Designing tailored patent search approaches – A case study on nursing care technology

IF 2.4 Q2 INFORMATION SCIENCE & LIBRARY SCIENCE

World Patent Information Pub Date : 2026-03-01 Epub Date: 2025-12-04 DOI:10.1016/j.wpi.2025.102420

Joe Waterstraat, Lothar Walter

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Patent searches support innovation, legal compliance, and business decisions, but are often complicated by extensive data, diverse systems and linguistic challenges. This paper presents a multi-perspective, keyword-based approach drawing on design theory to address the ‘fuzzy’ nature of complex technology fields. Using the example of Nursing Care Technology (NCT), an interdisciplinary domain lacking a specific patent classification, we develop three search strategies reflecting the perspectives of designers, users, and systems.

In order to measure the effectiveness of each search perspective in identifying relevant documents, we use a Large Language Model (LLM) to assess the precision of the respective results, including their subsets and intersections. Patents identified from all three design-theory perspectives have the highest precision, suggesting that the combination of viewpoints helps to isolate core innovations. Our analysis of patent classifications and assignees also demonstrates the value of the method for exploring ‘fuzzy’ technology fields.

By adapting design theory to keyword-based patent searches and using an LLM to assess the precision of tailored search results, we advance both the theory and practice of patent information retrieval. This is especially useful for ‘fuzzy’ technology fields where conventional search methods often fall short.

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设计量身定制的专利检索方法-护理技术的案例研究

专利检索支持创新、法律合规和商业决策，但往往因大量数据、不同系统和语言挑战而变得复杂。本文提出了一种多视角、基于关键词的方法，利用设计理论来解决复杂技术领域的“模糊”本质。以护理技术（NCT）为例，这是一个缺乏特定专利分类的跨学科领域，我们开发了三种反映设计者、用户和系统观点的搜索策略。为了衡量每个搜索视角在识别相关文档方面的有效性，我们使用大型语言模型（LLM）来评估各自结果的精度，包括它们的子集和交集。从所有三种设计理论角度确定的专利具有最高的精度，这表明观点的结合有助于隔离核心创新。我们对专利分类和受让人的分析也证明了探索“模糊”技术领域的方法的价值。通过将设计理论应用于基于关键词的专利检索，并利用法学硕士（LLM）来评估定制检索结果的精度，我们推进了专利信息检索的理论和实践。这对于“模糊”技术领域尤其有用，因为传统的搜索方法往往无法达到目的。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

World Patent Information INFORMATION SCIENCE & LIBRARY SCIENCE-

CiteScore

3.50

自引率

18.50%

发文量

期刊介绍： The aim of World Patent Information is to provide a worldwide forum for the exchange of information between people working professionally in the field of Industrial Property information and documentation and to promote the widest possible use of the associated literature. Regular features include: papers concerned with all aspects of Industrial Property information and documentation; new regulations pertinent to Industrial Property information and documentation; short reports on relevant meetings and conferences; bibliographies, together with book and literature reviews.