Method of preparing patent application or utility model registration application documents

Abstract

To provide a method of preparing a patent application document in recognition of differences from inventions described in prior documents without relying on description of patent claims of an invention to be filed.SOLUTION: The present invention relates to a method of preparing a patent application document, comprising inputting description of patent claims, a primary specification draft, and description of prior documents into a document generation device equipped with interactive AI and / or generative AI as input information, and creating a patent application specification document while identifying differences between an invention described in the patent claims and inventions described in the prior documents.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a method for preparing application documents for a patent or utility model registration. In this specification, the terms "utility model" and "utility model registration application" may be omitted and "patent" and "patent application" may be used as representatives, but unless otherwise specified, the terms "invention", "utility model", and "utility model registration application" are included. Generally, patent application documents are treated as a general term for "application", "specification", "claims", "drawings", etc., as described in the Patent Law and the Enforcement Regulations of the Patent Law, but the definition and names of documents may change due to amendments to the law or regulations. Therefore, the "patent application documents" in this invention refer to the general term for the "specification", "claims", and "drawings" that are indispensable to the present invention, or to one or more of each document when there is no need to distinguish them. [Background technology]

[0002] It has been said that in order to prepare patent application documents, not only technical knowledge but also knowledge of the patent system, especially the examination guidelines issued by the Japan Patent Office, is required. In order to support or replace the work of preparing patent application documents, which was previously left to experts with such knowledge, methods of preparing patent application documents using computer programs have been proposed.

[0003] Broadly speaking, (a) these methods select a basic specification draft and apply text corresponding to the invention submitted for application to the basic specification. As an application of (a), (b) these methods present candidates for text corresponding to the invention submitted for application, and provide guidance to the document writer on how to construct text when finalizing the invention submitted for application into a patent application document. (c) These methods compare the claims of the invention submitted for application with descriptions in prior art documents. (d) These methods appropriately add examples of the invention submitted for application to the specification. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] JP 2004-118768 A [Patent Document 2] JP 2019-121164 A [Patent Document 3] WO2021 / 152712 Brochure [Patent Document 4] JP 2007-149087 A [Patent Document 5] JP 2020-140369 A [Patent Document 6] Patent No. 6618104 [Patent Document 7] Patent No. 7086424 [Patent Document 8] WO2019 / 102687 Brochure Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] In accordance with the requirements of the Patent Law Enforcement Regulations, the matters to be described in a specification are standardized. Therefore, it is possible to create a first draft of the specification or to make changes to the first draft to make it more appropriate, as in the cases of suggestions (a) and (b). However, the required examples and drawings vary widely depending on the technical field to which the invention pertains. Therefore, it is presumed that it is possible to incorporate optimal descriptions that apply to each of the standardized matters according to the technical field, or to combine them with suggestions such as (d) depending on the matters required.

[0006] In addition, since patent application documents are intended to obtain patent rights, they must be properly examined by examiners at the Patent Office, and must be completed to ensure novelty and inventive step. To do this, it is necessary to identify similarities and differences in comparison with the prior art. In this regard, there are attempts to grasp the patentability of inventions submitted for application by proposals such as (c). For example, there is a disclosure that grasps the certainty of patentability by comparing the words described in the claims with words described in prior documents, taking into account similar words and synonyms, and quantifying the degree of similarity by referring to the frequency of appearance, etc.

[0007] However, it is unclear whether the patent application documents prepared by (a) to (c) can increase the possibility of overcoming the reasons for rejection in the examination by the Japan Patent Office. Specifically, when comparing the invention described in the claims of the invention submitted for application with the invention described in the prior document, for example, if the invention is an invention of a product, whether it is possible to determine whether the product described in the claims is the same as the invention described in the prior document if it is specified by a special parameter becomes an issue. In other words, the issue is whether it is possible to identify the points of agreement and differences between the invention described in the claims and the invention described in the prior document depending on the description of the claims of the invention submitted for application.

