JP2002117215A - Patent management system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] A patent that can centrally manage documents related to various intellectual property rights such as patents, utility models, trademarks, and designs, and limit data that can be accessed by each user. Provide a management system. A technical department terminal connected to a LAN (10).
1. A sales department terminal 13, an intellectual property department terminal 15, and a patent data web server 20. The patent data web server 20 stores documents such as application documents, proposal documents, and patent contracts as digital data as digital data. And
Restrict access to each stored data based on the access entitlements granted to each user, and an
Patent management system that searches with simple logical operators such as d, not, or.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a patent management system, and more particularly to a patent management system for managing technical documents and contract documents related to patents, utility models, trademarks, designs, and the like as digital data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the development of computers and networks, various documents have been digitized and stored. Patent application documents are also one of the documents that are being digitized by the JPO by promoting electronic applications.

[0003] By the way, documents related to patent applications include:
In addition to documents to be submitted to the JPO, such as applications, specifications, comments, amendments, etc., in many companies, the names and affiliations of the people involved in the invention (often the inventor) and proposals from the inventor Further, information such as contracts and products related to the invention is prepared as documents.

[0004] Hereinafter, in the present specification, documents related to these patents are referred to as patent-related documents. Here, in addition to documents related to patents and patent applications, utility models, trademarks,
It is referred to as a patent-related document, including documents related to designs.

[0005]

However, conventionally,
Many patent-related documents other than data submitted (or submitted) to the JPO as electronic filing documents, such as specifications, are often stored and managed as paper books and documents. In some cases, companies manage these digital data, but they are stored as separate digital data from each other.
At present, there is no centralized management.

For example, a proposal for an invention is stored and stored in a database of a technical department to which the person (inventor) who made the proposal belongs, and information such as the name and affiliation of the inventor is stored in an intellectual property for managing a patent application. The department stores and stores information on contracts and products related to patent applications, which are stored and stored in the sales department. Various information related to one patent application is stored separately in various places. It may be.

[0007] Therefore, in the current situation, when documents and information related to a certain patent, utility model, trademark, design, etc. are required, there is a problem that various places must be searched in the company. Was. Even if the files are stored in various locations, even if they are barely connected to each other by an in-house LAN (local area network) system, if they do not know where the target document or information is located in the first place, they can be used. Can not do it. In particular, in the technical departments and sales departments, it is often difficult to know where the data of various patent-related documents exist, and even if they are converted into digital data, many of them are not effectively utilized. It is.

[0008] On the other hand, when data on patent-related documents is collected, anyone can easily access the data. There is a problem that the data is accessed.

[0009] The present invention has been made in view of the above,
Its purpose is to centrally manage documents related to various intellectual property rights such as patents, utility models, trademarks, and designs,
An object of the present invention is to provide a patent management system capable of limiting data that can be accessed for each user.

[0010]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in a patent management system in which terminals arranged in different departments are connected by a dedicated line, data in which a document related to at least one of a patent, a utility model, a trademark, and a design is stored as digital data. Storage means, a plurality of terminal means connected to the network, and authentication means for authenticating whether or not an access request from the terminal means to the data storage means is from a user having access right. An access for restricting whether or not a user whose access to the data storage means has been authenticated by the authentication means can be accessed for each data stored in the data storage means based on the access qualification of the user; And a restricting means.

The present invention saves a document related to at least one of a patent, a utility model, a trademark, and a design as digital data, thereby obtaining a patent, a utility model, a trademark,
While data related to intellectual property rights such as designs are stored centrally in the data storage unit to make it easier to use, the access restricting unit, which is authenticated as a user who has access right by the authentication unit, provides access control for each user. It restricts access for each data stored based on qualifications.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the patent management system according to the first aspect, the digital data stored in the data storage means is at least one of a patent, a utility model, a trademark, and a design. Digital documents of at least one of a document that describes the proposal of the application, a specification based on the proposal, the name and affiliation of the person who made the proposal, and a document that describes the contract matters related to the proposal. The gist is that there is.

[0013] The present invention provides, as data relating to intellectual property rights such as patents, utility models, trademarks, and designs, documents describing proposals of these applications, specifications based on these proposals, and persons who made the proposals. This document is intended to centrally manage documents such as names and affiliations and documents describing contract matters related to proposals.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the patent management system according to the first or second aspect, the digital data is stored in the data storage unit with an independent address assigned to each data. The access restriction unit includes a storage unit that stores screen information in which only a link to the address assigned to the data to which access is permitted for each access qualification is set, and the access is authenticated from the storage unit. The gist is to provide the user with screen information suitable for the access qualification of the user.

