, finding a second citation file group having the same file names as the previous patent IDs, that is, a group of files G. SPT, D. SPT and F.
  • the citation file search means may further perform a second search of finding a fourth citation file group having the same file contents as the file names J, K and H of the citation files belonging to the first citation file group, that is, a group of files M. SPT and L. SPT, and finding a fifth citation file group having the same file names as the file contents J, N, C, K and H of the citation files belonging to the fourth citation file group, that is, a group of files J. SPT, N. SPT, C. SPT, K. SPT, and H. SPT.
  • the output means performs the output step of outputting the file names of the citation files belonging to at least one of the third and fifth citation file groups, that is, I, J, N, C, K and H, as the IDs of collateral patents of the seed patents.
  • a modified embodiment of the present embodiment relates to a method of creating citation files using a subsequent citation relationship at the time of creating the above-described citation files.
  • the citation file creation means performs the step of receiving the IDs of predetermined patents and the IDs of subsequent patents that cite the predetermined patents, from the patent database connected thereto, and creating citation files that have the IDs of the predetermined patents as file names and have the IDs of the subsequent patents as file contents, on the basis of the received IDs. Therefore, in the citation files, the patent IDs corresponding to file names are patents previous to patent IDs corresponding to file contents.
  • the citation file creation means performs the step of storing the citation files in the citation file storage device, thus completing the step of creating and storing the citation files. If the analysis of citation relationship is initiated in order to designate seed patents, and, for example, analysis for finding patents previous to the seed patents is started, the citation file search means performs the input step of receiving the IDs of at least two seed patents from the input unit, together with a command to find the IDs of patents previous to the seed patents.
  • the citation file search means performs the step of finding citation files, having file contents corresponding to the seed patent IDs, in the citation file storage device, and the output means performs the output step of outputting file names from the found citation files as the IDs of the patents subsequent to the seed patents, thus completing the step.
  • connection step of connecting the citation file creation means to the patent database for storing information about patents the step of the citation file creation means receiving the IDs of predetermined patents and the IDs of subsequent patents that cite the predetermined patents, from the patent database connected thereto, and creating the citation files that have the predetermined patent IDs as file names and have the subsequent patent IDs as file contents, on the basis of the received information, and the step of the citation file creation means storing the citation files in the citation file storage device, are the same as those of the above embodiment .
  • the citation file search means performs the step of finding citation files having the seed patent IDs as file names in the citation file storage device, and the output means performs the output step of outputting the file contents of the found citation files as the IDs of patents subsequent to the seed patents, thus displaying the subsequent patents.
  • connection step of connecting the citation file creation means to the patent database for storing information about patents the step of the citation file creation means receiving the IDs of predetermined patents and the IDs of subsequent patents that cite the predetermined patents, from the patent database connected thereto, and creating the citation files that have the predetermined patent IDs as file names and have the subsequent patent IDs as file contents, on the basis of the received information, and the step of the citation file creation means storing the citation files in the citation file storage device, are the same as those of the above embodiment .
  • the citation file search means performs the search step of performing at least one of the first search of finding a first citation file group, having file names corresponding to the seed patent IDs, in the citation file storage device, reading the IDs of the subsequent patents, which are file contents of citation files belonging to the first citation file group, finding a second citation file group having the same file names as the IDs of the subsequent patents, and searching for a third citation file group having the same file contents as the file names of the citation files belonging to the second citation file group, and the second search of finding a fourth citation file group having the same file contents as the file names of the citation files belonging to the first citation file group, and searching for a fifth citation file group having the same file names as the file contents of the citation files belonging to the fourth citation file group.
  • the output means performs the output
  • the number of citation relationships may be calculated before the output step, thus enabling the number of citation relationships to be output together with the corresponding patents. Further, with respect to the citation files describing the subsequent patents, the step of updating the file contents of related citation files may be performed whenever the filing or publication of new subsequent patent applications occurs .
  • the citation files of the present invention may be files describing all of previous patents, subsequent patents and collateral patents as in the following case. That is, when citation files for predetermined patents are created, collective citation files, in which the IDs of previous patents and subsequent patents, and, if necessary, the IDs of collateral patents, in file contents, are added, are created. Hereinafter, for identification, such citation files are designated as collective citation files .
  • Such a collective citation file can be created by the above-described citation file creation means.
  • the procedure thereof is performed in such a way to search the patent database on the basis of the IDs of predetermined patents when the predetermined patent IDs have been received, to find the IDs of patents previous and subsequent to the predetermined patents, to additionally search for patents having collateral relationships with respective found previous patents and subsequent patents if collateral patents are intended to be added, to describe the IDs of the found patents as file contents of collective citation files, and to store the file contents in the storage device, etc.
  • the collective citation files of respective seed patents are found in the storage device, the file contents thereof are read, the IDs of previous patents, subsequent patents or collateral patents are extracted depending on a given citation mode, and the extracted patent IDs are output to the output device, similar to the above method.
  • the step of calculating the number of citation relationships may be further performed before the output step.
  • corresponding files can be updated when new patent applications are filed or published.
  • FIG. 7 illustrates an example of the collective citation files created with respect to respective patents, using the case of FIG. 1.
  • the file name of each file is composed of the IDs of corresponding patents, and the file content thereof is divided into three fields, that is, a first field containing the IDs of patents previous to a corresponding patent, a second field containing the IDs of patents subsequent to the corresponding patent, and, if necessary, a third field containing the IDs of patents collateral to the corresponding patent.
  • FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a screen for citation relationship analysis, output according to the method of the present invention after the example of FIG. 1 has been analyzed.
  • FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the IDs of patents previous, subsequent and collateral to seed patents, and shows the seed patent IDs and the titles thereof
  • FIG. 9 illustrates cases other than seed patents in the collateral patent list of FIG. 8.
  • the seed patents may be displayed without being excluded.
  • each ID, etc. can be connected by a hyperlink so that, if the ID is clicked using a mouse, the content of a corresponding patent is displayed.
  • FIG. 10 illustrates together a list of patents previous to seed patents, and the number of times each previous patent is cited by the seed patents. It will be apparent that subsequent patents or collateral patents can be displayed using the same method.
  • a further embodiment of the present invention relates to a method of finding patents previous to previous patents or patents subsequent to subsequent patents in relation to seed patents, in addition to patents primarily indicated as previous patents or subsequent patents.