[0008] The present invention provides a method for preparing patent application documents that is capable of identifying the similarities and differences between the invention described in the claims and inventions described in prior documents, without relying on the claims of the invention submitted for application. [Means for solving the problem]

[0009] The present invention is a method for preparing application documents for a patent or utility model registration, which uses a document preparation device to prepare a document consisting of sentence 1 relating to the scope of claims for a patent or utility model registration of an invention or device to be submitted for application, and sentence 2 relating to the specification, wherein the document preparation device is a device equipped with an interactive AI (Artificial Intelligence) and / or a generation AI, which has at least a sentence generation field for generating sentences from input information, an editing field for editing the original sentence into a new sentence, and a certification field for certification of the invention or device described in the scope of claims for a patent or utility model registration using at least sentence 1 and sentence 2 as input information, and which is a method for preparing application documents for a patent or utility model registration, which is characterized in that sentence 2 consisting of sentence 1, and at least sentence 2-1 relating to the background art, sentence 2-2 relating to a form for implementing the invention or device, and sentence 2-3 relating to the effects of the invention or device, is prepared through the following steps.

[0010] The method includes a step 1 of selecting a zeroth draft of the specification as a basis, a step 2 having at least the following steps 2-1 to 3 in any order, a step 3 of storing the zeroth draft of the specification selected in step 1 in the edit field, a step 4 of introducing the first draft of the specification 2-1 to 3 generated in steps 2-1 to 3 into the draft of the zeroth draft of the specification stored in the edit field to create a first draft of the specification, a step 5 of introducing the first draft of the specification into the recognized field, a step 6 of introducing a first draft of the specification 1 relating to the scope of claims or the scope of claims of a utility model registration into the recognized field, a step 7 of identifying the invention or device described in the first draft using the first draft and the first draft of the specification introduced in steps 5 and 6 as input information, using the interactive AI and / or the generation AI, a step 8 of inputting information of a prior document to be compared with the invention or device to be submitted to the application into the recognized field, and a step 9 of inputting information of the prior document input in step 8 as input information, using the interactive AI and / or step 9 of identifying the invention or device described in the prior document using a generation AI; and step 10 of comparing the invention or device described in the primary document identified in steps 7 and 9 with the invention or device described in the prior document to determine whether there are any differences, steps 1 to 3 are performed in any order, steps 4 and 5 are performed in this order after steps 1 to 3, steps 5 and 6 are performed at least before step 7, step 8 is performed at least before step 9, and steps 7 and 9 are performed at least before step 10, and if it is determined that there are no differences in step 10, the primary specification draft is made a new primary specification draft, document 2 generated by inputting additional information in at least one of steps 2-1 to 3 is made a new primary document 2, changes are made to primary document 1 to make it a new primary document, steps 1 to 10 are repeated until there are differences, and primary document 1 and primary document 2 when it is determined that there are differences in step 10 are confirmed as document 1 and document 2.

[0011] (Step 2-1) A step of inputting the problem to be solved by the invention or device submitted for application into the text generation field to generate primary text 2-1. (Step 2-2) A step of inputting the form for implementing the invention or device submitted for application into the text generation field to generate primary text 2-2. (Step 2-3) A step of inputting the effects of the invention or device submitted for application into the text generation field to generate primary text 2-3. Effect of the Invention

[0012] According to the method for preparing patent application documents of the present invention, it is possible to identify the similarities and differences between the invention described in the claims and the invention described in the prior art, without relying on the claims of the invention submitted for application. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0013] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a document creation method according to an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0014] Fig. 1 shows the overall flow of the document creation method according to this embodiment. In explaining this embodiment, the overall flow will first be explained with reference to Fig. 1. In this embodiment, a document creator creates patent application documents by operating a document creation device equipped with an interactive AI and / or a generation AI, which has a sentence generation field for generating sentences from input information, an editing field for editing the original sentences into new sentences, and a certification field for certification of the invention described in the claims using sentence 1 related to the claims and sentence 2 related to the specification as input information.

