Patent ID: 8335998

Claim:
A computer implemented method for analyzing prior art documents relevant to a specified technology of interest, the prior art documents resulting from a prior art search including patents, patent applications, or non-patent technical literature, the method comprising the steps of: searching for prior art documents relevant to said specified technology of interest; processing technological features of interest from the prior art documents resulting from the prior art search, the technological features of interest including technology, manufacturing, or product features associated with one or more of the respective prior art documents, the technological features of interest being determined using a computerized content analysis without needing a citation analysis, where one or more of the technological features of interest are being derived from key features disclosed in a claims section of at least one of the prior art documents; processing dates of interest from the prior art documents, the dates of interest including dates associated with respective ones of the prior art documents; and creating an interactive map that reflects the technological features of interest from the prior art documents by distributing visual indicators representing at least a portion of the prior art documents on the interactive map along a first axis of the interactive map based on one or more of the respective technological features of a respective prior art document and along a second axis of the interactive map based on a respective date of interest of the respective prior art document; wherein creating an interactive map that reflects the technological features of interest and dates of at least a portion of the prior art documents further includes: defining a color schema for each country associated with prior art documents; and using the color schema, creating a chart comparing the prior art documents per country such that the prior art documents associated with a country are clustered by color; enabling a user to navigate the interactive map; and in response to a user hovering a mouse over a prior art document visual indicator represented on the map, displaying bibliographic information about that prior art document.