JP4990925B2 - Process management system and process management method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a process management system and a process management method for managing a process of matter processing such as intellectual property.

  Cases related to intellectual property and its rights (hereinafter referred to as “IP cases”) are processed in a predetermined order. In other words, management tasks for managing intellectual property cases include various unique processes such as acceptance of new inventions, investigation of prior art, interviews with the inventor, determination of whether or not an application can be filed, and creation of a description. There is a workflow that consists of There are various systems in order to efficiently manage intellectual property cases when managing such intellectual property cases that have undergone many processes. For example, there is a system having a workflow function in software, that is, a platform that is the basis of the system (see, for example, Patent Document 1). According to this system, the processing content executed on the platform is mapped according to a certain rule based on the work procedure of the workflow function. As a result, IP management operations consisting of many processes are processed.

  In addition, there is a system that efficiently manages an intellectual property matter management task, which manages the progress of the task based on a workflow in which the task flow is defined (see, for example, Patent Document 2). In this system, the definition content of the workflow can be changed. Thereby, this system performs business smoothly.

JP 2006-139761 A JP 2004-62439 A

  The two systems described above have the following problems. In other words, all systems manage the intellectual property matter processing operations that go through many processes using computers based on the workflow function. At this time, each step of the workflow is displayed on the computer of the inventor or the person in charge of intellectual property (hereinafter referred to as “person in charge”), for example, “Requesting application” or “Checking specification”. . However, if only these process names are displayed on the computer, the current process is located in any part of the whole process, except for those who are familiar with the flow of intellectual property work. It is difficult to grasp the status of the progress of the process, the contents of the next process, and the degree of urgency, such as whether the procedure and processing must be proceeded thereafter or whether the procedure and processing are urgent. In particular, if the inventor uses these systems, not the person in charge, it is often unfamiliar with intellectual property matter processing, and even if each workflow process name such as “Requesting application” is displayed. It becomes even more difficult for the inventor to grasp the progress of the process, the contents of the next process, and the degree of urgency.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a process management system and a process management method that solve the above-mentioned problems and make it possible to easily grasp the status of a process in a workflow.

In order to solve the above problems, a first aspect of the invention, a process control system for creating and displaying display data of IP matters to be processed at each step in the workflow IP, invention Inventor database recording data related to the inventor, invention delivery database recording the contents of the invention proposed by the inventor, application information database recording information related to the application, and registration A database server that stores a registration information database that records information, and records each intellectual property case as a record of a predetermined length, and stores a relational database that records this record in the process to which this record belongs. , Corresponding to each process and process information in text format, the process number indicating the process stage of the process, and the process indicated by this process number A storage device for storing a conversion table of the process information is recorded comprising a process name representing the processing content of the inventor database of the database server, the invention delivers the database, the application information database and the registration information database, the storage device A conversion device that updates the relational database of the device, and a terminal that inquires an intellectual property matter, and when the inquiry is received from the terminal, the conversion device records an intellectual property matter record corresponding to the inquiry from the relational database. The process to which the extracted intellectual property record belongs is converted into process information in a text format with reference to the conversion table, display data is generated from the process information, and the display data is converted to the terminal. And the terminal receives the display data , By the process information of the text format IP projects and displays the processing stage of the process and the contents of processing in this step, the process control system, characterized in that.

In the invention of claim 1, the storage device stores a relational database. The relational database records each item as a record of a predetermined length. In such a state, the conversion apparatus reads the matter processed in each process from the relational database. Thereafter, the conversion device generates display data including item information created based on the read item and process information representing the processing contents of the process for processing the item in a text format .

According to a second aspect of the invention, in a process control system of claim 1, wherein the conversion device, the step number of the step information, formed in combination with the numbers and symbols, in one step to be processed in succession It is characterized by being represented by a symbol.

A third aspect of the present invention, in a process control system according to claim 2, wherein the conversion device, the steps to be processed sequentially, expressed in numbers is in the predetermined range, it is characterized.