According to the present invention, the digital data to be stored in the data storage means is stored by assigning an independent address to each data, and the access restriction means assigns the data to which access is permitted for each access qualification. By storing the screen information with only the link to the address being set in the storage means, the access restriction means extracts the screen information suitable for the user's access qualification from the storage means and provides the user with the screen information. An attempt is made to present only accessible data to the user for each access qualification.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the patent management system of the third aspect, the screen information is created in a markup language in which a link accessible for each access qualification is embedded in a hyperlink format. The gist is that it has been done.

The present invention creates screen information in a markup language in which link information is embedded in a displayed screen for, for example, HTML (Hyper-Taste Markup Language), so that different screen information for each access qualification can be obtained. It is intended to be easily created.

Further, according to the invention of claim 5, a combination of a predetermined logical operator and a keyword from each terminal is received, a record registered in the data storage means is searched from the result of the combination, and a search request is received. The point is that the web server is provided with a search means for sending the record to the terminal where there was.

For this reason, a user can input a simple logical operator such as date search based on AND, OR, NOT size judgment from a terminal connected to a dedicated line, and can retrieve a desired record from the database to the Web server. It is possible to search and display from.

[0020]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a patent management system to which the present invention is applied.

This patent management system is based on an in-house LAN 1
0, a technical department terminal 11, a sales department terminal 13, an intellectual property department terminal 15, and a patent data web server 20.

The LAN 10 is a closed network system mainly provided only in the company. This is because the data handled by this patent management system is a patent-related document, so it is necessary to prevent the invention from leaking outside the company before the application is filed. Contains information such as contracts and products related to the invention. In order to prevent such information from leaking outside, it is ideal to use a network system having no connection with the outside.

However, when the LAN 10 used in the patent management system is connected to an external network such as the Internet, a firewall is provided in a computer at a connection port with the Internet or the like. It is necessary to prevent accidental access from outside the company.

The technical department terminal 11, the sales department terminal 13, and the intellectual property department terminal 15 are terminals located in the technical department, respectively.
A device located in the sales department and a device located in the intellectual property department (or legal department) that performs patent management.
One unit may be provided for each section, or a plurality of units may be provided for each section.

Although the terminals divided into the technical division, the sales division, and the intellectual property division are shown here, the arrangement of these terminals is not particularly limited, and the terminals are arranged in various divisions. Or a personal computer provided to each employee may function as a terminal.

As shown in FIG. 2, the patent data web server 20 includes a web server computer 21 for managing a function as a normal web server, a patent database 23 storing data of patent-related documents, and a patent database. The contract database 25 stores data on related products and contracts.

The patent database 23 and the contract database 25 are preferably not a storage device such as a hard disk connected to the web server computer 21 but preferably a web server computer 21 depending on the amount of data to be stored. It is better to have a separate computer system. By making the patent database 23 and the contract database 25 independent as computer systems in this way, the web server computer 21 can be used only for access right authentication and data transmission / reception described below. When constructing, maintenance can be performed for each database, which is convenient for backup and the like.

The web server computer 21 responds to an access request from each of the terminals 11, 13, and 15.
The access right is authenticated and restricted (details will be described later), and in response to a data search request from each of the terminals 11, 13, and 15, data is searched from the patent database 23 and the contract database 23, and a search request is issued. It has a function to transmit the search result to the terminal where there is.

That is, as shown in FIG. 1, a search engine 20a for performing a search using a simple logical operator is provided.

The logical operators used in the search engine 20a are "and" or "*", "or" or "+", "not" or "-", ">", etc.
When these operators and predetermined keywords (affiliation, period, item, etc.) are combined and input, the corresponding database record is searched.

In the patent database 23, for example, for each invention proposal, an in-house management number of the invention proposal (intellectual property department reception number, patent application number, etc.), name of the inventor, department (or location or current address) are stored. ), The approval of the director, the presence or absence of a patent application, the presence or absence of a foreign application, and the bibliographical matters after filing (application date, application number, examination request, publication date, patent registration date, patent number, etc.) , Registration annuity payment date, name of patent office or patent attorney who commissioned the application, invention proposal (including image data such as facsimile image data and image scan data as well as text data), specification related to patent application, Document data submitted by the JPO, such as opinions, amendments, requests for appeal and reasons thereof, and oppositions (however, the data format is not limited to electronic application data,
For example, any format such as text data, HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), PDF (Portable Document Format) data, and the like, and data such as gazettes and prior art related to the invention are stored and stored. .