[0015] In step 1, the document creator selects a zeroth draft of the specification that will be the basis. In this case, the document creator selects the prior document that he / she judges to be the most appropriate from a plurality of prior patent documents that are determined to be close to the invention to be filed and that are extracted from a prior document database connected to the document creation device according to this embodiment, and sets this as the zeroth draft of the specification that will be the basis.

[0016] Next, in step 2, the document creator creates primary document 2-1, which is an initial document related to the background art of the invention to be submitted for application, primary document 2-2, which is an initial document related to the mode for carrying out the invention to be submitted for application, and primary document 2-3, which is an initial document related to the effect of the invention to be submitted for application. At this time, the document creator prepares the background art of the invention to be submitted for application, the mode for carrying out the invention, and the effect in advance, and inputs them into the document generation field, thereby causing the document creation device to generate primary document 2-1, primary document 2-2, and primary document 2-3, respectively.

[0017] Thereafter, the document creator stores the zeroth draft specification selected in step 1 in the edit field (step 3), and introduces the primary sentences 2-1 to 3 generated in step 2 into the sentences 2-1 to 3 of the zeroth draft specification stored in the edit field. In this way, the document creator causes the document creation device to create the first draft specification (step 4). At this time, in the edit field, each of the input primary sentences 2-1 to 3 is applied to each part related to the background art, the mode for carrying out the invention, and the effect of the invention in the zeroth draft specification, and the connection between the preceding and following sentences is adjusted, and the first draft specification is generated.

[0018] The first draft of the specification prepared in step 4 is introduced into the certified field in the document preparation device (step 5). In addition, the first document 1 relating to the claims of the invention to be submitted for application, prepared by the document preparation person, is also introduced into the certified field (step 6).

[0019] Using the primary document and the first draft of the specification introduced in steps 5 and 6 as input information, the document creator identifies the invention described in the primary document using the interactive AI and / or generation AI of the document creation device (step 7). The document creator also inputs information on the prior document to be compared with the invention to be submitted for application into the identification field (step 8). Using the prior document information input in step 8 as input information, the document creator identifies the invention described in the prior document using the interactive AI and / or generation AI (step 9).

[0020] The document creator then inputs the invention described in the primary document identified in step 7 and the invention described in the prior document identified in step 9 into the conversational AI and / or generative AI to compare the inventions described in each document and determine whether there are any differences (step 10).

[0021] If it is determined in step 10 that there are differences, the document creator treats the primary document and the first draft of the specification as the patent application documents to be submitted for filing. If it is determined in step 10 that there are no differences, the first draft of the specification created up to step 10 becomes the new first draft of the specification, and step 1 is resumed. The document creator provides information regarding changes to the primary document and / or additional information regarding document 2. These prepared items are then used by the document creation device. The sentence 2 generated in the resumed process 2 is treated as a new primary sentence 2, and the primary sentence with the changes is treated as a new primary sentence, and processes 1 to 10 are repeated. This repetition is performed until a difference is determined to be "present" in process 10.

[0022] Next, the identification of the invention in steps 7 to 9 in this embodiment will be described in more detail. As stated in the Patent Law and the Examination Guidelines, the invention is identified based on the description of the claims, and the meaning of the terms described in the claims is interpreted taking into account the description in the specification (and drawings). Therefore, when identifying the invention described in the claims, which is the primary text 11 in step 7, the meaning of the terms described in the primary text 1 is taken into account in the description in the specification and drawings.

[0023] In this case, if the invention submitted for application is an invention of a product, and the product described in the first document 1 is specified by a special parameter, it is difficult to determine whether the meaning of the term is the same as that of the term described in the prior document. Therefore, when finding the meaning of the term described in the first document 1 specified by a special parameter, the examples and drawings described in the first draft of the specification must be taken into consideration.

[0024] That is, in step 7, the conversational AI and / or the generation AI takes the primary document 1 and the first draft of the specification as input information. Therefore, the meaning of the terminology of the special parameter in the primary document 1 is interpreted based on the examples in the first draft of the specification, and it is determined what the item described in the primary document refers to.

