Patent ID: 9251243
Filing Date: 2016-02-02
CPC Classification: G06F

Claim Text:
1. A computerized method that uses a computer for retrieving interrelated patent documents from a database portfolio that comprises patent data corresponding to one or more patent documents that include patents and patent applications, said method comprising: a) constructing, as input to a computer, at least a first end point portfolio, a second end point portfolio, and a middle portfolio with all such portfolios associated with at least one patent document that provides patent data from each patent document with the number of such patent documents in each portfolio fixed prior to the entry of portfolios into the computer, each patent document in an end point portfolio providing end point data as part of its patent data and each patent document in the middle portfolio provides middle point data as part of its patent data, the patent documents of the end point portfolios are potential end point nodes located at the start and end of a potential end point chain consisting of links in a node and link arrangement having a node at each end of a link which is in common with an adjacent link with at least two links connecting a node in the first portfolio with a node in the second portfolio through a node in the middle portfolio; b) using the constructed end point portfolios and the middle portfolio as input to a computer; c) using the computer to process the input data to find any end point chains wherein a patent document in the first end point portfolio and a patent document in the second end point portfolio provide the nodes at the opposite ends of each end point chain with a patent document in the middle portfolio providing a node through which an end point chain must pass, and any intermediate patent document that provide additional nodes between the end points of an end point chain; d) retrieving output from the computer comprising a finding that no end point chains exist or output including at least one of: i) at least one intermediate patent document, ii) the links and nodes of the end point chains as described in step c), iii) the links connecting at least one first end point portfolio patent document with at least one second end point portfolio patent document and, iv) at least one middle portfolio patent document linking patent documents of the first end point portfolio with patent documents of the second end point portfolio; and, e) assembling from output retrieved under any of item ii) to iv) of step d a limited list of patent documents comprising less documents than the number of patent documents in the first end point portfolio, the second end point portfolio or the middle portfolio for review of the relevance of those documents with respect to the first end point portfolio, the second end point portfolio or the middle portfolio for identifying patent documents of interest to a user of the results of the method.