Method and computer program product for analyzing documents

1. A computer program product stored on a computer-readable storage medium, the computer program product including instructions that, when executed, cause a computer system to perform the steps of:

receiving a selection of two or more patent-related documents for comparison;

identifying, for each of the two or more patent-related documents, at least one group of terms associated with a numerical label in the specification;

associating terms of the at least one group of terms as equivalents based at least on the identified association with the numerical label in the specification;

determining matching claims between the two or more patent related documents based at least on the association;

in response to the determining, displaying in a graphical user interface a representation of a first set of claims from a first of the patent-related documents and a representation of a second set of claims from a second of the patent-related documents; and

indicating, in the graphical user interface, matching claims between the first set of claims and the second set of claims.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein:

the two or more patent-related documents include three or more patent-related documents, and the steps further include:

displaying in a display portion of the graphical user interface a representation of a third set of claims from a third of the patent-related documents, and indicating matching claims between each of the first set of claims, the second set of claims, and the third set of claims.

3. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein indicating the matching claims further includes:

displaying, in a display portion of the graphical user interface, the first set of claims as a claim hierarchy;

displaying, in the display portion of the graphical user interface, the second set of claims as a claim hierarchy; and

for each of the claims determined to be matching, displaying an indicator between the matching claim in the first claim hierarchy and the matching claim in the second claim hierarchy.

4. The computer program product of claim 3 , wherein:

for claims that are exact matches, the indicator indicates an exact match; and

for claims that are close matches, the indicator indicates a close match.

5. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the steps further include:

receiving a selection of a first claim from the first set of claims;

receiving a selection of a second claim from the second set of claims; and

displaying, in a display portion of the graphical user interface, a description of the similarities and differences between the first claim and the second claim.

6. The computer program product of claim 5 , wherein displaying the description of the similarities and differences includes displaying redline text indicating which terms are included in both claims, which terms are in the first claim only, and which terms are in the second claim only.

7. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the matching claims include two claims from the first set of claims, which, when combined, match one claim from the second set of claims.

8. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the steps further include:

receiving a selection from a user to create a report for matching claims;

in response to the selection, automatically generating a matching claims report, the matching claims report including one or more of:

a table listing matching claim numbers between the two or more patent-related documents, and

one or more tables displaying, for each of the matching claims between the first patent-related document and the second patent-related document, the similarities and differences between the matching claim from the first patent-related document and the matching claim from the second patent-related document; and

presenting the report to a user.

9. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein automatically determining matching claims between the two or more patent-related documents further includes:

comparing each claim from the first patent-related document to each claim in the second patent-related document;

for each comparison, determining the number of identical terms between the two claims being compared; and

determining a claim from the first patent-related document and a claim from the second patent-related document to be matching if the two claims have more than a predetermined threshold amount of identical terms and if the two claims have a greater percentage of identical terms in common than all other claim comparisons between the claim from the first patent-related document and a claim from the second patent-related document.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein the predetermined threshold is a percentage greater than 70%.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein terms are determined to be identical if the terms include the same words or if the terms are equivalent.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein terms are determined to be equivalent based on one or more of:

whether the terms are described in connection with a same numerical label in the specification of either the first patent-related document or the second patent-related document; or

whether the terms are semantic equivalents.

13. A method of comparing claims between patent-related documents, comprising:

receiving a selection of two or more patent-related documents for comparison;

identifying, for each of the two or more patent-related documents, at least one group of terms associated with a numerical label in the specification;

associating terms of the at least one group of terms as equivalents based at least on the identified association with the numerical label in the specification;

determining matching claims between the two or more patent-related documents based at least on the association;

in response to the determining, providing for display in a graphical user interface a representation of a first set of claims from a first of the patent-related documents and a representation of a second set of claims from a second of the patent-related documents; and

providing for display in the graphical user interface an indication of matching claims between the first set of claims and the second set of claims.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:

providing the indication of matching claims by one or more of:

displaying the first set of claims as a list in a first column and displaying the second set of claims as a list in a second column adjacent to the first column, and

displaying the first set of claims as a claim hierarchy and displaying the second set of claims adjacent to the first set of claims as a claim hierarchy;

receiving a selection of a first claim from the first set of claims;

receiving a selection of a second claim from the second set of claims; and

providing for display in the graphical user interface a description of the similarities and differences between the first claim and the second claim.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:

comparing each claim from the first patent-related document to each claim in the second patent-related document;

for each comparison, determining the number of identical terms between the two claims being compared; and

determining a claim from the first patent-related document and a claim from the second patent-related document to be matching if the two claims have more than a predetermined threshold amount of identical terms and if the two claims have a greater percentage of identical terms in common than all other claim comparisons between the claim from the first patent-related document and a claim from the second patent-related document.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the predetermined threshold is a percentage greater than 70%.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein terms are determined to be identical if the terms include the same words or if the terms are equivalent.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein terms are determined to be equivalent based on one or more of:

whether the terms are described in connection with a same numerical label in the specification of either the first patent-related document or the second patent-related document; or

whether the terms are semantic equivalents.