Systems and methods for determining references in patent claims

摘要

Systems and methods of determining relationships between patent claims and generating a streamlined claim tree indicating the relationships are disclosed. A method of relationships includes determining claims in a claim list, searching for a reference in each claim, the reference referring to another one of the claims, and for each claim containing unique references, determining that an associated number for each unique reference is less than a number of a claim containing the unique reference, appending a data file corresponding to the claim list with ancestral data that indicates all ancestors of the claim based on the associated number and with self-referential data corresponding to the claim, determining that the claim includes parent claims and ancestor claims, and appending the data file with respect to the parent claims and the ancestor claims to indicate a relationship between the claim and the parent claims and the claim and the ancestor claims.