In the contract database 25, for each patent application, patent, and proposal before filing, information on related products (such as product names and product numbers), and contracts related to inventions and proposals both inside and outside the company. The data such as the contract items (contract number and contents of the contract) and the contract items related to the product are stored and stored.

The authentication and restriction of the access right in the web server computer 21 described above is performed based on the user name and the password input from each terminal, the regular access right to the accessing user, that is, the access right is stored in the patent management system. Authenticates whether the user has the authority to browse the various data that has been registered, or to register or change the contents of the data. What can be done,
It is restricted according to the access qualification of the user.

This restriction function allows, for example, access from a user belonging to the technical department to view data relating to a patent application stored in the patent database 23 and register or change the data. In this case, access to the contract items related to each patent stored in the contract database 25 is prevented, and access from a user belonging to the sales department is stored in the contract database 25 due to the nature of the sales department. It is possible to browse, register, and change contract items related to each invention.

Conversely, since users in the sales department often have contact and negotiations with people outside the company, it is still necessary to remain in the company and keep them confidential, as in the proposal (proposal itself) at the stage before application. Certain items are restricted so that they cannot be accessed (however, those that do not need to be kept confidential such as patent publications after filing a patent application can be viewed).

On the other hand, access to these by users in the intellectual property department is accompanied by the invention and the proposal.
Since it is necessary to know those rights relationships and contract relationships, all data in the patent database 23 and the contract database 25 can be browsed, registered, and changed.

Such a determination of the access right is performed, for example, by
For each user name, it is classified and registered as a technical staff, a sales staff, or an intellectual property staff in advance, and judgment is made based on the input user name. When a unique network address is assigned to each terminal, the technical department terminal 11, the sales department terminal 13, or the intellectual property department terminal 15 is registered for each address.
The determination may be based on the terminal that has accessed. In this case, by combining the determination with the previous user name, it is possible to more reliably determine what kind of business field the user belongs to as compared with the case where only one of them is used.

In this embodiment, the screen to be displayed is changed for each department in order to achieve this restriction function. For example, for an access from a user belonging to the technical department, a screen enabling only the patent database 23 to be used is displayed, and similarly, for an access from a user belonging to the sales department, the patent database 23 is displayed. And a screen that allows access to all of the contract database 25, while a screen that allows access to all data in the patent database 23 and the contract database 25 for access from users in the intellectual property department. Is displayed.

These screens are stored in advance in a storage device (for example, a hard disk) in the computer 21 for the web server as HTML data in which only data accessible for each department is linked.
HTML data is extracted for each section of the accessing user and transmitted to the terminal from which the user has accessed.

The search function in the web server computer 21 is, for example, a keyword search function that enables a search such as a perfect match, forward match, backward match, partial match, or the like to be performed on a keyword input from a terminal. I have. Also, by inputting a plurality of keywords, a logical compound search such as an AND search, an OR search, and a NOT search can be performed.

For this reason, the web server computer 2
1 receives the keyword input from the terminal, temporarily replaces the keyword with a character code, and, based on the code, based on the code, the patent database 23 and the contract database 23.
Retrieves data in the web server computer 21. The search keywords include the names of the inventor and the proposer, the names of the invention and the proposal, the character strings in the character data in the specification and the proposal, the reception date and the filing date, and other large / small judgments (>, =, < ) Is also available. Date, such as the registration date. In the case of a date, it is also possible to perform a search before or after a specific date, or within a period from several days to several days.

For such a search function, if the patent database 23 and the contract database 25 are provided separately from the web server computer 21, the web server computer 21 sends a search request to each of these. The database may be transferred to a computer, and the computer of each database may perform an actual search operation. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the web server computer 21 also performs a search function for easy understanding.

Next, description will be made with reference to the operation of the patent management system according to the present embodiment configured as described above.

FIG. 3 shows one example of the use of the patent management system according to the present embodiment when an inventor belonging to a technical department accesses the patent data web server 21 using the technical department terminal 11. It is a sequence diagram which shows the flow of operation | movement of the technical department terminal 11 and the computer 21 for web servers.