The invention of claim 4 is a process management method for creating and displaying data for displaying an intellectual property matter processed in each process in the workflow of the intellectual property, wherein the data relating to the inventor is recorded. An inventor database, an invention delivery database that records the contents of the invention proposed by the inventor, an application information database that records information related to an application, and a registration information database that records information related to registration Are stored in advance in a database server, each intellectual property case is recorded as a record of a predetermined length, and a relational database in which this record is recorded in a process to which this record belongs is stored in a storage device in advance, corresponding to each process. In addition, the process information in text format includes the process number indicating the processing stage of the process and the process number indicated by this process number. A conversion table in which process information consisting of process names representing processing contents is recorded is stored in the storage device in advance, and the storage is performed by the inventor database, the invention report database, the application information database, and the registration information database of the database server. When the conversion device updates the relational database of the device and there is an inquiry from the terminal, the conversion device extracts the IP item record corresponding to the inquiry from the relational database, and the extracted IP item record belongs The conversion device converts the process into text-format process information with reference to the conversion table, the conversion device generates display data from the process information, and the conversion device sends the display data to the terminal. And when the terminal receives the display data, The process textual information of goods transactions, displays the processing stage of the process and the contents of processing in this step, a process control method characterized by.

According to the invention of claim 1 and claim 4, it represents the processing content of the step of treating the matter in text format, the process information including the process contents of this text, because it includes the display data, the data end When displayed at the end, it is possible to visually grasp the status of the process, such as which stage of the workflow is defined in the workflow defined along the flow of a series of procedures. In other words, since the process information is generated with the process number and process name, the process number confirms which process stage of the workflow is defined along the flow of a series of procedures, and the process contents of the process Confirmation can be grasped visually.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the processes to be processed continuously are represented by a single symbol, the processes to be processed consecutively in the workflow defined along the flow of a series of procedures based on the process information. This makes it easy to visually check which stage is in progress.

According to the invention of claim 3 , since the number is in a predetermined range and the start and end of the number are determined in advance, the process stage of the current process can be easily visually confirmed in the process to be processed continuously. To be able to grasp.

1 is a configuration diagram showing a process management system according to Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of an inventor database. It is a figure which shows an example of an invention report database. It is a figure which shows an example of an application information database. It is a figure which shows an example of a registration information database. It is a block diagram which shows an example of a converter. It is a figure which shows an example of the workflow of an intellectual property. It is a figure which shows an example of a process table. It is a figure which shows an example of a search table. It is a figure which shows an example of a relational database. It is a figure which shows an example of a conversion table, Fig.11 (a) is a figure showing a conversion table, FIG.11 (b) is a figure showing the process information of a conversion table. It is a figure which shows a mode that a small process is converted into process information. It is a flowchart which shows an extraction process. It is a figure which shows a display screen when displaying display data. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen according to Embodiment 2. FIG.

  Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1)
A process management system according to this embodiment is shown in FIG. This process management system manages an intellectual property matter, and includes a database server 10, storage devices 11, 31, a management terminal 20, a conversion device 30, and terminals 40 ₁ to 40 _n . In this embodiment, the database server 10, the management terminal 20, the conversion device 30, and the terminals 40 ₁ to 40 _n are connected to the local area network LAN and can send and receive data.

The management terminal 20 is a computer operated by a person in charge who manages an intellectual property matter. The management terminal 20 can send and receive data to and from the database server 10 and the conversion device 30. Terminals 40 ₁ to 40 _n are computers operated by the inventor. The terminals 40 ₁ to 40 _n request the input of the inventor code when operated by the inventor. The inventor code corresponds to an employee code for identifying an employee. Further, the terminals 40 ₁ to 40 _n can transmit and receive data with the conversion device 30. In this embodiment, when the inventor inputs an inquiry about an intellectual property matter to the terminals 40 ₁ to 40 _n , the terminals 40 ₁ to 40 _n transmit an inquiry instruction. At this time, the terminals 40 ₁ to 40 _n add the inventor code to the inquiry instruction and transmit it to the conversion device 30.

