EU project picks up the patent processing pace
EU Member States are promoting the creation of an EU-wide patenting system called 'Community Patent' that would allow individuals and enterprises to obtain a unitary patent common to all. Experts say patents fuel innovation and creativity, thus helping intensify and sustain Europeans' competitiveness. For a team of EU-funded researchers, the use of semantic Web technology could be just what the patent doctor ordered. Backed with EUR 2.5 million in funding, the PatExpert ('Advanced patent document processing techniques') project targeted the development of a functioning service and a change in the paradigm currently being followed for patent processing. The project was financed through the Information Society Technologies Thematic area of the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6). PatExpert succeeded in establishing a multimedia content representation system for the retrieval, classification and multilingual production of concise patent information. The project partners also assessed and visualised patent material to meet the demands of all users including inventors and patent examiners. 'The greatest success of PatExpert has been to initiate the change of the paradigm currently followed in patent processing services, from textual to semantic,' project leader Professor Leo Wanner told ICT Results. 'The implications of the use of semantic technologies in the patent domain are far-reaching,' added the researcher of Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Spain. 'Semantic technologies used in PatExpert facilitate access to the contents of patent documentation and, thus, improve the accuracy of search, analysis and valuing', among others. Despite the project ending less than a year ago, a number of groups have already expressed an interest what it has to offer. 'We are already performing general performance studies ordered by external parties for selected technologies,' explained Professor Wanner. 'Furthermore, Brügmann Software [a project partner] is about to incorporate some of the PatExpert technologies into its flagship patent management product PatOrg.' According to Professor Wanner, PatExpert can be commercialised, particularly because it offers state-of-the-art technologies. 'Any of its individual technologies can also form either a stand-alone commercial application or be incorporated into other patent processing services,' he remarked. 'We are receiving inquiries from parties interested in helping us to bring PatExpert's technologies to the market.' Sources have been quoted as saying that a number of follow-up projects aiming to build on the work of PatExpert have either already got off the ground or have been proposed to funding agencies. The fundamental problem in patent processing is the workload. The application process involves the 'technical specification' (i.e. detailing the technical features of the invention), the 'patent prosecution' (i.e. the interaction between the patent office and the application) and the 'patent pending' status, where inventions await approval. A patent is granted when the application complies with the patent office's laws and the invention is not already patented. The European Patent Office (EPO) has prepared a search report listing all the documents available to the EPO that could play a key role in evaluating the 'novelty and inventiveness' of the patent applications. For her part, EPO head Alison Brimelow once noted that backlogs 'change the nature of the patenting system and create ambiguities that can be exploited in ways unforeseen by those who established the patent system'.
Countries
Spain