First, the inventor sends the LA from the engineering department terminal 11.
When the web server computer 21 is accessed via N10 (S11), the web server computer 2
1 is a technical department terminal 1
1 (S31).

A screen for inputting the user name and password sent from the web server computer 21 is displayed on the technical unit terminal 11, and the inventor inputs the user name and password according to this screen. The input user name and password are transmitted from the technical department terminal 11 to the web server computer 21 (S12).

The web server computer 21 checks whether the received user name and password match the user name registered in advance and the password of the user, and if they match, the user has the regular access right. Access is permitted as a user. Then, it is determined whether the user who has been granted access belongs to the technical department, the sales department, or the intellectual property department, and transmits the screen corresponding to each to the technical department terminal 11 (S3).
2). The screen transmitted at this stage is a database selection screen.

As a result, a database selection screen is displayed on the technical department terminal 11. In this case, since the accessing user is an inventor belonging to the technical department, FIG. Thus, only the patent database to which the user of the technical department is permitted to access is displayed as a selection item. Therefore, the database that can be substantially selected is 1
There is only one. The inventor selects the patent database displayed as the database to be used. The selection information is transmitted to the web server computer 21 (S1).
3).

The web server computer 21 transmits a menu screen for selecting whether to newly input or search according to the selected database to the technical department terminal 11 (S33).

The inventor selects either a new input or a search from the menu screen displayed on the technical department terminal 11.
The selection information is transmitted to the web server computer 21 (S14).

When the inventor selects the new input, the web server computer 21 transmits an input screen for the technical department to the technical department terminal 11 (S34).

The received input screen is displayed on the technical terminal 11. Here, the input screen for the technical department includes, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, an invention department column, an intellectual property department column (abbreviated as “intellectual property department column” in the drawing), a prior art column, a technical data column,
There are a proposal column, a description column, a bibliographic item column, and the like.

In each column, there is a space for entering an approval cell, a department, and an inventor's name in the invention section column, and a space for entering an approval cell, a reception date, and a person in charge of intellectual property in the intellectual property section column. There is a space for entering patents and other prior art documents in the prior art column, a space for placing design drawings, specifications, experimental data, photos, etc. in the technical data column, and a proposal text in the proposal column. There is space to put data and image data of drawings, etc., there is space to put a set of specifications to apply for a patent in the specification column, and the application number, application date, examination progress, publication of the gazette after patent application in the bibliographic field. There is a space for the date, publication number, presence or absence of a reason for refusal, patent appraisal date, patent publication date, patent number, etc.

The inventor inputs data from an input screen displayed on the technical department terminal 11 and presses a registration button (not shown), so that the input content is transmitted to the web server computer 21 (S15). ).

The web server computer 21 assigns a reception number to the data input from the input screen, makes the data independent for each column, and assigns an address based on the reception number to each data. And save it as file data. Then, a search index file is generated.

The index file describes, for example, the inventor's name, affiliation, title of the invention, receipt number, and the like for each item, and also links data addresses and links independent for each column entered from the previous input screen. It has an icon that has been set.

As described above, in one file, independent data is provided for each column, and an address is assigned to the data for each column, so that access to specific information is restricted by the access qualification of the user. In such a case, it is possible to limit only the data to which the user has access right by reading the data with the address of the data.

On the other hand, if the search screen is selected in step S16, the search screen is transmitted from the web server computer 21 to the technical department terminal 11, and the inventor
By inputting a search keyword (a combination of logical controllers such as and and or and items and the like) on this search screen and pressing a search execution button, the search keyword is transmitted to the web server computer 21 (S16).

Upon receiving the search keyword, the web server computer 21 searches the patent database 23 for data corresponding to the keyword, and transmits a result corresponding to the search keyword to the technical department terminal 11 (S36). . Here, since the access is made by the inventor, the access to the data in the contract database 25 is restricted, so that the data is not searched from the beginning.

At this stage, if the search result displayed on the technical department terminal 11 is a search related to a patented invention, as shown in FIG. 7, for example, the application date, file number, title of the invention, inventor, etc. It is displayed as a simple bibliographic list consisting of, for example, the contents of proposals and specifications. This bibliographic list is a search file created when a new input is received. The display of search results may include transmitting a set of results and the number of the results before displaying the search results in such a bibliographic list. It is also possible to narrow down the search by specifying the number in the above and performing the search as described above.