  The database server 10 stores various data necessary for management of intellectual property in the storage device 11 and manages the data stored in the storage device 11. The data stored in the storage device 11 by the database server 10 includes an inventor database (DB) 11A. The inventor database 11A records data relating to the inventor. An example of the inventor database 11A is shown in FIG. The inventor database 11A shown in FIG. 2 stores an inventor code for identifying the inventor, the inventor's name and affiliation, and the like.

  The data stored in the storage device 11 by the database server 10 includes an invention delivery database (DB) 11B. The invention delivery database 11B records the contents of the invention proposed by the inventor. An example of this invention report database 11B is shown in FIG. In the invention report database 11B shown in FIG. 3, the receipt number given when the matter relating to the invention is accepted, the date when the matter is accepted, the inventor's code, the inventor's name, the outline of the invention, and the like are recorded.

  Data stored in the storage device 11 by the database server 10 includes an application information database (DB) 11C. The application information database 11C records information related to the application. An example of the application information database 11C is shown in FIG. In the application information database 11C shown in FIG. 4, the distinction between the four methods such as patents and the application number are recorded in the application article column, and the publication number is recorded in the published article column. Further, the applicant, the inventor, and the like are recorded in the application information database 11C.

  Data stored in the storage device 11 by the database server 10 includes a registration information database (DB) 11D. The registration information database 11D records information related to registration. An example of the registration information database 11D is shown in FIG. In the registration information database 11D shown in FIG. 5, four methods such as patents and application numbers are recorded in the application article column, and the registration number is recorded in the registration article column. In addition, the applicant, the inventor, and the like are recorded in the registration information database 11D.

  The conversion device 30 is a computer that manages various data stored in the database server 10. As illustrated in FIG. 6, the conversion device 30 includes an input unit 30A, a display unit 30B, a processing unit 30C, a storage unit 30D, a communication unit 30E, and an interface (IF) unit 30F.

The input unit 30A is a device such as an operation panel, and various instructions and the like are input to the input unit 30A. The display unit 30B is a device that displays an operation state of the conversion device 30 and the like. The communication unit 30E connects the processing unit 30C to the local area network LAN and enables data communication with the management terminal 20 and the terminals 40 ₁ to 40 _n . The storage unit 30D stores a program executed by the processing unit 30C. The interface unit 30F connects the storage device 31 to the processing unit 30C.

  The processing unit 30C executes programs stored in the storage unit 30D and performs various processes for managing intellectual property cases. The processing unit 30C updates the relational database 31A of the storage device 31 based on the inventor database 11A to the registration information database 11D recorded in the storage device 11 of the database server 10. In this embodiment, the processing unit 30C generates an intellectual property case with one line of records, accumulates each record, and forms a relational database 31A. In other words, when receiving the extraction condition from the management terminal 20, the processing unit 30 </ b> C extracts data that meets the extraction condition from the storage device 11 of the database server 10. Thereafter, the processing unit 30C aggregates the extracted data and records it as a relational database (DB) 31A.

  Specifically, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7, the intellectual property workflow is processed from a large number of large process codes representing each large process. In FIG. 7, the process starts from “invention receipt reception” with the identification number “01” of the large process code, and ends with “right end” of the large process code “15”. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 8, the large process consists of a middle process, and the middle process consists of a small process. That is, the intellectual property workflow shown in FIG. 7 is formed in a hierarchical structure, and the small process is the lowest layer. In such a case, the processing unit 30C stores the hierarchical structure data illustrated in FIG. 8 in the storage device 31 as the process table 31B. Furthermore, the processing unit 30C stores, in the storage device 31, a search table 31C in which search conditions for search are recorded when searching for an intellectual property matter corresponding to a small process that is the lowest layer. An example of the search table 31C is shown in FIG. A search expression is stored in the search table 31C of FIG. 9 according to the small process code of the small process.

