BERT based freedom to operate patent analysis

TL;DR

This paper introduces a BERT-based method for patent analysis that fine-tunes the model on patent descriptions to improve freedom to operate searches, demonstrated on specific patent classes and real invention descriptions.

Contribution

It presents a novel application of BERT fine-tuning on patent claims for enhanced patent search and freedom to operate analysis.

Findings

BERT can be trained to identify relevant patents based on short descriptions.

The method successfully applied to specific patent classes and real-world invention data.

Improves patent search relevance and efficiency.

Abstract

In this paper we present a method to apply BERT to freedom to operate patent analysis and patent searches. According to the method, BERT is fine-tuned by training patent descriptions to the independent claims. Each description represents an invention which is protected by the corresponding claims. Such a trained BERT could be able to identify or order freedom to operate relevant patents based on a short description of an invention or product. We tested the method by training BERT on the patent class G06T1/00 and applied the trained BERT on five inventions classified in G06T1/60, described via DOCDB abstracts. The DOCDB abstract are available on ESPACENET of the European Patent Office.