When the inventor wants to see the details from the displayed search results, the inventor presses the detailed display icon 71, and the link destination address put on the detailed display icon 71 is sent to the web server computer 21. (S1
7), the web server computer 21 extracts the data corresponding to the link destination address from the patent database 23, and transmits the data to the technical department terminal 11 as an editable detailed screen for the inventor (S37). The detailed screen sent at this time is the same as the input screen described above.

The inventor changes the content by directly inputting it on the detail screen displayed on the technical department terminal 11 and pressing the register button transmits the changed data to the web server computer 21 (S18). ).

The web server computer 21 registers the data and updates the index file (S3).
8).

As described above, when the inventor uses the patent management system, only the items that can be accessed by the user belonging to the technical department as the inventor are displayed on the technical department terminal 11.

Next, for example, the supervisor of the inventor or a person who approves the invention or proposal (approver), such as the affiliation manager,
The case where the patent management system is used will be further described.

In this case, the basic operation is the same as when the inventor accesses the web server computer 21 as described above.

That is, first, the approver is assumed to be using the terminal being used, here the technical department terminal 11 as described above, and from this terminal 11 makes an access request to the web server computer 21. (S11), the user name and password input screen (S3
Enter the user name and password in 1) and send it (S1)
2). The web server computer 21 transmits an approver database selection screen to the approver (S32).
In this case, if the approver is a person in the technical department, the technical department selection screen is displayed on the technical department terminal 11 as described above.

The approver selects a database from the displayed screen (S13). Thereby, the web server computer 21 transmits a menu screen for selecting new input or search (S33). The approver selects either new input or search (S14).

When the new input is selected, the web server computer 21 transmits an input screen to the technical department terminal 11 (S34). The approver inputs the data and presses the registration button, and transmits the input data to the web server (S15). The web server computer 21 assigns a reception number to the received data, saves the file as a file, and generates an index file for search (S35).

When the search screen is selected, the approver enters a search keyword and enters the web server computer 21.
The search keyword is transmitted to (S16). The web server computer 21 calculates the
The patent database 23 is searched and the result is transmitted as a simple bibliographic list (S36). Here, when there are a plurality of search results, the set number and the number of cases may be transmitted first, and a bibliographic list of items selected by the approver may be transmitted. Also, when searching further from the set, use the set number etc.
By entering a search expression, you can narrow down.

When the approver wants to see the details from the displayed bibliographic list, the approver clicks the detail display icon and sends a request to the web server computer 21 to connect to the link to the link displayed on the detail display icon. Perform (S1
7). Based on this request, the web server computer 21 displays an editable detailed screen for the approver in the technical department terminal 1.
1 (S37).

When the approver wants to edit, he or she inputs directly from the displayed detail screen and presses a registration button to transmit the changed contents to the web server computer 21 (S18). Here, most of the editing work performed by the approver is to add a check indicating approval to the approval cell column or to make corrections to the proposal contents described by the inventor.

The web server computer 21 receiving the edited data registers the data and updates the index file (S38).

The above is the procedure for using the patent management system by the approver.

Next, the use of the patent management system by a user of the intellectual property department and a user of the sales department will be described. The procedure for using the patent management system by the user of the intellectual property department and the user of the sales department is basically the same as the procedure of use by the inventor or approver who is a user belonging to the technical department described above. There is no restriction on the database to be used by the user of the property department, while there is a restriction on the use of the database different from the user of the technical department by the user of the sales department. For this reason, the screen displayed after accessing the web server computer 21 is different from that used by the inventor or approver described above.

For example, when a user in the intellectual property section uses the database, the database selection screen is a screen on which a patent database and a contract database can be selected as shown in FIG. 5 as a display screen. Then, on the input screen (or the detailed screen after the search), as shown in FIG. 8, the section of invention, the section of intellectual property, the section of prior art, the section of technical data, the section of proposal, the section of description, the bibliographic items Column, and contract item column. From the data input from this screen, only the data in the contract item column is separated, a reception number and an address are assigned, and the data is stored in the contract database 25. The other parts are stored in the patent database 23 with addresses assigned to the respective columns, in the same manner as when input is made from the input screen for the technical department described above. Note that the contract item column has a space for writing a document indicating a contract item related to the proposal and the invention, and information of a product related to the proposal and the invention.

Therefore, a user in the intellectual property department can access all data related to patents.

Here, the explanation about the above-mentioned search keyword is supplemented.

