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March/April 2009
Westlaw Patents: Suddenly, it comes together
by Jay Shuck, West Customer and Product Documentation
Why did West develop
Westlaw Patents? Because patent practice can be harder than it needs to be.
Traditionally, a patent practitioner spent lots of time retrieving and examining a patent's file history, reviewing all pertinent communications, and identifying when and why various claims were revised, merged, amended, or dropped. That changed in February 2009, when West released the first installment of Westlaw Patents.
Westlaw Patents is the comprehensive resource that contains all patent-related content and features on Westlaw. It ensures that you don't have to go to several locations–or even several databases–to gather the materials you need for patent prosecution, patent litigation, and IP portfolio management. In addition, the claims versioning and graphical views ensure you waste no time making sense of your results.
Westlaw Patents contains content and features such as the following:
- U.S. patent file histories: Approximately 87,000 complete U.S. patent file histories are now available on Westlaw. Click the appropriate links on the Links tab to view PDF images of official U.S. Patent Office and Trademark filings and communications.
- Graphical view of the U.S. patent family tree: With a single click, you can display a visual representation of the connections between multiple patents. Click US Patent Family Tree on the Links tab.
- Claims version comparator: You can display the original, amended, and final versions of patent claims. Deletions and additions are shown in color-coded text so you can easily compare versions and instantly spot the changes. Click any of the links under Claims Versions on the Links tab. Original and final claims versions are also available for the more than 700,000 granted US patents that have just their corresponding application on Westlaw.
- Graphical view of patent claims: With a single click, you can display an easy-to-read, visual representation of the evolution of the claims in the patent you are viewing. An additional click displays the version of the claim at any stage in the patent application process. Click Graphical Claims History on the Links tab.
- Markman orders: The Markman Orders database (MARKMAN-ORDERS) covers Markman claim construction orders beginning with 1996. With a single click, you can display the full text of any patent cited in a Markman order.
How to access
You can access Westlaw Patents information in either of two ways:
- You can search the U.S. Patent File Histories database (US-PAT-HISTORY) and click the appropriate links on the Links tab. For your convenience, a link to the database is displayed under Prior Art on the tabbed Patent Practitioner page.
- You can click View Patent File History on the Links tab or at the top of a document you retrieve from the U.S. Patents Full-Text (US-PAT) or United States Patent Applications (US-PAT-APP) database. When available, links to graphical views, office actions, claims versions, and other Westlaw Patents features are also displayed on the Links tab of the patent or patent application.
"There hadn't been a capability to search across a file history collection by terms," says West marketing director Richard Baum. "But in US-PAT-HISTORY, you can just search by terms and see where those terms are found."
A closer look: claims versions comparator
To view the text changes of all claims during a particular version of the patent application, you can use the claims version comparator. To view the text of a particular version, click the appropriate link under Claims Versions in the Links tab. The final version of a claim shows the differences between the original version and the final version.
"We had done some brainstorming with customers on the work of patent attorneys–both for patent prosecutors and litigators," says Baum. "In their current work, they have to be able to track changes that occur, which is often a manual process. We were able to see we could help those customers see the changes that were made and save them a significant amount of time in their work."
A closer look: Graphical Claims History
The Graphical Claims History feature is available for selected patents with file histories on Westlaw. This feature helps you quickly determine the text changes in a specific claim during a specific amendment. To view the Graphical Claims History display for a patent, patent application, or patent file history, click Graphical Claims History on the Links tab.
A graphical timeline of all claims is displayed. To see precisely which text was added to or deleted from a claim in a particular amendment, click the appropriate claim link. The text with highlighted changes is displayed in a new window so that the timeline remains in view.
For more information about Westlaw Patents, contact your librarian relations manager.