  • this procedure starts from the step of receiving the IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit before or after the step of the cited patent search means receiving a step for analysis, that is, a degree of citation relationships.
  • step or “degree” means the layer of patents previous/subsequent to seed patents, or a distance of reference from the seed patents in a method of setting patents previous to the seed patents as a primary degree and setting patents previous to the above previous patents as a secondary degree.
  • the cited patent search means performs the search step of searching the patent database for previous patents, cited by the patents, or subsequent or collateral patents that cite the patents, on the basis of the patent IDs received at the previous step and finding the previous patents, subsequent patents or collateral patents.
  • Such a search step is repeatedly performed a specific number of times that corresponds to the input degree.
  • the previous patents, subsequent patents and collateral patents indicate the same concepts as in the above embodiments.
  • the cited patent search means stores the found previous patents, subsequent patents and collateral patents that are found at the previous step in the storage device in association with respective previous citation degrees.
  • the concept of the storage device includes all devices, such as a temporary storage device, for example, Random Access Memory (RAM) , or a hard disk.
  • RAM Random Access Memory
  • the citation number calculation means performs the citation number calculation step of calculating the number of times each of found previous patents, subsequent patents and collateral patents is cited by, cites, or is indirectly related with the seed patents, that is, the number of times the seed patents simultaneously have previous patents or subsequent patents .
  • the output means performs the output step of receiving the IDs of the previous patents, the citation degrees, and the number of citations from the cited patent search means and the citation number calculation means, and outputting the IDs, the citation degrees and the number of citations in association with each other.
  • the method of operating a patent information system according to the present invention can be used for a system for searching for patent information, or collateral patents connected to previous/subsequent patents.

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Abstract

The present invention relates to a method of operating a patent information system. In the method of operating a patent information system, a cited patent search means receives IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit. The cited patent search means searches a patent database for one or more patents corresponding to patents previous to, patents subsequent to, and patents collateral to the seed patents depending on the citation mode as search result patents, and finds the search result patents . A citation number calculation means calculates a number of times each search result patent has a previous citation relationship, subsequent citation relationship, or collateral citation relationship with the seed patents. An output means receives IDs of the search result patents and the number of relationships and outputs the IDs and the number of relationships in association with each other.

Description

[DESCRIPTION]
[invention Title]
AN OPERATING METHODS FOR PATENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
[Technical Field] The present invention relates, in general, to a patent analysis system and, more particularly, to a method and system, which can promptly search for patents that are cited by a plurality of patents, or other patents that cite the plurality of patents, and provide information about the patents.
[Background Art]
Generally, inventions are derived to meet the development of technologies, so that most inventions have prior arts or subsequent arts pertaining thereto, or competitive arts equivalent to the inventions, these arts being filed as patents.
Therefore, a patent information system for easily, promptly and simultaneously finding previous patents and following patents (hereinafter referred to as Λsubsequent patents' ) related to specific patents, or collateral patents connected to the previous/subsequent patents, is required. [Disclosure] [Technical Problem]
An object of the present invention is to provide a method of operating a patent information system, which can easily, promptly and simultaneously find collateral patents connected to previous/subsequent patents.
[Technical Solution]
A method of operating a patent information system according to the present invention comprises an input step of cited patent search means receiving IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit before or after a step of receiving a citation mode for analysis; a search step of the cited patent search means searching a patent database for one or more patents corresponding to patents previous to, patents subsequent to, and patents collateral to the seed patents depending on the citation mode, based on the received seed patent IDs, as search result patents, and finding the search result patents; a relationship number calculation step of citation number calculation means calculating a number of times each search result patent has a previous citation relationship, subsequent citation relationship, or collateral citation relationship with the seed patents; and an output step of output means receiving IDs of the search result patents and the number of relationships, from the cited patent search means and the citation number calculation means, respectively, and outputting the IDs and the number of relationships in association with each other.
Further, another method of operating a patent information system according to the present invention comprises a connection step of connecting citation file creation means to a patent database for storing information about patents; a step of the citation file creation means receiving IDs of predetermined patents and IDs of previous patents, cited by the predetermined patents, from the patent database connected thereto, and creating citation files that have the IDs of the predetermined patents as file names and have the IDs of the previous patents as file contents, based on the received patent IDs; an input step of cited patent search means receiving IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit before or after a step of receiving a citation mode for analysis; a search step of the cited patent search means searching the patent database for one or more patents corresponding to patents previous to, patents subsequent to, and patents collateral to the seed patents depending on the citation mode, based on the received seed patent IDs, as search result patents, and finding the search result patents; a relationship number calculation step of citation number calculation means calculating a number of times each search result patent has a previous citation relationship, subsequent citation relationship, or collateral citation relationship with the seed patents; and an output step of output means receiving IDs of the search result patents and a number of relationships, from the cited patent search means and citation number calculation means, respectively, and outputting the IDs and the number of relationships in association with each other.
[Advantageous Effects]
The present invention relates to a method of operating a patent analysis system or a patent information system, which finds previous patents or subsequent patents related to seed patents, or collateral patents indirectly connected to the seed patents through previous/subsequent application, starting with the seed patents. If the present invention is used, desired patents can be precisely and easily found using some of the desired patents even if only some of the desired patents are known.
Such an operating method according to the present invention is used as a means for extending patents from seed patents, and is advantageous in that, if a subsequent procedure using a patent reduction means for reducing an extended patent group into cases having the same applicant or inventor as the seed patents, or cases having technical classifications such as International Patent Classification (IPC), United States Patent Classification (UPC) or F-term, is successively performed, a patent search method that is more precise than a conventional simple search method using keywords is possible.
[Description of Drawings] FIG. 1 is a configuration view showing examples of seed patents, previous patents, subsequent patents and collateral patents to describe a method of operating a patent information system according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically showing the construction of a patent information system according to a first embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a flowchart sequentially showing the operation of the patent information system of FIG. 2; FIG. 4 is a block diagram schematically showing the citation file creation module of a patent information system according to a second embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 5 is a block diagram schematically showing the construction of the citation file analysis module of the patent information system according to the second embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing examples of citation files created by the citation file creation module of the patent information system according to the second embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing examples of collective citation files created for respective patents in the patent information system according to the second embodiment of the present invention; and
FIGS. 8 to 10 are diagrams showing examples of screens for citation relationship analysis, output by the patent information system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
[Best Mode]
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings .
With reference to FIG. 1, a seed patent, a previous patent, a subsequent patent, a collateral patent, and the number of citation relationships, defined in the present invention, are described below.
Each rectangular box in FIG. 1 indicates a single patent, and the arrow connected to each box indicates the direction in which a corresponding patent cites a previous patent. That is, respective arrows indicate previous/subsequent application relationships in such a way that a patent I cites a patent G as a previous patent, and a patent M cites a patent J as a previous patent. Further, each alphabet letter is the identification (ID) of a specific patent, and is introduced to describe the present invention. Therefore, the ID can be replaced with a unique ID required to specify a corresponding patent in actual use, such as a publication number or a registration number. For reference, the term "patent" may mean patent applications that have been just published, as well as registered patents, or furthermore may representatively mean all intellectual properties, such as utility models, designs, or trademarks, with which previous/subsequent application relationships, for example, the use or conflict thereof, can be formed. Generally, such a citation relationship is determined through substantial examination by the office of patent administration of each country. However, a previous patent directly mentioned by an applicant in an Information Disclosure Statement (IDS), etc., existing under the patent system of the United States, can also be included in the citation relationship.
The user of the present invention can find specific patents and detect the citation relationships of the specific patents. That is, the user intends to find a plurality of patents having a specific applicant or specific technical classification through a search, and to detect patents, which the found patents cite as previous patents, or subsequently filed patents (hereinafter referred to as "subsequent patents") , which cite the found patents as prior arts. In this case, the specific patents are the bases for starting the examination of citation relationships, and then can be especially designated as seed patents or a seed patent group. In FIG. 1, patents J, K and H, existing in a looped curve indicated by a dotted line, correspond to the seed patents .
Therefore, if the relationships of FIG. 1 are analyzed again, patents G, D and F will be found to be previous patents of the seed patents J, K and H, and patents M and L will be found to be subsequent patents that cite the seed patents as previous patents.
In addition to such previous and subsequent patents, the present invention introduces a new concept of patent citation relationship, that is, the collateral patent. The term "collateral patent" in the present invention means a patent that is not directly connected to seed patents through the relationship of previous/subsequent applications, but is indirectly connected to the seed patents through previous patents or subsequent patents. For example, in FIG. 1, with respect to the previous patent G of the seed patent J, patent I also cites patent G as a previous patent, so that patent I has a relationship of a collateral patent with patent J through patent G. As another example, the seed patent J, K or H has patent L as a subsequent patent. Since patent C also has patent L as a subsequent patent, patent C is the collateral patent of the seed patents. Patent N has a collateral relationship with the seed patents through the subsequent patent L and the previous patent F.
The reason for requiring the analysis of collateral patents is that collateral patents cannot be found using only the relationship of previous/subsequent applications with seed patents, but has the same previous or subsequent patents as the seed patents, so that the collateral patent can be considered to be filed in the same period as the seed patents or in a similar time interval to that of the seed patents, and, furthermore, the collateral patent may have a technically equal relationship or technically interchangeable relationship with the seed patents .
In FIG. 1, the number given above each patent means the number of direct/indirect relationships formed between the corresponding patent and seed patents. In detail, in the case of a previous patent, the number means the number of times the previous patent is cited by the seed patents, in the case of a subsequent patent, the number means the number of times the subsequent patent cites the seed patents, and in the case of a collateral patent, the number means the number of indirect relationships between the collateral patent and the seed patents. For example, the collateral patent I is indirectly connected to the seed patents through patents G and F and, thus, the number of indirect relationships is two. Although the patent F is relatively frequently cited, it is cited only once by seed patents and, thus, the number of citations is one.
The number of times a corresponding patent is cited by seed patents, the number of times the corresponding patent cites the seed patents, and the number of indirect relationships with the seed patents, signify the degree of relationship with the seed patents. It can be considered that, as the numbers increase, the property of precedence, subsequence and replacement with respect to seed patents is high, so they can be very important indices to analyzers.
[Mode for Invention]
Hereinafter, detailed embodiments of the present invention are described using the relationships of FIG. 1 as an example. <First embodiment: method of performing direct multi- citation analysis from patent database>
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the components of a patent information system, required in the first embodiment, for respective modules. In order to implement the present invention, two or more patents among the patents stored in the patent database shown in FIG. 2 must be stored in association with information about patents previous thereto. That is, since the present invention relates to a patent analysis system and method for finding patents previous to, patents subsequent to, or patents collateral to at least two patents, the above basic precondition is required.
Methods of operating the cited patent search means, the input unit, and the citation number calculation means of FIG. 2 are described in detail in the flowchart of FIG. 3.
With reference to FIG. 3, such methods are described in detail. First, the input step of the cited patent search means receiving IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit is performed.
The input unit denotes a hardware device, such as a keyboard or mouse used in a scheme for arranging and inputting patent numbers into a search window on a computer screen provided by a typical patent database, and/or a software module, such as the input window.
Further, the IDs of the seed patents are the bases for allowing a user to start the analysis of citation relationships, as described above, and, typically, unique numbers, such as the application number, publication number or registration number of a corresponding patent, correspond to the seed patent IDs .
Next, the step of the user selecting at least one citation relationship to be analyzed from among a previous citation relationship with the patent previous to the seed patents, a subsequent citation relationship with the patent subsequent to the seed patents, and a collateral citation relationship with the patent collateral to the seed patents is performed.
The analysis mode setting means is required to specify a target to be analyzed in an integrated analysis system that enables the analysis of various citation relationships using a single system. However, in the case of a system, in which analysis systems for previous patents, subsequent patents and collateral patents are separately provided, for example, a system having separate modules, such as a previous patent citation relationship analysis module, a subsequent patent citation relationship analysis module, or a collateral patent citation relationship module, the analysis mode setting means may not be separately required in each analysis module. Further, even in the integrated system, if the analysis of all of previous, subsequent and collateral citation relationships is set to be performed by default, a separate analysis mode setting means may not be required.
For reference, the input of the seed patent IDs and the setting of an analysis mode can be performed in reverse order. That is, seed patent IDs can be input after an analysis mode has been set.