(1) When the head of the affiliation extracts and approves one week's proposal of the subordinate accepted by the intellectual property department by search: search keyword affiliation name / affiliation * (acceptance date> = 2000/9/1 and accept Days> = 200
0/9/8) By inputting this keyword, the search engine 20a searches for a proposal number in the range from September 1 to September 8, 2000, and displays it as a list (reception number) on the affiliation manager's screen. Display. The affiliation manager clicks the reception number on the list to open the proposal content on the screen, confirms the content, confirms it, and inputs the approval.

(2) When one week's proposal received by the Intellectual Property Department is extracted by search, and approved by the Intellectual Property Department, and a person in charge is entered: Search keyword (Reception date> = 2000/9/1 and reception Day <= 2000/9/8) By inputting this search keyword, search engine 20
“a” searches for the reception number of the proposal in this period, makes it a list, and displays the list on the screen of the intellectual property manager.

The manager of the intellectual property confirms that the proposal on the list is approved, and inputs the person in charge from the contents.

(3) The case where the person in charge of intellectual property extracts and processes proposals for one week that he / she is responsible for by search: search keyword person in charge / intellectual property person in charge * (reception date> = 2000/1/1) and reception date <= 2000/9/8) By inputting this search keyword, search engine 20
“a” retrieves the reception number of the proposal in this period, makes a list, and displays the list on the screen of the person in charge of intellectual property. The person in charge of intellectual property checks the content and performs a predetermined process.

With such a search engine, a person in charge of each section displays a desired record on the screen and confirms the content.

When the specification is completed and the record input is completed, the inventor checks the contents, and the head of the affiliation approves the application. And send the receipt number and notification of completion of preparation of the application specification.

Further, the inventor makes a final check and, if a correction is necessary, points out the correction to the intellectual property manager, the intellectual property manager corrects and memorizes it again, and sends the specification to the inventor. Send an e-mail and send the receipt number and notification of completion of preparation of the application specification.

When the contents are confirmed, the reception number is mailed to the affiliation manager, and the affiliation manager searches by the reception number and inputs approval data (approval date).

Then, for the proposal for which approval has been completed, the person in charge of application applies for web data to a personal computer.

On the other hand, in the case of use by a user in the sales department, a screen for selecting the patent database and the contract database shown in FIG. It is. This is because, in the case of a user in the sales department, it is necessary to access the patent database 23 for inventions and patents that have already been filed, and the contract database 2 for contract items.
This is because it is necessary to access 5.

However, proposals and specifications before application are
Since it must be kept confidential, access is restricted by sales staff who have a lot of external contact. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 9, the input screen (or the detailed screen after the search) includes an invention section column, an intellectual property section column, a bibliographic field, a contract field, and the like. The technical data column, proposal column, and specification column are not displayed.

This is the web server computer 21
Has no link to the data in the prior art field, the technical data field, the proposal field, and the description field created based on the access restrictions of the users in the sales department.
This is done by sending a screen of data. Therefore, the user of the sales department cannot see the technical data or the proposal data from the input screen or the detailed screen.

The data input from this screen is separated only from the data in the contract item column, is given an accession number and address, is stored in the contract database 25, and the other portions are independent for each column. An address is assigned to each data and stored in the patent database 23.

Therefore, users in the sales department are restricted from accessing data on the contents of the invention itself, such as proposals, among data related to patents, and are not allowed to access data on other patent-related documents. Is available.

Next, using the patent management system capable of newly registering, searching, and editing data as described above, a proposal was filed for a patent, and then another related patented patent was filed. The flow managed together with the document data will be described.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the flow of management.

First, the inventor accesses the web server computer 21 using the technical department terminal 11, inputs the content of the proposal in the proposal field from the displayed input screen, and performs new registration (S51). . At this time, a prior art search is performed as much as possible, and the result is input in the prior art column. In addition, technical data related to the proposal is input in the technical data column.

After the proposal is registered, the inventor informs the approver of that fact, or the approver periodically searches whether there is a new registration or not. It is approved according to the necessity (S52). At this time, the approver checks a date or the like in the approval cell in the invention section column to indicate that the approval has been made.

Thereafter, the approved proposal is accepted by the intellectual property department (S53). At this time, the accepted proposal is given a date of acceptance, a further prior art search is conducted by the patent staff, the results are entered in the prior art column, and contract matters related to the proposal are also examined. Is entered in the contract field.