  The processing unit 30C sequentially calls up the search formulas of the search table 31C according to a preset search cycle or an instruction from the management terminal 20, and uses the search formulas to register the inventors database 11A to the inventor database 11A in the storage device 11 of the database server 10. From the information database 11D, data corresponding to the search expression such as “reception number” given at the time of accepting the intellectual property matter, “inventor code” representing the inventor, and the like are extracted. Thereafter, the processing unit 30C aggregates the extracted data and generates one intellectual property case as a record of one line. Then, the processing unit 30C records the generated records in the relational database 31A of the storage device 31 for each small process code representing a small process. An example of this relational database 31A is shown in FIG. In the relational database 31A shown in FIG. 10, the intellectual property cases corresponding to each small process code are recorded and stored as one line record. In the one-line record, a document recorded in the specification database (DB) 31D and a document corresponding to the reception number is attached as an attached document. In the specification database 31D, documents such as specifications before and after the application and documents after registration are recorded.

  A conversion table 31E is recorded in the storage device 31 of the conversion device 30. The conversion table 31E stores process information corresponding to the small process codes recorded in the process table 31B (FIG. 8). The process information is for converting a small process encoded and recorded into information that can be easily viewed. An example of this conversion table 31E is shown in FIG. The conversion table 31E in FIG. 11A stores text format process information corresponding to the small process code “0100A01” and the like. As shown in FIG. 11 (b), this process information is composed of two parts, a process number and a process name. For example, when the process information has the content “A1 Please submit invention report”, “A1 ”Corresponds to the process number, and“ Submit invention report ”corresponds to the process name.

  In this embodiment, the process number indicates the processing stage of the small process in the workflow, and is a combination of alphanumeric characters consisting of alphabets “A” to “Z” and numbers starting with “1”. It is represented. A set of small processes that are successively processed is represented by one English character. Specifically, for example, when “0100A01” to “0100A07” are successively processed in small processes, the alphabet “A” represents the set of the continuous small processes. In addition, the order of the alphabets “A” to “Z” represents each set of small processes processed in time series. That is, the alphabetical expression indicates that the closer the alphabetical letter of the process number is to the alphabet “Z”, the closer the set of small processes is to the final processing stage represented by the large process code “15” of the workflow (FIG. 7). Has been. Further, the processing order of each small process in the set of continuous small processes is represented by the numerical part of the process information. In this embodiment, the order of the numbers from the young number “1” represents the order of the small processes processed in time series. In addition, the small process processed continuously is processed within the predetermined period, for example.

The process name of process information represents the processing content in the small process represented by the process number. In this embodiment, the process name is
a1. …please do it.
a2. ... wait.
a3. ... arrived.
And is expressed in a sentence format. Note that “...” in the process names a1 to a3 is an arbitrary sentence representing the process of the small process. For example, in the case of the process name a1, “...” has the content of “submit invention report”. .

  With such a conversion table 31E, the processing unit 30C converts the encoded small process into process information that can be easily grasped visually. When the process table 31B is as shown in FIG. 8, the processing unit 30C converts the encoded small process into process information as shown in FIG.

The processing unit 30C starts the extraction process illustrated in FIG. 13 when receiving an instruction to inquire about an intellectual property matter from the terminals 40 ₁ to 40 _n . When starting the extraction process, the processing unit 30C specifies the inventor and the terminal that transmitted the inquiry instruction (step S1). In this embodiment, in step S1, the processing unit 30C identifies the inventor by examining the inventor code from the data added to the inquiry instruction. In step S1, the processing unit 30C identifies the terminal based on the identification information attached to the terminals 40 ₁ to 40 _n . In step S1, the terminal that sent the instruction may be inquired to obtain an inventor code for identifying the inventor. When step S1 ends, the intellectual property case corresponding to the inventor is extracted from the relational database 31A (step S2). In this embodiment, an intellectual property matter corresponding to the inventor's inventor code is extracted. When step S2 ends, the processing unit 30C refers to the conversion table 31E and converts the small process to which the extracted intellectual property matter belongs to process information (step S3). Thereby, for example, when the relational database 31A shown in FIG. 10 described above is used, the intellectual property case with the reception number “AB0001” belongs to the small process “0100A01”, and therefore the processing unit 30C 11, the small process “0100A01” is converted into process information “A1 Please submit invention report”. Thereafter, the processing unit 30C creates display data using the processing results of steps S2 and S3 (step S4). In this embodiment,
b1. Title b2. Intellectual property process information b3. Intellectual property reference number b4. Display data including the display item of the title of the invention of the intellectual property matter is generated. The display item b3 and the display item b4 of the display data are item information representing the contents of the intellectual property item. When step S4 is completed, the processing unit 30C transmits the display data generated in step S4 to the terminal that has issued the IP property inquiry instruction (step S5), and ends the extraction process.