The cited patent search means is a means for finding other patents having citation relationship with the seed patents based on the seed patent IDs, and is typically implemented as software, and is combined with the analysis system of the present invention. However, it is apparent that implementation using hardware is also possible.
After selecting a previous citation relationship in an analysis mode, the cited patent search means performs the step of searching the patent database for previous patents, cited by the seed patents, on the basis of the IDs of the seed patents and finding the previous patents . That is, the patents recorded in the patent database of the present invention include the records of the previous patents thereof, so that the cited patent search means directly searches the database for patents previous to the seed patents in real time on the basis of the records.
Next, the citation number calculation means, which is implemented as software or hardware and is connected to the analysis system of the present invention, performs the citation number calculation step of calculating the number of times each previous patent, found at the above step, is cited by the seed patents.
This step is required to find the number of relationships, indicated over respective patent IDs by Arabic numbers in FIG. 1.
Finally, the output step of an output means, such as a PC monitor controlled by a Central Processing Unit (CPU) , an Operating System (OS), etc., and a driver thereof, receiving the IDs of the previous patents and the number of times each previous patent is cited from the cited patent search means and the citation number calculation means, respectively, and outputting the previous patent IDs and the number of citations in association with each other, is performed. If the user selects subsequent citation relationship for an analysis mode in the integrated analysis system, the cited patent search means performs the step of searching the patent database for subsequent patents that cite the seed patents, on the basis of the seed patent IDs, and finding the subsequent patents, and then outputs the found subsequent patents through the same procedure.
If collateral citation relationship is selected for an analysis mode, the cited patent search means first finds previous patents, cited by the seed patents, on the basis of the seed patent IDs, and thereafter finds a group of patents that cite the previous patents as previous patents . The group of patents is found using a method differing from a method of finding collateral patents in subsequent patents, which will be described later. Therefore, if there is a need to distinguish the above two types of collateral patents, the former group of patents is designated as a group of first collateral patents. The first collateral patent group may include the above seed patents, but a collateral relationship with the seed patents is intended to be found, so that the additional step of filtering out only the seed patents is performed, thus finding only pure first collateral patents.
Further, in order to find a group of collateral patents, indirectly connected to subsequent patents, in collateral patents, the cited patent search means primarily searches for subsequent patents that cite the seed patents, on the basis of the seed patent IDs, and then finds a group of patents that are cited by the subsequent patents as previous patents. The found group of patents is designated as a second collateral patent group to allow collateral patent groups to be distinguished. As a method of finding collateral patent groups in the present invention, a method of finding either one or both of the first and second collateral patent groups can be used.
Next, the citation number calculation means performs the step of calculating the number of collateral citation relationships with the seed patents for each patent belonging to at least one of the first and second collateral patent groups.
Next, the output means outputs the output step of receiving the IDs of patents of a collateral patent group, for which the number of collateral citation relationships has been calculated, and the number of collateral citation relationships, from the cited patent search means and the citation number calculation means, respectively, and outputting the collateral patent IDs and the number of collateral citation relationships in association with each other .
<Second embodiment: method of performing multi- citation analysis from citation files> In the analysis of citation relationship according to the present invention, the above embodiment must search the patent database at each analysis time in real time. Accordingly, if the same or a similar analysis is performed anew whenever the database is updated, inconvenience resulting from increased server load and decreased speed of communication with the server can be expected.
To prevent such a problem, the second embodiment of the present invention relates to a method of creating citation files for patent data from a server in advance, storing the created citation files in a storage device connected to the server, or a storage device connected to a terminal, such as the PC of an analyzer, and analyzing the stored files. Therefore, since this method is a scheme of creating new citation files only with respect to updated cases when the database is updated, as in the event of the publication of new patent applications, etc., the method is advantageous in that it can reduce the load on the server, and can also realize prompt analysis.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the citation file creation module of the present invention for such an embodiment, and FIG. 5 illustrates an analysis module using the created citation files.
With reference to FIGS. 4 and 5, the operating method thereof is described in detail.
First, the connection step of connecting the citation file creation means to the patent database for storing information about patents is performed.
The citation file creation means performs the step of receiving the IDs of predetermined patents, that is, all or a considerable number of patents recorded in the database, and the IDs of previous patents cited by the patents, from the patent database, and of creating citation files that have the IDs of the predetermined patents as file names and have the IDs of the previous patents as file contents, based on the received IDs. FIG. β illustrates an example of a citation file created in this way with reference to the case of FIG. 1. For example, a patent M in FIG. 1 has patents J and N as previous patents, so that a citation file called M. SPT is created, and file contents thereof are recorded as J and N. The remaining cases are similar to this. In this case, an extension SPT is an arbitrary notation, here indicating that citation files according to the embodiment of the present invention are in the form of files.
Next, the citation file creation means stores the citation files in the citation file storage device. In this case, as the citation file storage device, a storage server connected to a server, including a database, can be used, or any storage device, such as an internal/external hard disc connected to the user's terminal, for example, a PC, can be used. The creation of the citation files can be performed in such a way that a new citation file is created and stored in the patent database whenever an update of adding data about new patents to the patent database occurs due to the filing or publication of new patent applications. After the citation files are created through such a step, a detailed analysis step is then performed.
If analysis is started, the input step of the citation file search means receiving the IDs of two or more seed patents from the input unit, together with a command to find IDs of at least one of the patent groups of patents previous, subsequent, and collateral to the seed patents is performed. The analysis mode setting means may also receive at least one of the previous patents, the subsequent patents or the collateral patents, and notify the citation file search means of the received information. Even in this case, the analysis mode setting means functions as a partial module, included in the citation file search means or at least connected thereto, so that the citation file search means generally has a form that includes the analysis mode setting means.
If previous citation relationship is selected for a mode for analysis, the citation file search means performs the step of finding citation files having file names corresponding to the IDs of the seed patents in the storage device. For example, in FIG. 1, if seed patents are J, K and H, files J. SPT, K. SPT and H. SPT are found in the citation file storage device.
Next, the output means performs the output step of outputting file contents from the found citation files as the IDs of patents previous to the seed patents. That is, the file contents of the files J. SPT, K. SPT and H. SPT are read, and the files G, D and F are output to a monitor or another output device as patents previous to the seed patents J, K and H.
