System and method for quality based ranking of patents

Abstract

Qscore is the most advanced tool available for ranking the potential commercial value of a patent or a portfolio of patents. Other ranking methods typically rely heavily on a patent's reference graph (citations to/from other patents). Qscore is far more sophisticated: using data mining tokenization techniques, Qscore takes into account multiple factors correlated with patent value. This document generally describes the method used to assign a quality score to each patent, which is used to bias the ranking of the results returned from the keyword-based searching in the analytics embodiment of the present invention. This quality score, denoted by Qscore, is designed to identify the patents that are not only relevant to the user's query but also possess some additional, query independent, quality characteristics. Consequently, Qscore can be considered as an information filtering aid—designed to identify the “good” information from a “sea” of information.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for valuing a patent, the system comprising:
 at least one hardware processor, a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having an executable computer readable program code, the at least one hardware processor configured to execute the computer-readable program code to:
 access a plurality of databases, at least one of the plurality of databases containing patent related information; 
 search on at least one of the plurality of databases; 
 determine the number of times a subject patent is cited by at least one prior art patent reference; 
 compare the claims in the at least one prior art patent reference and the subject patent; 
 determine the age of the at least one prior art patent reference and the subject patent; 
 determine the classification of the at least one prior art reference and the subject patent; 
 determine the maintenance fee status of the subject patent; and 
 determine the assignees of the at least one prior art reference and the subject patent. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , further configured to determine a weight for the subject patent based on its age, citing references, classification, maintenance fee status, and assignees. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , configured to compare the age of the subject patent and the age of at least one prior art reference. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the system is configured to determine the weight of the subject patent based on the difference in age between the subject patent and at the at least one prior art reference. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , configured to determine the weight of the subject patent, wherein the weight is based on at least one prior art reference, and the age difference between the at least one prior art reference and the subject patent. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , configured to determine a weight of the subject patent, wherein the weight is based on the age difference between the at least one prior art reference and the subject patent, and the average similarity between the subject patent and the at least one prior art reference. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , configured to determine a weight of the subject patent, wherein the weight is based on the age difference between the at least one prior art reference and the subject patent, the average similarity between the subject patent and the at least one prior art reference, and the art classification of the prior at reference and the subject patent. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , configured to determine a weight of the subject patent, wherein the weight is based on the age difference between the at least one prior art reference and the subject patent, the average similarity between the subject patent and the at least one prior art reference, the art classification of the prior at reference and the subject patent, and the original inventor of the prior art reference and the subject patent. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein a weight is determined in a manner that the age of a patent is indirectly proportional to its weight. 
     
     
         10 . A method of valuating patents, the method comprising a network, the network comprising:
 a plurality of nodes, each node configured to transact with at least one other node in the plurality of nodes;   a server, configured to communicate with at least one node in the plurality of nodes, the server comprising at least one hardware processor, a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, the server configured to:
 determine the number of times a subject patent is cited by at least one prior art patent reference; 
 compare the claims in the at least one prior art patent reference and the subject patent; 
 determine the age of the at least one prior art patent reference and the subject patent; 
 determine the classification of the at least one prior art reference and the subject patent; and 
 determine the maintenance fee status of the subject patent. 
   
     
     
         11 . The network of  claim 10 , further configured to determine a weight for the subject patent based on its age, citing references, classification, maintenance fee status, and assignees. 
     
     
         12 . The network of  claim 10 , configured to compare the age of the subject patent and the age of at least one prior art reference. 
     
     
         13 . The network of  claim 10 , wherein the system is configured to determine the weight of the subject patent based on the difference in age between the subject patent and at the at least one prior art reference. 
     
     
         14 . The network of  claim 10 , wherein the system is configured to determine the weight of the subject patent based on the difference in age between the subject patent and at the at least one prior art reference. 
     
     
         15 . The network of  claim 10 , configured to determine the weight of the subject patent, wherein the weight is based on at least one prior art reference, and the age difference between the at least one prior art reference and the subject patent. 
     
     
         16 . The network of  claim 10 , configured to determine a weight of the subject patent, wherein the weight is based on the age difference between the at least one prior art reference and the subject patent, and the average similarity between the subject patent and the at least one prior art reference. 
     
     
         17 . The network of  claim 10 , configured to determine a weight of the subject patent, wherein the weight is based on the age difference between the at least one prior art reference and the subject patent, the average similarity between the subject patent and the at least one prior art reference, and the art classification of the prior at reference and the subject patent. 
     
     
         18 . The network of  claim 10 , configured to determine a weight of the subject patent, wherein the weight is based on the age difference between the at least one prior art reference and the subject patent, the average similarity between the subject patent and the at least one prior art reference, the art classification of the prior at reference and the subject patent, and the original inventor of the prior art reference and the subject patent. 
     
     
         19 . The network of  claim 10 , wherein a weight is determined in a manner that the age of a patent is indirectly proportional to its weight.