Next, a process management method using the process management system according to this embodiment will be described. Inventor, for example, by operating the terminal 40 _1, to enter the inquiry of intellectual property matters. Thus, the terminal 40 ₁ transmits an instruction to query the IP case to converter 30.

Upon receiving the inquiry instruction, the processing unit 30C of the conversion device 30 performs extraction processing and generates display data. The processing unit 30C the generated display data to the terminal 40 ₁ instructs the query.

Terminal 40 ₁ receives the display data, the display device (not shown), and displays the display data consisting of said display items b1.about.b4. FIG. 14 shows how the display data is displayed. In the display screen of FIG. 14, the intellectual property cases composed of the process information of the display item b2 and the case information of the display item b3 and the display item b4 are listed in the vertical direction below the title of the display item b1 and displayed. Has been.

Thus, according to this embodiment, a display screen as shown in FIG. 14 is displayed on the management terminal 20 of the intellectual property person in charge and the terminals 40 ₁ to 40 _n of the inventor by the display data from the conversion device 30. Is done. This makes it possible to visually check at which stage of the workflow the set of small processes that are continuously processed from the English letters of the process numbers included in the process information and the set to which the intellectual property matter belongs are in the workflow. From the number of the number, it is possible to visually check at which stage the displayed IP project is in the set of small processes. Furthermore, it is possible to specifically grasp the processing content required for the intellectual property case from the process name included in the process information. That is, according to this embodiment, it is possible to easily grasp the state of a small process for processing an intellectual property matter by visual inspection in a workflow.

  In this embodiment, a combination of alphanumeric characters is used as the process number of the process information, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, hiragana or katakana may be used instead of English characters. Also, Roman numerals such as “I, II,...” May be used. That is, any code can be used as the process number as long as the order relation can be visually recognized. In this embodiment, the number starts with “1”, but may be another number including “0”.

(Embodiment 2)
In this embodiment, the process information is as follows. In this embodiment, components that are the same as or the same as those in the first embodiment described above are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted. In this embodiment, in the process information described above, the process information and the project information of the intellectual property project that needs to be processed immediately are colored. For this purpose, the processing unit 30C performs display item emphasis processing by changing the background colors of the display items b2 to b4 when creating display data in step S4 of the extraction processing. As a result of this emphasis processing, the management terminal 20 and the terminals 40 ₁ to 40 _n are provided with the background color C1 of the process information “A1 Please submit invention report”, the display item b3, and the display item as shown in FIG. For example, the background color C2, C3 of the project information consisting of b4 is displayed in red.

  Note that the determination of an IP property that needs to be performed immediately is performed, for example, as follows. The processing unit 30C searches for the process name in the process information and checks whether there is a keyword “Please do” for prompting the process, a question keyword “Is it?”, Or the like. The processing unit 30C performs the above-described emphasis process on the process information and the item information including these specific keywords.

  According to this embodiment, since the process information and the case information representing the intellectual property case that needs to be processed immediately are colored, the intellectual property case can be visually confirmed.

  In this embodiment, all the background colors of the process information and the project information are colored, but a part of the process information or a part of the background information of the project information may be colored. In this embodiment, the background color is colored, but a font representing each information may be colored.

