Computer Science Colloquia
Monday, July 30, 2012
Michael Skalak
Advisor: Gabe Robins
Attending Faculty: abhi shelat (Chair)
2:00 PM, Rice Hall, Rm. 242
Master's Project presentation
Intelligently Searching Large Patent Databases
ABSTRACT
Patents form a compendium of humanitys knowledge. Though they perform
several important roles in protecting inventors, encouraging investment,
and publicizing inventions, the recent explosion in quantity and variety
has led to a number of problems, including increased expense
in lawsuits and a stifling of innovation by unnecessary litigation.
To help correct this problem, we have created a system to acquire a large number of patents and allow more effective search. Unlike existing systems, ours overcomes difficulties in scalability to exploit the highly structured nature of patents. Inspired by our actual work in a patent lawsuit discovery process, this new search represents a significant first step towards intelligent examination of patents.