Further, before the output step, the citation number calculation means may calculate the number of citations, which corresponds to the number of duplications for the duplicated patents of the read file contents, and provide the number of citations to the output device, thus enabling the number of citations or the number of duplications to be output together with file contents. This method is performed in such a way that, if the read file contents are G, D, D and F, a numeral 2 is output together with an output indication of D. Of course, a method of outputting a numeral 1 with respect to patents which are not duplicated, as a duplication number, can also be included in the method. If subsequent citation relationship is selected for an analysis mode, the citation file search means performs the step of finding citation files, having file contents corresponding to the IDs of the seed patents, in the storage device, and the output means performs the output step of outputting file names of the found citation files as the IDs of patents subsequent to the seed patents, after the creation and storage of the citation files. For example, in FIG. 6, if subsequent patents M and L of the seed patents J, K and H are intended to be found, citation files having the IDs J, K and H of the seed patents as file contents, that is, files M. SPT and L. SPT, are found, and the file names thereof, M and L, are output. Similarly, the number of duplications can be calculated and output together with corresponding files.
If collateral citation relationship is selected for an analysis mode, after the creation and storage of the citation files, the citation file search means performs a first search of finding a first citation file group having file names corresponding to the IDs of the seed patents, for example, the group of files J. SPT, K. SPT and H. SPT in FIG. 6, in the storage device, reading the IDs of previous patents, which are the file contents of the citation files belonging to the first citation file group, that is, G, D, and F, finding a second citation file group having the same file names as the previous patent IDs, that is, a group of files G. SPT, D. SPT and F. SPT, and finding a third citation file group having the same file contents as the file names G, D and F of the citation files of the second citation file group, that is, a group of files I. SPT, J. SPT, K. SPT, H. SPT, and N. SPT.
Further, in addition to the first search, the citation file search means may further perform a second search of finding a fourth citation file group having the same file contents as the file names J, K and H of the citation files belonging to the first citation file group, that is, a group of files M. SPT and L. SPT, and finding a fifth citation file group having the same file names as the file contents J, N, C, K and H of the citation files belonging to the fourth citation file group, that is, a group of files J. SPT, N. SPT, C. SPT, K. SPT, and H. SPT.
Next, the output means performs the output step of outputting the file names of the citation files belonging to at least one of the third and fifth citation file groups, that is, I, J, N, C, K and H, as the IDs of collateral patents of the seed patents.
In this case, when only pure collateral patents are intended to be found, the step of filtering output files J, K and H obtained from the seed patents may be additionally performed. A modified embodiment of the present embodiment relates to a method of creating citation files using a subsequent citation relationship at the time of creating the above-described citation files. That is, at the above steps, after the connection step of connecting the citation file creation means to the patent database for storing information about patents has been performed, the citation file creation means performs the step of receiving the IDs of predetermined patents and the IDs of subsequent patents that cite the predetermined patents, from the patent database connected thereto, and creating citation files that have the IDs of the predetermined patents as file names and have the IDs of the subsequent patents as file contents, on the basis of the received IDs. Therefore, in the citation files, the patent IDs corresponding to file names are patents previous to patent IDs corresponding to file contents.
Next, the citation file creation means performs the step of storing the citation files in the citation file storage device, thus completing the step of creating and storing the citation files. If the analysis of citation relationship is initiated in order to designate seed patents, and, for example, analysis for finding patents previous to the seed patents is started, the citation file search means performs the input step of receiving the IDs of at least two seed patents from the input unit, together with a command to find the IDs of patents previous to the seed patents. Next, the citation file search means performs the step of finding citation files, having file contents corresponding to the seed patent IDs, in the citation file storage device, and the output means performs the output step of outputting file names from the found citation files as the IDs of the patents subsequent to the seed patents, thus completing the step.
The procedure of finding the patents subsequent to the seed patents using citation files describing subsequent citation relationships is described below.
First, the connection step of connecting the citation file creation means to the patent database for storing information about patents, the step of the citation file creation means receiving the IDs of predetermined patents and the IDs of subsequent patents that cite the predetermined patents, from the patent database connected thereto, and creating the citation files that have the predetermined patent IDs as file names and have the subsequent patent IDs as file contents, on the basis of the received information, and the step of the citation file creation means storing the citation files in the citation file storage device, are the same as those of the above embodiment .
Next, if the citation file search means has performed the step of receiving the IDs of at least two seed patents from the input unit, together with a command to find the IDs of patents subsequent to the seed patents, the citation file search means performs the step of finding citation files having the seed patent IDs as file names in the citation file storage device, and the output means performs the output step of outputting the file contents of the found citation files as the IDs of patents subsequent to the seed patents, thus displaying the subsequent patents.
The procedure of finding patents collateral to seed patents using citation files describing subsequent citation relationships is described below.
First, the connection step of connecting the citation file creation means to the patent database for storing information about patents, the step of the citation file creation means receiving the IDs of predetermined patents and the IDs of subsequent patents that cite the predetermined patents, from the patent database connected thereto, and creating the citation files that have the predetermined patent IDs as file names and have the subsequent patent IDs as file contents, on the basis of the received information, and the step of the citation file creation means storing the citation files in the citation file storage device, are the same as those of the above embodiment .
Next, if the citation file search means receives the IDs of at least two seed patents from the input unit together with a command to find the IDs of patents collateral to the seed patents, the citation file search means performs the search step of performing at least one of the first search of finding a first citation file group, having file names corresponding to the seed patent IDs, in the citation file storage device, reading the IDs of the subsequent patents, which are file contents of citation files belonging to the first citation file group, finding a second citation file group having the same file names as the IDs of the subsequent patents, and searching for a third citation file group having the same file contents as the file names of the citation files belonging to the second citation file group, and the second search of finding a fourth citation file group having the same file contents as the file names of the citation files belonging to the first citation file group, and searching for a fifth citation file group having the same file names as the file contents of the citation files belonging to the fourth citation file group. The output means performs the output step of outputting the file names of the citation files belonging to at least one of the third and fifth citation file groups as the IDs of patents collateral to the seed patents, thus displaying the collateral patents.