(Embodiment 3)
In this embodiment, the process information is as follows. In this embodiment, components that are the same as or the same as those in the first embodiment described above are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted. In this embodiment, in the first embodiment and the second embodiment, the number of continuous processes is within a predetermined number, for example, within nine. Thereby, a series of processing is represented by numbers “1” to “9”.

  According to this embodiment, the numbers “1” to “9” are used to represent each small process in a set of small processes that are successively processed. As a result, it is possible to visually confirm that the intellectual property matter belonging to the small process represented by the first number “1” is the first in the set of small processes, and the small number represented by the last number “9”. It can be visually confirmed that the intellectual property matter belonging to the process is the last in the set of small processes.

(Embodiment 4)
In this embodiment, the process information is as follows. In this embodiment, components that are the same as or the same as those in the first embodiment described above are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted. In this embodiment, in the process number of the process information, a set of small processes to be processed successively is represented by a number starting from “1”, and the processing order of each small process in this set is represented by “A” to It is expressed in English letters “Z”. That is, in this embodiment, the process number is represented by a method reverse to that in the first to third embodiments.

  According to this embodiment, an effect equivalent to that of the first to third embodiments can be achieved.

  The present invention can be used not only for intellectual property cases, but also for various cases processed along a workflow.

10 Database server 11 Storage device 20 Management terminal 30 Conversion device (processing means)
31 Storage device (storage means)
31A relational database 40 ₁ to 40 _n terminals

Claims (4)

A process control system for creating and displaying display data of IP matters to be processed at each step in the workflow IP,
Inventor database recording data relating to the inventor, invention delivery database recording the contents of the invention proposed by the inventor, application information database recording information related to the application, and registration A database server storing a registration information database in which information to be recorded is recorded;
Each intellectual property case is recorded as a record of a predetermined length, and a relational database in which this record is recorded is stored in the process to which this record belongs. A storage device that stores a conversion table that records process information including a process number representing a stage and a process name representing a processing content in the process represented by the process number ;
A conversion device for updating a relational database of the storage device by an inventor database of the database server, an invention delivery database, an application information database, and a registration information database;
A terminal for inquiring about IP projects,
With
When there is an inquiry from the terminal, the conversion device extracts an IP case record corresponding to the inquiry from the relational database, and refers to the conversion table for a process to which the extracted IP case record belongs. To process information in text format, generate display data from this process information, send this display data to this terminal,
The terminal, when receiving the display data, displays the process stage of the process and the processing content in this process by the process information in the text format of the intellectual property matter.
Process management system characterized by that. The conversion device forms the process number of the process information by a combination of a number and a code, and represents the process to be processed continuously by one code,
The process management system according to claim 1 . The conversion device represents a process that is continuously processed by a number within a predetermined range.
The process management system according to claim 2 . A process control method to create and display the display data of IP matters to be processed at each step in the workflow IP,
Inventor database recording data relating to the inventor, invention delivery database recording the contents of the invention proposed by the inventor, application information database recording information related to the application, and registration A registration information database that records information to be stored in advance in a database server,
Record each intellectual property case as a record of a predetermined length and store in advance a relational database that records this record in the process to which this record belongs, in a storage device,
Corresponding to each process, the process information is in text format and records process information including a process number representing the process stage of the process and a process name representing the process content in the process represented by the process number. Store the conversion table in the storage device in advance,
The database device inventor database, invention delivery database, application information database and registration information database, the conversion device updates the relational database of the storage device,
When there is an inquiry from the terminal, the conversion device extracts the record of the intellectual property matter corresponding to the inquiry from the relational database,
With reference to the conversion table, the conversion device converts the process to which the extracted intellectual property matter record belongs, into process information in a text format,
The conversion device generates display data from this process information,
The display device sends this display data to the terminal,
The terminal, when receiving the display data, displays the process stage of the process and the processing content in this process by the process information in the text format of the intellectual property matter.
A process management method characterized by that.

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