Language technologies and patent search and classification

Research on a number of developments in language technologies targeted at improving patent processing procedures within patent offices and in subsequent patent database search systems conclude that these types of technologies will support more sophisticated search activities, for example in patent information centres, to complement the low-cost or free offerings on the Internet.

Abstract

Research on a number of developments in language technologies, targeted at improving patent processing procedures within patent offices and in subsequent patent database search systems, is described. Aspects of patent processing covered are (1) OCR correction, to assist the conversion of paper documents to electronic versions, and (2) text classification, to assist in the allocation of new patent applications to the correct technical experts. Aspects of patent searching covered are (3) terminology enrichment, linking keywords to IPC terms, (4) table and figure reference extraction, to enable the corresponding text to be located, and (5) multilingual information access, to help formulate queries in other languages for the search of documents in those languages, and then to provide contextual translation of key sections of the documents retrieved. The authors conclude that these types of technologies will support more sophisticated search activities, for example in patent information centres, to complement the low-cost or free offerings on the Internet.