[0025] Meanwhile, in step 8, information on the prior document to be compared with the invention to be submitted for application is entered into the identification field. Next, in step 9, the invention described in the prior document is identified based on the information on the prior document entered. At this time, what is described in the prior document is determined by the interactive AI and / or generative AI using the information on the prior document entered as input information.

[0026] In this way, the invention described in the primary document 1 is identified not simply based on the terms used in the primary document 1, but also taking into consideration their meanings, and the invention described in the prior document is similarly identified, allowing the two to be compared in step 10. In this way, by determining the differences in the matter rather than the differences in the expressions, the invention described in the primary document 1 is compared with the invention described in the prior document, and the presence or absence of differences between the two is determined.

[0027] The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. For example, in step 1, instead of the document creator selecting the most appropriate prior document from among the multiple prior patent documents extracted by the prior document database, the document creator can have the dialogue AI and / or the generation AI select the appropriate prior document from the information on the multiple prior documents. Also, the document creator can select the appropriate prior document based on their own knowledge without relying on the prior document database.

[0028] In step 2, when the document creator prepares the background art, the mode for carrying out the invention, and the effects of the invention to be submitted for application, the format does not have to conform to the format of patent application documents, and it can be something like a bullet list that describes the essence of the items to be prepared. In addition, for the mode for carrying out the invention, descriptions in lab notes prepared by the inventor of the invention to be submitted for application can be entered as input information into the document generation field. Using lab notes in this way is preferable because they also include specific experimental procedures and experimental conditions.

[0029] Furthermore, information on inventions related to the invention to be applied for may be added to the prior literature database, and experimental procedures and experimental conditions of similar inventions may be referred to. In this case, the generation of the primary document 2-2 can be assisted by storing not only specific experimental procedures but also comprehensive or general manufacturing methods for implementing the invention to be applied for in the prior literature database.

[0030] In step 4 of this embodiment, in parallel with storing the zeroth draft specification selected in step 1 in the edit field (step 3), the primary documents 2-1 to 2-3 generated in step 2 are introduced into the documents 2-1 to 3 of the zeroth draft specification stored in the edit field, but the edit field and the creation field of the primary document 2 do not have to be distinct fields but may be the same field. Similarly, the certified field used in step 6 etc. does not have to be a field distinct from other fields.

[0031] The primary text 1 relating to the claims of the invention to be submitted for filing, which is introduced in step 6 of this embodiment, is prepared by the document creator, but the document creator does not necessarily need to prepare something that is close to the description of the final claims. For example, before step 6, the zero-order text 1 of the claims can be input into the text generation field, and the primary text 1 can be generated by the dialogue AI and / or generation AI using this information as input information. In addition, the primary text 1 can be generated by the dialogue AI and / or generation AI using technical explanation materials prepared within the organization by the inventor of the invention to be submitted for filing, rather than by the document creator, as input information.

[0032] In the above embodiment, an example is shown in which the primary text contains a term with a special parameter when identifying an invention in step 7. In addition, when the primary text contains a term that is specially defined in the first draft of the specification, the invention can be identified after the specially defined term is recognized as a combination term of a modifier and a general name as input information to the dialogue AI and / or the generation AI. In addition, when interpreting the meaning of such a specially defined term, drawings can be introduced into the identification field in addition to the primary text and the first draft of the specification. In this case, the identification field can interpret the term in comparison with the specially defined term by performing image analysis of the introduced drawing while referring to the leader line.

[0033] The invention described in the prior document can be identified by the same method as the interpretation of the terms in the primary text. That is, in step 9, the invention described in the prior document can be identified by analyzing the special terms and images of the drawings described in the prior document.

[0034] In step 8 of this embodiment, the document creator inputs information about the prior document to be compared with the invention to be submitted for application into the identification field, but prior documents to be compared with the invention or device identified in step 7 can also be extracted from a prior document database before step 8. In addition, after extracting multiple candidate prior documents from the prior document database, the prior document to be compared with the invention to be submitted for application can be specified by identifying the invention described in the prior document in the manner of step 9. Depending on how the information in the prior document database is held, the prior document related to the zeroth draft of the specification extracted in step 1 can also be used as input information in step 8.

