Patent mapping

Abstract

The present inventive subject matter provides systems, methods, software, and data structures for patent mapping, storage, and searching. Some such embodiments include mapping patent documents, claims, and claim limitations. Some further embodiments provide for searching a universe of patent documents by patent document, claim, limitation, class, element, or concept

1 . A data structure comprising: a first field containing data representing a first portion of a patent claim; a second field containing data representing a second portion of a patent claim; and a third field containing data representing a third portion of a patent claim, wherein the third field associates the first field to the second field.  
     
     
         2 . The data structure of  claim 1 , further comprising: a fourth field containing data associating the patent claim of the first field to a patent disclosure providing support for the portion of the claim in the third field.  
     
     
         3 . The data structure of  claim 2 , wherein the association of the fourth field includes a citation to a portion of the patent disclosure.  
     
     
         4 . The data structure of  claim 2 , wherein the association of the fourth field includes a text of the patent disclosure.  
     
     
         5 . The data structure of  claim 1 , wherein the first, second, and third fields contain text of the patent claim.  
     
     
         6 . The data structure of  claim 1 , wherein the second field contains data representative of a concept defined in another data structure.  
     
     
         7 . The data structure of  claim 6 , wherein the another data structure is a lookup table.  
     
     
         8 . A method comprising: designating a first definitional concept of a patent claim; designating a second definitional concept of the patent claim; and designating a relational concept of the patent claim, wherein the relational concept relates the second definitional concept to the first definitional concept.  
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein designating the first definitional concept of the patent claim includes designating at least a portion of the patent claim as the first definitional concept.  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein designating the second definitional concept of the patent claim includes designating at least a portion of the patent claim as the second definitional concept.  
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein designating the first and second definitional concepts and the relational concept of the patent claim includes assigning a concept to each of the elements, wherein the assigned concepts are derived from a patent document of the patent claim.  
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising: associating the patent claim to a patent disclosure providing support for the patent claim.  
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein associating the patent claim to a patent disclosure providing support for the patent claim comprises: associating the relational concept to a portion of the patent disclosure.  
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the associating the relational concept of the patent claim to a portion of the patent disclosure comprises: associating one or more words of the patent claim to one or more sentences of the patent disclosure.  
     
     
         15 . A method comprising: maintaining a database of patent concepts, wherein each concept is defined to include elements inherent to the concept; and maintaining a database of mapped patent claims, each claim including an element mapped to a concept, the mapped elements being non-inherent elements of the mapped concept.  
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein each of the mapped patent claims is an independent claim.  
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the mapped patent claims do not include a dependent claim containing only elements inherent to a concept mapped to a parent claim of the dependent claim.  
     
     
         18 . A method comprising: comparing patent claim language with language of mapped patent claims; and suggesting a mapping for the patent claim language based on the comparing.  
     
     
         19 . A method comprising: generating a list of first definitional concepts contained in a universe of patent claims; eliminating irrelevant first definitional concepts; generating a list of relational concepts associated with the remaining first definitional concepts; eliminating irrelevant relational concepts; generating a list of second definitional concepts associated to the remaining first definitional concepts by the remaining relational concepts; and eliminating irrelevant second definitional concepts.  
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein first definitional concepts only associated with eliminated relational concepts are eliminated and wherein relational concepts only associated with eliminated second definitional concepts are also eliminated.  
     
     
         21 . A computer readable medium, with instructions thereon, for causing an appropriately configured computer to: generate a list of elements contained within a universe of patent claims; and eliminate elements, wherein eliminating an element present in a patent claim eliminates patent claims depending therefrom.  
     
     
         22 . The computer readable medium of  claim 21 , wherein the elements comprise definitional concepts and relational concepts.  
     
     
         23 . A method comprising: identifying a target subject matter; assigning the target subject matter to one or more concepts; identifying a patent pool to screen the target subject matter against based on the one or more concepts; and assembling a concept pool from the identified patent pool.  
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 23 , further comprising: receiving input related to concepts in the concept pool; and removing patents from the patent pool based on the received input related to concepts in the patent pool.