Abstract: A method and system for determining the likely uniqueness and novelty of a subject concept, such as a patent, in comparison with other published references embodying other concepts by examining the subject concept in the context of references published both before and after the subject concept looking for instances in which a particular other published reference can be determined to be an ancestor of or progeny of the subject concept and then constructing and displaying a morphogenetic icon for representing such multi-dimensional, multi-temporal relationships in a two-dimensional manner.