When patents previous, subsequent and collateral to seed patents are found using citation files describing the subsequent patents, the number of citation relationships may be calculated before the output step, thus enabling the number of citation relationships to be output together with the corresponding patents. Further, with respect to the citation files describing the subsequent patents, the step of updating the file contents of related citation files may be performed whenever the filing or publication of new subsequent patent applications occurs .
The citation files of the present invention may be files describing all of previous patents, subsequent patents and collateral patents as in the following case. That is, when citation files for predetermined patents are created, collective citation files, in which the IDs of previous patents and subsequent patents, and, if necessary, the IDs of collateral patents, in file contents, are added, are created. Hereinafter, for identification, such citation files are designated as collective citation files .
Such a collective citation file can be created by the above-described citation file creation means. The procedure thereof is performed in such a way to search the patent database on the basis of the IDs of predetermined patents when the predetermined patent IDs have been received, to find the IDs of patents previous and subsequent to the predetermined patents, to additionally search for patents having collateral relationships with respective found previous patents and subsequent patents if collateral patents are intended to be added, to describe the IDs of the found patents as file contents of collective citation files, and to store the file contents in the storage device, etc.
Next, if the IDs of the seed patents are received and a command to find and output patents belonging to at least one group of a previous patent group, a subsequent patent group and a collateral patent group is received before or after the reception of the seed patent IDs, the collective citation files of respective seed patents are found in the storage device, the file contents thereof are read, the IDs of previous patents, subsequent patents or collateral patents are extracted depending on a given citation mode, and the extracted patent IDs are output to the output device, similar to the above method. Similarly, the step of calculating the number of citation relationships may be further performed before the output step. Of the collective citation files, corresponding files can be updated when new patent applications are filed or published.
FIG. 7 illustrates an example of the collective citation files created with respect to respective patents, using the case of FIG. 1. The file name of each file is composed of the IDs of corresponding patents, and the file content thereof is divided into three fields, that is, a first field containing the IDs of patents previous to a corresponding patent, a second field containing the IDs of patents subsequent to the corresponding patent, and, if necessary, a third field containing the IDs of patents collateral to the corresponding patent.
FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a screen for citation relationship analysis, output according to the method of the present invention after the example of FIG. 1 has been analyzed.
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the IDs of patents previous, subsequent and collateral to seed patents, and shows the seed patent IDs and the titles thereof, and FIG. 9 illustrates cases other than seed patents in the collateral patent list of FIG. 8. In this case, among the seed patents, if some seed patents correspond to patents previous or subsequent to other seed patents, the seed patents may be displayed without being excluded. In the display of patents, each ID, etc. can be connected by a hyperlink so that, if the ID is clicked using a mouse, the content of a corresponding patent is displayed.
FIG. 10 illustrates together a list of patents previous to seed patents, and the number of times each previous patent is cited by the seed patents. It will be apparent that subsequent patents or collateral patents can be displayed using the same method.
<Third embodiment: method of performing multi-step citation analysis>
A further embodiment of the present invention relates to a method of finding patents previous to previous patents or patents subsequent to subsequent patents in relation to seed patents, in addition to patents primarily indicated as previous patents or subsequent patents. In detail, this procedure starts from the step of receiving the IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit before or after the step of the cited patent search means receiving a step for analysis, that is, a degree of citation relationships. In this case, the term "step" or "degree" means the layer of patents previous/subsequent to seed patents, or a distance of reference from the seed patents in a method of setting patents previous to the seed patents as a primary degree and setting patents previous to the above previous patents as a secondary degree.
Next, the cited patent search means performs the search step of searching the patent database for previous patents, cited by the patents, or subsequent or collateral patents that cite the patents, on the basis of the patent IDs received at the previous step and finding the previous patents, subsequent patents or collateral patents. Such a search step is repeatedly performed a specific number of times that corresponds to the input degree. The previous patents, subsequent patents and collateral patents indicate the same concepts as in the above embodiments.
Next, the cited patent search means stores the found previous patents, subsequent patents and collateral patents that are found at the previous step in the storage device in association with respective previous citation degrees. The concept of the storage device includes all devices, such as a temporary storage device, for example, Random Access Memory (RAM) , or a hard disk.
Next, the citation number calculation means performs the citation number calculation step of calculating the number of times each of found previous patents, subsequent patents and collateral patents is cited by, cites, or is indirectly related with the seed patents, that is, the number of times the seed patents simultaneously have previous patents or subsequent patents . The output means performs the output step of receiving the IDs of the previous patents, the citation degrees, and the number of citations from the cited patent search means and the citation number calculation means, and outputting the IDs, the citation degrees and the number of citations in association with each other.
[industrial Applicability]
The method of operating a patent information system according to the present invention can be used for a system for searching for patent information, or collateral patents connected to previous/subsequent patents.

Claims

[CLAIMS]
[Claim l]
A method of operating a patent information system, comprising: an input step of cited patent search means receiving IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit; a search step of the cited patent search means searching a patent database for previous patents cited by the seed patents and finding the previous patents, based on the received seed patent IDs; a citation number calculation step of citation number calculation means calculating a number of times each found previous patent is cited by the seed patents; and an output step of output means receiving the IDs of the previous patents and a number of times each found previous patent is cited from the cited patent search means and the citation number calculation means, respectively, and outputting the IDs and the number of citations in association with each other.
[Claim 2]
A method of operating a patent information system, comprising: an input step of cited patent search means receiving IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit; a search step of the cited patent search means searching a patent database for subsequent patents that cite the seed patents and finding the subsequent patents, based on the received seed patent IDs; a citation number calculation step of citation number calculation means calculating a number of times each found subsequent patent cites the seed patents; and an output step of output means receiving the IDs of the subsequent patents and the number of times the found subsequent patent cites the seed patents from the cited patent search means and the citation number calculation means, respectively, and outputting the IDs and the number of citations in association with each other.
[Claim 3]
A method of operating a patent information system, comprising: an input step of cited patent search means receiving IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit; a search step of performing at least one search of a first search in which the cited patent search means searches a patent database for previous patents, cited by the seed patents, and a first group of collateral patents that cite the previous patents, and finds the previous patents and the first collateral patent group, based on the received seed patent IDs, and a second search in which the cited patent search means searches the patent database for subsequent patents that cite the seed patents, and a second group of collateral patents, cited by the subsequent patents, and finds the subsequent patents and the second collateral patent group, based on the received seed patent IDs; a citation number calculation step of citation number calculation means calculating a number of collateral citation relationships with the seed patents for each of the patents belonging to at least one of the first and second collateral patent groups; and an output step of output means receiving the IDs of the collateral patents of the collateral patent group, for which the number of collateral citation relationships has been calculated, and the number of collateral citation relationships, from the cited patent search means and the citation number calculation means, respectively, and outputting the IDs and the number of collateral citation relationships in association with each other.
