Patent Publication Number: US-2009234654-A1

Title: Text parser

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to parsing of information. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     Claims are arguably the most important part of a patent. During their examination, prosecution, or litigation, the analysis of the claims of a patent or a patent application is very important. 
     For example, for the Examiner to reject a claim, all claim features must be taught in a reference. An Examiner might reject a claim because all the features of a claim are taught or suggested in one or more references. Additionally, an Examiner might reject a claim because not all the claims are supported in the patent applications specification. 
     A technique is needed to identify areas in a claim that may be of concern to in the prosecution or litigation of a patent. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       So that features of the present invention can be understood in detail, a particular description of the invention may be had by reference to embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments. 
         FIG. 1  is a view of a computer system according to an embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a flow chart of example operations for stream processing. 
         FIG. 3A-3B  are a view of stream processing according to an embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 4A-4B  illustrate stream processing according to an embodiment of the invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Embodiments of the present invention provide techniques for processing of patents. Similar words to each word in a claim may be found to words in a patent document. Often the words of the claims may be searched for in a cited reference to flag to the practitioner an area of interest that may contain a paragraph or sentence that may disclose that feature of a claim. An automated method of searching for similar words of a claim that notify a practitioner of an area of patentable interest is presented in some embodiments of this invention. 
     Example Network Topology 
       FIG. 1  illustrates an example computer system  100  in which the embodiments of the present invention may be utilized. A computer  102  with memory  104  may be connected to the Internet  106 . The Internet  106  may be connected to a server  108  that serves web pages to different locations on the Internet  106 . A document may reside on the memory  104  or the server  108 . The document may be a patent document. 
     In some embodiments, all the operations of  FIG. 2  may occur on the server  108  while a user operates the computer  102 . In some embodiments, all the operations of  FIG. 2  may occur on the computer  102 . In this embodiment, documents to be used as a data stream may download from the Internet  106  while processed on the computer  102 . 
     Determining Similarity 
       FIG. 2  illustrates example operations  200  for finding similar words in a document. The operations begin at  202  where a word is selected from a data stream. The data stream may some or all of the text of a patent document. The data stream may be the claims of a patent or patent application. The data stream may be the text of multiple patent documents in one data stream. This may be useful in processing obviousness-type rejections which may include several references. 
     At  204 , the document is searched for words similar to the selected word of the data stream. A word may be considered similar if it has a percentage of the same letters of the selected words as described below. At  205 , the selected word and similar word or words may be stored. 
     At  206 , if it is determined that the end of the data stream has been reached then at  208 , the process stops. If not, at  202 , another word is selected from the data stream. The word selected may be out of order within the data stream. 
       FIG. 3A  illustrates data stream processing according to an embodiment of the invention. A selected word  301  of a claim may be compared against words in a patent document such as a specification  302 . The specification  302  may be stored in a data stream  314 . The data stream  314  may be all the text of the specification  302 . After a selected word  301  is selected it is compared against streamed words  306 ,  308 ,  310 , and  312 , “memory,” “mouse,” “methodology,” and “method,” respectfully. A streamed word  306 , “memory,” may not be similar enough to be similar to “method,” the selected word  301  (as with streamed word  308 ). However, a streamed word  310  “methodology” may be determined to be similar to “method” (as with streamed word  312 ). 
     Requiring the selected word to be the exact word may be problematic because sometimes an area or word of a specification may be important, but may not be the exact spelling of the selected word. For example, if the selected word is “finding,” then the streamed word “find” while not an exact spelling of “finding” may still be an area of interest in the document. To solve this problem an exact match of the selected word with the streamed word may not be necessary for a similarity determination. 
     In some embodiments, a selected word may be determined to be similar to a streamed word if most of the letters of the selected word occur, in order, in the streamed word. In some embodiments, the location of a streamed word determined to be similar to a selected word may be stored. The location stored may be the location in the data stream or the original patent document. 
     In some embodiments, the determination of similarity may be due to a requirement that a certain percentage of letters in the selected word appear in the streamed word. For example, if 40% of the selected word  301 &#39;s letters are required to be in the streamed word, the streamed word  310  would be determined to be similar because greater than 46% of the letters of ‘METHOD” are founding “METHODOLOGY.” However, streamed word  306  may not be determined to be similar because only the letters M-E-O are in “METHOD” and “MEMORY.” 
     In some embodiments, a function for computing similarity may be provided. The above determination of similarity may occur as described in  204  above. After the determination is complete for selected word  301 , the determination may be performed by the selection of the next selected word  303  “comprising.” 
       FIG. 3B  illustrates stream processing according to an embodiment of the invention. A similar word location  405  may be associated with a similar word  404 . The similar word location  405 ,  406  may be the location of an occurrence of the similar word  404  in the data stream or in the patent document. There may be more than one similar word per selected word. For example, the selected word  402  may be similar to similar words  404 , and  407 . Also, each similar word may have one or more similar word locations associated with the similar word. For example, the similar word  404  may be associated with similar word locations  405 ,  406 . 
     The display of the selected words, similar words, and the similar word locations as in  FIG. 3B  may facilitate a person analyzing where a claim&#39;s features might be disclosed in a patent document. A practitioner may easily look to see where part of a claim, here the selected word  402 , may be disclosed in a reference, here similar word locations  405 ,  406 . The selected word locations  405 , and  406  may provide information that discloses the feature “method.” If it does not, the practitioner has, at least been notified of a possible area of interest in the patent or patent document. 
       FIG. 4A-4B  illustrate stream processing according to an embodiment of the invention.  FIG. 4A  shows information in a data stream with selected words  502 ,  504 , and  506  which may be processed as described in  FIG. 2  above.  FIG. 4B  shows another form of output as an alternative to  FIG. 3B  which displays location information. Each selected word  502 ,  504 , and  506  may be displayed with a corresponding similar word  602 ,  604 , and  606 . The similar words may be displayed in a different color than the selected words. The similar word displayed such as  602 ,  604  and  606  may be the first similar word found in a document using a method described above. 
     While the foregoing is directed to embodiments of the present invention, other and further embodiments of the invention may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof, and the scope thereof is determined by the claims that follow.