[0035] In this embodiment, in step 10, it is determined whether there is a difference between the invention described in the primary document identified in step 7 and the invention described in the prior document identified in step 9, and the primary document and the primary specification draft at the time when it is determined that there is a difference are finalized as the patent application documents, but it is preferable to add the following step before finalization. The step to be added is a step of determining whether a person skilled in the art can provide a reasoning for easily conceiving the configuration related to the difference. In this case, if it is determined that a reasoning can be provided, the same repetition is performed as when it is determined that there is no difference in step 10.

[0036] In order to reason whether a person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the configuration related to the difference, multiple prior documents similar to the prior document for which the presence or absence of a difference from the invention described in the primary document in step 10 is judged are extracted from the prior document database. In the extraction, the relevance of the technical field with the invention described in the prior document in the recognition field, the commonality of the problem, the commonality of the adoption / function, the suggestions in the description of the prior document, etc. are used as input information, and extraction is performed by an interactive AI and / or a generative AI. Next, it is judged whether the difference judged in step 10 is described in the extracted similar prior document.

[0037] Furthermore, it is preferable to use the significance of the effect of the invention to be submitted for filing from the first draft specification generated in step 2 in determining the rationale after step 10. Specifically, the first draft specification generated in step 2 is used as input information, and the effects of the invention are determined together with the invention described in the first draft as a derivative step of step 7. Next, the effects of the invention described in the prior document identified in step 9 are also used as input information to have the interactive AI and / or generative AI determine the effects of the invention described in the prior document. By comparing the effects thus determined, it is possible to determine whether the invention described in the first draft has an advantageous effect, and thereby determine whether rationale can be established.

[0038] Furthermore, by using data stored in a prior literature database as input information, it is also possible to identify common general knowledge from this input information. This allows the identified common general knowledge to be used to determine whether the above-mentioned reasoning can be made.

[0039] In the present embodiment and other embodiments not limited to the present embodiment described above, steps 1 to 3 are executed in any order, steps 4 and 5 are executed in that order after steps 1 to 3, steps 5 and 6 are executed at least before step 7, step 8 is executed at least before step 9, and steps 7 and 9 are executed at least before step 10, but these orders can be determined depending on the ease of creation for the document creator and the roles of those involved, etc.

[0040] The document creator may be a single person or multiple coworkers. Specific examples of document creators include inventors, collaborators of inventors, intellectual property department staff of a company, patent attorneys and patent engineers of a patent professional corporation, but there are no particular limitations in the implementation of the present invention.

[0041] Up to this point, the claims and the specification have been taken as examples of the patent application documents to be prepared, but drawings as well as abstracts can also be prepared by the method for preparing patent application documents of the present invention.

[0042] In carrying out the present invention, the methods and / or devices (A) to (D) described in the Background Art can be selected or combined as methods and / or devices suitable for each step in the present invention, and can be used for formal or partial steps. In addition to these methods and / or devices, a step of reliably identifying the invention described in the claims can be provided, making it possible to prepare patent application documents that have traditionally been dependent on experts based on specialized knowledge. In particular, when using dialogue AI and generative AI, which are developing at an accelerating rate even as of the filing date of this application, a method for preparing patent application documents that can withstand examination can be realized by appropriately specifying input information for these AIs in order to reliably identify the invention described in the claims.