[Claim 4] A method of operating a patent information system, comprising: a connection step of connecting citation file creation means to a patent database for storing information about patents; a step of the citation file creation means receiving IDs of predetermined patents and IDs of previous patents, cited by the predetermined patents, from the patent database connected thereto, and creating citation files that have the IDs of the predetermined patents as file names and have the IDs of the previous patents as file contents, based on the received patent IDs; a step of the citation file creation means storing the citation files in a citation file storage device; an input step of citation file search means receiving IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit together with a command to find IDs of patents previous to the seed patents; a step of the citation file search means finding citation files, having file names corresponding to the received seed patent IDs, in the citation file storage device; and an output step of output means outputting file contents from the found citation files as IDs of patents previous to the seed patents .
[Claim 5]
A method of operating a patent information system, comprising: a connection step of connecting citation file creation means to a patent database for storing information about patents; a step of the citation file creation means receiving IDs of predetermined patents and IDs of previous patents, cited by the predetermined patents, from the patent database connected thereto, and creating citation files that have the IDs of the predetermined patents as file names and have the IDs of the previous patents as file contents, based on the received patent IDs; a step of the citation file creation means storing the citation files in a citation file storage device; an input step of citation file search means receiving IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit together with a command to find IDs of patents subsequent to the seed patents; a step of the citation file search means finding citation files, including the received seed patent IDs as file contents, in the citation file storage device; and an output step of output means outputting file names of the found citation files as IDs of patents subsequent to the seed patents.
[Claim 6]
A method of operating a patent information system, comprising: a connection step of connecting citation file creation means to a patent database for storing information about patents; a step of the citation file creation means receiving IDs of predetermined patents and IDs of previous patents, cited by the predetermined patents, from the patent database connected thereto, and creating citation files that have the IDs of the predetermined patents as file names and have the IDs of the previous patents as file contents, based on the received patent IDs; a step of the citation file creation means storing the citation files in a citation file storage device; an input step of citation file search means receiving IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit together with a command to find IDs of patents collateral to the seed patents; a search step of performing at least one search of a first search in which the citation file search means finds a first citation file group, having file names corresponding to the received seed patent IDs, in the citation file storage device, reads IDs of previous patents, which are file contents of citation files belonging to the first citation file group, finds a second citation file group having the same file names as the previous patent IDs, and searches for a third citation file group having the same file contents as file names of citation files belonging to the second citation file group, and a second search in which the citation file search means finds a fourth citation file group having the same file contents as file names of citation files belonging to the first citation file group, and searches for a fifth citation file group having the same file names as file contents of citation files belonging to the fourth citation file group; and an output step of output means outputting file names of citation files belonging to at least one of the third and fifth citation file groups as IDs of patents collateral to the seed patents.
[Claim 7]
A method of operating a patent information system, comprising:
(a) an input step of cited patent search means receiving IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit before or after a step of receiving a degree of citation relationship to be analyzed;
(b) a search step of the cited patent search means searching a patent database for previous patents, cited by the seed patents, based on the seed patent IDs received at a previous step;
(c) a step of repeating step (b) a specific number of times that corresponds to the received citation relationship degree;
(d) a step of the cited patent search means storing the previous patents found at a previous step in a storage device in association with respective previous citation degrees;
(e) a citation number calculation step of citation number calculation means calculating a number of times each found previous patent is cited by the seed patents; and
(f) an output step of output means receiving IDs of the previous patents, the citation relationship degrees and the number of citations, from the cited patent search means and the citation number calculation means, and outputting the IDs, the citation relationship degrees and the number of citations in association with each other.
[Claim 8]
A method of operating a patent information system, comprising: (a) an input step of cited patent search means receiving IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit before or after a step of receiving a degree of citation relationship to be analyzed;
(b) a search step of the cited patent search means searching a patent database for subsequent patents that cite the seed patents, based on the seed patent IDs received at a previous step;
(c) a step of repeating step (b) a certain number of times that corresponds to the received citation relationship degree; (d) a step of the cited patent search means storing the subsequent patents found at a previous step in a storage device in association with respective citation relation degrees; (e) a citation number calculation step of citation number calculation means calculating a number of times each found subsequent patent cites the seed patents; and
(f) an output step of output means receiving IDs of the subsequent patents, the citation relationship degrees, and the number of citations, from the cited patent search means and the citation number calculation means, and outputting the IDs, the citation relationship degrees, and the number of citations in association with each other.
[Claim 9] A method of operating a patent information system, comprising:
(a) an input step of cited patent search means receiving IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit before or after a step of receiving a degree of citation relationship to be analyzed;
(b) a search step of the cited patent search means searching the patent database for collateral patents, which are indirectly connected to at least one of patents previous to and patents subsequent to the seed patents, based on the seed patent IDs received at a previous step, and finding the collateral patents;
(c) a step of repeating step (b) a certain number of times that corresponds to the received citation relationship degree; (d) a step of the cited patent search means storing the collateral patents found at a previous step in a storage device in association with respective citation relation degrees;
(e) a citation number calculation step of citation number calculation means calculating a number of times each found collateral patent is indirectly connected to the seed patents ; and
(f) an output step of output means receiving IDs of the collateral patents, the citation relationship degrees, and the number of indirect connections, from the cited patent search means and the citation number calculation means, and outputting the IDs, the citation relationship degrees, and the number of indirect connections in association with each other.
[Claim 10]
A method of operating a patent information system, comprising: an input step of cited patent search means receiving IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit before or after a step of receiving a citation mode for analysis; a search step of the cited patent search means searching a patent database for one or more patents corresponding to patents previous to, patents subsequent to, and patents collateral to the seed patents depending on the citation mode, based on the received seed patent IDs, as search result patents, and finding the search result patents; a relationship number calculation step of citation number calculation means calculating a number of times each search result patent has a previous citation relationship, subsequent citation relationship, or collateral citation relationship with the seed patents; and an output step of output means receiving IDs of the search result patents and the number of relationships, from the cited patent search means and the citation number calculation means, respectively, and outputting the IDs and the number of relationships in association with each other.
