Abstract: A system and method for assisting in the preparation of a document, and for analyzing a document, such as a patent or patent application, are described herein. The system aids a user to verify that terms in a patent application are being used consistently. The system also facilitates editing of the patent application so as to achieve terminology consistency. The system operates by allowing a user to select a document containing a patent application. The user then selects the specification portion of the patent application, and also selects the claims portion of the patent application. The system indexes the specification portion and the claims portion to thereby generate a merged index table. The system analyzes the merged index table to identify terms in the claims portion that are not present in the specification portion, and then displays these terms (called claim terms). A user can then edit the patent application so as to properly describe these terms in the specification.

Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product for processing data are described herein. The system maintains first databases of patents, and second databases of non-patent information of interest to a corporate entity. The system also maintains one or more groups. Each of the groups comprises any number of the patents from the first databases. The system, upon receiving appropriate operator commands, automatically processes the patents in one of the groups in conjunction with non-patent information from the second databases. Accordingly, the system performs patent-centric and group-oriented processing of data. A group can also include any number of non-patent documents. The groups may be product based, person based, corporate entity based, or user-defined. Other types of groups are also covered, such as temporary groups.

Abstract: The system synchronizes, displays, and manipulates text and image documents in electronic form for display. The text and image files are synchronized to produce Equivalent Files to create an approximate equivalence relationship between the text and the image files. The graphic user interface of the present system allows a user to selectively view an Equivalent File in a window while simultaneously or alternatively viewing an image file within one or more image windows on the display. The user may also create and manipulate notes and subnotes as annotations to document objects or document portions. The notes and subnotes may be linked to text documents, image documents, text objects, or other non-text objects or documents, such as images, audio clips, etc. The user may create new subnotes associated with selected objects or selected portions, and the user may enter information pertaining to the selected objects in the new subnote.

Abstract: The system synchronizes, displays, and manipulates text and image documents in electronic form for display. The text and image files are synchronized to produce Equivalent Files using heuristic algorithms to create an approximate equivalence relationship between the text and the image files. The graphic user interface of the present system allows a user to selectively view an Equivalent File in a window while simultaneously viewing an image file within one or ore image windows on the display. The user may also create and manipulate notes and subnotes as annotations to document objects or document portions. The notes and subnotes may be linked to text documents, image documents, text objects, or other non-text objects or documents, such as images, audio clips, etc. The user may create new subnotes associated with selected objects or selected portions, and the user may enter information pertaining to the selected objects in the new subnote.

Abstract: A system and method of manipulating notes linked to data objects, and of manipulating the data objects. The method operates by displaying a note including one or more first sub-notes and one or more second sub-notes. The first sub-notes are linked to portions of a first data object associated with a first application. At least some of the first portions may be partially overlapping. The second sub-notes are linked to portions of a second data object associated with a second application. The second application is different from the first application. A request is received from a user viewing the note to display a portion of the first data object linked to a particular one of the first sub-notes. The first application is invoked, if the first application is not already invoked. The first application is caused to load the first data object and present the portion of the first data object linked to the particular one of the first sub-notes.

Abstract: A system and method for assisting in the preparation of a document, and for analyzing a document, such as a patent or patent application, are described herein. The system aids a user to verify that terms in a patent application are being used consistently. The system also facilitates editing of the patent application so as to achieve terminology consistency. The system operates by allowing a user to select a document containing a patent application. The user then selects the specification portion of the patent application, and also selects the claims portion of the patent application. The system indexes the specification portion and the claims portion to thereby generate a merged index table. The system analyzes the merged index table to identify terms in the claims portion that are not present in the specification portion, and then displays these terms (called claim terms). A user can then edit the patent application so as to properly describe these terms in the specification.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for extracting, synchronizing, displaying, and manipulating text and image documents in electronic form for display. In the Preferred embodiment of the present invention, text and image files for documents, such as for example patent documents, are initially stored on separate magnetic tape media. These data files are extracted from the respective tapes and placed onto a faster medium, such as a hard disk drive. The text and image files are synchronized to produce Equivalent Files using heuristic algorithms to create an approximate equivalence relationship between the text and the image files. The Equivalent Files and image files residing on, for example, a hard disk drive or compact disk (CD), are coupled as a resource to a computer display system.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for extracting, synchronizing, displaying, and manipulating text and image documents in electronic form for display. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, text and image files for documents, such as for example patent documents, are initially stored on separate magnetic tape media. These data files are extracted from the respective tapes and placed onto a faster medium, such as a hard disk drive. The text and image files are synchronized to produce Equivalent Files using heuristic algorithms to create an approximate equivalence relationship between the text and the image files. The Equivalent Files and image files residing on, for example, a hard disk drive or compact disk (CD), are coupled as a resource to a computer display system.