Claims

1. A method for preparing application documents for a patent or utility model registration, in which a document consisting of sentence 1 relating to the scope of claims for a patent or utility model registration and sentence 2 relating to the specification of an invention or device to be filed is prepared using a document preparation device, wherein the document preparation device is a device equipped with interactive AI (Artificial Intelligence) and / or generation AI, and has at least a sentence generation field for generating sentences from input information, an editing field for editing the original sentence into a new sentence, and a certification field for certification of the invention or device described in the scope of claims for a patent or utility model registration using at least sentence 1 and sentence 2 as input information, wherein the method for preparing application documents for a patent or utility model registration is characterized in that sentence 2 consisting of sentence 1, and at least sentence 2-1 relating to background art, sentence 2-2 relating to a form for implementing the invention or device, and sentence 2-3 relating to the effects of the invention or device, is prepared through the following steps. Step 1 is to select a zeroth draft of a specification as a basis; Step 2 includes at least the following steps 2-1 to 2-3 in any order; (Step 2-1) is to input a problem to be solved by the invention or device to be submitted to the application into the text generation field to generate a primary text 2-1; (Step 2-2) is to input a form for implementing the invention or device to be submitted to the application into the text generation field to generate a primary text 2-2. (Step 2-3) A step of inputting the effects of the invention or device to be submitted for the application into the text generation field to generate a primary text 2-3; Step 3 of storing the zeroth draft of the specification selected in Step 1 in the edit field; Step 4 of introducing the primary texts 2-1 to 3 generated in Steps 2-1 to 2-3 into the texts 2-1 to 3 of the zeroth draft of the specification stored in the edit field to create a primary draft of the specification; Step 5 of introducing the primary draft of the specification into the identification field; Step 6 of introducing a primary text 1 relating to the scope of claims or the scope of claims of a utility model registration into the identification field; Step 7 of identifying the invention or device described in the primary text using the interactive AI and / or generation AI with the primary text and the primary draft of the specification introduced in Steps 5 and 6 as input information; Step 8 of inputting information on prior art documents to be compared with the invention or device to be submitted for the application into the identification field; Step 9 uses the information of the prior document input in step 8 as input information to identify the invention or device described in the prior document using the interactive AI and / or generative AI; Step 10 compares the invention or device described in the primary document identified in steps 7 and 9 with the invention or device described in the prior document to determine whether there are any differences; Steps 1 to 3 are performed in any order, steps 4 and 5 are performed in this order after steps 1 to 3, steps 5 and 6 are performed at least before step 7, step 8 is performed at least before step 9, and steps 7 and 9 are performed at least before step 10. If it is determined that there are no differences in step 10, the primary specification draft is made into a new primary specification draft, sentence 2 generated by inputting additional information in at least one of steps 2-1 to 3 is made into a new primary sentence 2, primary sentence 1 is modified to make it a new primary sentence, steps 1 to 10 are repeated until there are differences, and primary sentence 1 and primary sentence 2 when it is determined that there are differences in step 10 are confirmed as sentence 1 and sentence 2.

2. A method for preparing patent application or utility model registration application documents as described in claim 1, wherein, before step 6, a zero-order sentence 1 of the scope of a claim or the scope of a utility model registration claim is input into the sentence generation field to generate a first-order sentence 1.

3. 3. A method for preparing application documents for a patent application or utility model registration as described in claim 1 or 2, further comprising, after it is determined in step 10 that there is a difference, a step of determining whether a person skilled in the art can easily come up with a reasoning for the configuration related to the difference, and if it is determined that the reasoning is possible, performing the same repetition as when it is determined in step 10 that there is no difference.

4. A method for preparing patent application or utility model registration application documents as described in claim 1 or 2, wherein the document preparation device is connected to a prior literature database, and uses the invention or invention identified in step 7 as input information to extract prior literature to be compared with the proposed invention or invention using the interactive AI and / or generative AI before step 8.

5. The document creation device is connected to a prior literature database, and the invention or invention identified in step 7 is used as input information to extract prior literature to be compared with the proposed invention or invention using the interactive AI and / or generative AI before step 8. A method for creating patent application or utility model registration application documents as described in claim 3.

6. The method for preparing patent application or utility model registration application documents according to claim 5, wherein the document preparation device is capable of identifying common general technical knowledge from data contained in the prior literature database and using the common general technical knowledge to determine whether the logic can be applied.

7. 3. A method for preparing patent application or utility model registration application documents according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising adding drawings to paragraph 1 and paragraph 2.

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