[Claim 11]
The patent information system operating method according to any of claims 4 to 6, further comprising the steps of citation number calculation means examining a number of duplications of file names or file contents to be output before the output step, and providing the number of duplications to the output means, and the output means also outputting the numbers of duplications.
[Claim 12]
The patent information system operating method according to any of claims 4 to 6, wherein the citation file creation step is performed whenever an update operation of adding new patent data to the patent database occurs .
[Claim 13]
A method of operating a patent information system, comprising: a connection step of connecting citation file creation means to a patent database for storing information about patents; a step of the citation file creation means receiving IDs of predetermined patents and IDs of previous patents, cited by the predetermined patents, from the patent database connected thereto, and creating citation files that have the IDs of the predetermined patents as file names and have the IDs of the previous patents as file contents, based on the received patent IDs; an input step of cited patent search means receiving IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit before or after a step of receiving a citation mode for analysis; a search step of the cited patent search means searching the patent database for one or more patents corresponding to patents previous to, patents subsequent to, and patents collateral to the seed patents depending on the citation mode, based on the received seed patent IDs, as search result patents, and finding the search result patents; and an output step of output means receiving IDs of the search result patents and a number of relationships, from the cited patent search means and citation number calculation means, respectively, and outputting the IDs and the number of relationships in association with each other.
[Claim 14]
The patent information system operating method according to claim 13, further comprising a relationship number calculation step of the citation number calculation means calculating the number of times each search result patent has a previous citation relationship, subsequent citation relationship, or collateral citation relationship with the seed patents.
[Claim 15] A method of operating a patent information system, comprising the steps of: receiving IDs of seed patents; searching a connected patent database for at least one group of a previous patent group, a subsequent patent group and a collateral patent group with respect to the seed patents, based on the seed patent IDs; and searching again a found group for at least one of the same inventor, the same applicant and the same technology classification as the seed patents.
[Claim 16]
A method of operating a patent information system, comprising: a connection step of connecting citation file creation means to a patent database for storing information about patents; a step of the citation file creation means receiving IDs of predetermined patents and IDs of subsequent patents that cite the predetermined patents, from the patent database connected thereto, and creating citation files that have the IDs of the predetermined patents as file names and have the IDs of the subsequent patents as file contents, based on the received patent IDs; a step of the citation file creation means storing the citation files in a citation file storage device; an input step of citation file search means receiving
IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit together with a command to find IDs of patents previous to the seed patents; a step of the citation file search means finding citation files, having file contents corresponding to the IDs of the seed patents, in the citation file storage device; and an output step of output means outputting file names from the found citation files as IDs of patents subsequent to the seed patents.
[Claim 17]
A method of operating a patent information system, comprising: a connection step of connecting citation file creation means to a patent database for storing information about patents; a step of the citation file creation means receiving IDs of predetermined patents and IDs of subsequent patents that cite the predetermined patents, from the patent database connected thereto, and creating citation files that have the IDs of the predetermined patents as file names and have the IDs of the subsequent patents as file contents, based on the received patent IDs; a step of the citation file creation means storing the citation files in a citation file storage device; an input step of citation file search means receiving IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit together with a command to find IDs of patents subsequent to the seed patents; a step of the citation file search means finding citation files, having IDs of the received seed patents as file names, in the citation file storage device; and an output step of output means outputting file contents of the found citation files as IDs of patents subsequent to the seed patents .
[Claim 18]
A method of operating a patent information system, comprising: a connection step of connecting citation file creation means to a patent database for storing information about patents; a step of the citation file creation means receiving IDs of predetermined patents and IDs of subsequent patents that cite the predetermined patents, from the patent database connected thereto, and creating citation files that have the IDs of the predetermined patents as file names and have the IDs of the subsequent patents as file contents, based on the received patent IDs; a step of the citation file creation means storing the citation files in a citation file storage device; an input step of citation file search means receiving IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit together with a command to find IDs of patents collateral to the seed patents; a search step of performing at least one search of a first search in which the citation file search means finds a first citation file group, having file names corresponding to the received seed patent IDs, in the citation file storage device, reads IDs of subsequent patents, which are file contents of citation files belonging to the first citation file group, finds a second citation file group having the same file names as the subsequent patent IDs, and searches for a third citation file group having the same file contents as file names of citation files belonging to the second citation file group, and a second search in which the citation file search means finds a fourth citation file group having the same file contents as file names of citation files belonging to the first citation file group, and searches for a fifth citation file group having the same file names as file contents of citation files belonging to the fourth citation file group; and an output step of output means outputting file names of citation files belonging to at least one of the third and fifth citation file groups as IDs of patents collateral to the seed patents .
[Claim 19]
A method of operating a patent information system, comprising: a connection step of connecting citation file creation means to a patent database for storing information about patents; a step of the citation file creation means receiving IDs of predetermined patents, and IDs of citation relationship patents belonging to at least one of a group of IDs of previous patents, cited by the predetermined patents, a group of IDs of subsequent patents that cite the predetermined patents, and a group of IDs of collateral patents, which have collateral relationships with the predetermined patents, from the patent database connected thereto, and creating collective citation files that have the predetermined patent IDs as file names and have the citation relationship patent IDs as file contents, based on the received patent IDs; a step of the citation file creation means storing the collective citation files in a citation file storage device; an input step of cited patent search means receiving IDs of at least two seed patents from an input unit before or after a step of receiving a citation mode for analysis; a search step of the cited patent search means analyzing patent contents of the collective citation files depending on the citation mode, based on the seed patent IDs, searching the patent database for IDs of one or more patents corresponding to patents previous to, patents subsequent to, and patents collateral to the seed patents as search result patents, and finding the search result patents; and an output step of output means receiving IDs of the search result patents and a number of relationships from the cited patent search means and citation number calculation means, respectively, and outputting the IDs and the number of relationships in association with each other.
[Claim 20] The patent information system operating method according to claim 19, further comprising a relationship number calculation step of the citation number calculation means calculating the number of times each search result patent has a previous citation relationship, subsequent citation relationship, or collateral citation relationship with the seed patents .
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