Here, when the patent application is permitted by the intellectual property department, the approval cell in the intellectual property department column is checked from the input screen, and the inventor or a predetermined agent prepares a specification. Is requested. Then, when the inventor prepares the specification, the inventor inputs the specification into the specification column by the intellectual property member when the agent prepares the specification (S54).

The data entered in the specification column is edited as necessary, and is approved by the inventor and the approver, and becomes an application (S55).

After the application is filed, the patent management will be carried out in the event that a request for examination is made, a reason for refusal comes, a patent is granted, or if there is any event related to the application, such as payment of a registered pension. Then, they are entered in the bibliographic fields. In addition, when a sales representative enters into a new contract in connection with a patent or commercializes a product, it is searched for any relevant proposals for each of those contracts and products. If there is a proposal, relevant contract and product information is entered in the contract field of the file recording the proposal (S56).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, effective use of patent-related document data is achieved by storing all document data related to patents in a web server in the patent management system and centrally managing them. In addition, for users accessing these data, data that can be browsed, registered, changed, etc. is restricted for each department to which the user belongs, so that the data is centrally managed. However, depending on the affiliation of the user, that is, the content of the work, it is possible to prevent access to data that may leak outside the company.

As described above, one embodiment of the present invention has been described, but the present invention is not limited to such an embodiment.

For example, a patent management system has been described in which document data to be handled is related to inventions and proposals, but these are not limited to those relating to “patents”, but are related to utility models, trademarks, and designs. Similarly, information and information can be centrally managed.

In the above embodiment, the access qualification given to the user limits the data that can be accessed for each department to which the user belongs. However, such an access qualification can be set arbitrarily. Good to do. For example, restrictions may be added according to the position of each user.

Further, the proposal and the statement are not limited to the case of directly inputting from the input screen, but may be, for example, by an in-house mail system or by using a facsimile.
The information sent to the intellectual property department may be input by the intellectual property member.

[0107]

According to the present invention described above, documents related to intellectual property rights such as patents, utility models, trademarks, and designs are centrally managed, so that patent-related document data is effectively used. While it can be used to further improve the invention and proposals and prevent duplicate applications, the authority to access the centrally managed data is limited by the user's access qualification, so carelessly Data can be prevented from leaking outside.

Further, by providing a search engine in the web server, it is possible to search for a desired record with a simple logical operator, which is very effective for search work and patent management work.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a patent management system to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a patent data web server in the patent management system.

FIG. 3 is a sequence diagram for explaining a use form of the patent management system.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a database selection screen provided to a user in a technical department.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an input screen provided to a user in a technical department.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a screen of a bibliographic list provided as a search result.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a database selection screen provided to a user in an intellectual property department.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an input screen provided to a user in an intellectual property department.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an input screen provided to a user of a sales department.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the flow of patent management.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 LAN 11 Technical department terminal 13 Sales department terminal 15 Intellectual property department terminal 20 Patent data web server 21 Computer for web server 23 Patent database 25 Contract database 71 Detailed display icon

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (Reference) G06F 17/30 110 G06F 17/30 110F 120 120B 170 170Z

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A patent management system in which terminals arranged in different departments are connected by a dedicated line. A data storage means for storing, as digital data, a document related to at least one of a patent, a utility model, a trademark, and a design. An authentication unit that authenticates whether or not an access request from the terminal to the data storage unit is from a user having an access right; and that the access to the data storage unit is authenticated by the authentication unit. A patent management system, comprising: an access restriction unit that restricts, based on an access qualification of the user, access to each data stored in the data storage unit. 2. The digital data stored in the data storage means includes a patent, a utility model, a trademark, and a design.
Digitally convert at least one of a document that describes the proposal of at least one of the applications, a specification based on the proposal, the name and affiliation of the person who made the proposal, and a document that describes contract matters related to the proposal. The patent management system according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The digital data is stored in the data storage unit with an independent address assigned to each data, and the access restriction unit is a web server, and access is permitted for each access qualification. Storage means for storing screen information with only a link to the address given to the data being provided, and from the storage means, to the user, screen information suitable for the access qualification of the user whose access has been authenticated. The patent management system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the system is provided. 4. The patent management system according to claim 3, wherein the screen information is created by a markup language in which a link accessible for each access qualification is embedded in a hyperlink format. . 5. A combination of a predetermined logical operator and a keyword from each terminal is received, a record registered in the data storage unit is searched from the result of the combination, and the record is sent to the terminal that has requested the search. 2. The patent management system according to claim 1, wherein the web server is provided with a search unit that sends a request.