JP7704403B2 - Support device, support system, support method and program - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a support device, a support system, a support method, and a program.

There is a known input support device that searches for and displays example sentences that correspond to characters entered by a user (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2014-021905 A

When writing a patent specification, sentences are written to explain the words described in the claims. Therefore, a device that supports the creation of patent specifications is required to present the user with example sentences that include explanations of words. However, the device described in Patent Document 1 displays example sentences that correspond to the input item name and characters when the user inputs a part of the item name and characters that he or she wants to input. Therefore, conventional devices have the problem of displaying example sentences that do not include explanations of words.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in consideration of these points, and aims to provide a support device that presents example sentences that include explanations of words to the user.

The support device of the first aspect of the present invention includes a storage unit that stores a plurality of text sentences included in a past patent document created in the past, a data acquisition unit that acquires claim data corresponding to the scope of claims of a new patent document to be newly created, a word extraction unit that extracts one or more words to be described in the specification of the new patent document from among the words described in the scope of claims corresponding to the claim data, a search unit that searches for an explanatory sentence, which is a text sentence that explains a selected word, which is a word selected from the one or more words, from the plurality of text sentences stored in the storage unit, and a display processing unit that associates the one or more words with the explanatory sentence searched by the search unit and displays them on a display unit.

The search unit may search for a text sentence including a sentence in which the selected word is combined with a predetermined particle as the explanatory sentence.

The search unit may input the past patent document into a trained model that has been trained using as training data the word to be explained, the text sentence containing the word, and a flag indicating whether the text sentence is an explanatory sentence of the word, and search for the explanatory sentence by obtaining the text sentence that the trained model outputs as the explanatory sentence.

The method may further include a document selection unit that selects one or more of the past patent documents as selected past patent documents in which the degree of match between a plurality of words included in the claim data and a plurality of words included in each of the past patent documents is equal to or greater than a threshold value, and the search unit may search for the description from the plurality of text sentences included in the selected past patent document.

The display processing unit may display information indicating whether each of the one or more words is included in the selected past patent document on the display unit in association with each of the one or more words.

The system may further include an operation receiving unit that receives an operation to select the selected word from the one or more words, and the search unit may search for the description sentence, which is a text sentence that describes the selected word, in response to the operation receiving unit receiving the operation.

The storage unit may store words and synonyms of the words in association with each other, and the search unit may search the description, which is a text sentence that describes the one or more words and the one or more synonyms that the storage unit stores as synonyms of the one or more words.

When the search unit searches for a plurality of the explanatory sentences corresponding to the one or more words and the one or more synonyms, the display processing unit may cause the display unit to display the explanatory sentences after replacing the one or more synonyms included in the plurality of the explanatory sentences with the one or more words.

The display processing unit may display a selected text sentence selected by a user from the plurality of text sentences included in the past patent document in a display area for editing the specification of the new patent document, and then display the explanatory sentence in the selected text sentence immediately before or after the position where the selected word is displayed.

When different symbols are assigned to the selected words included in the multiple descriptions searched from the multiple past patent documents by the search unit, the display processing unit may replace the different symbols with a single symbol and then display the multiple descriptions on the display unit.

In the second aspect of the present invention, the support system includes a support device that searches for an explanatory text that explains a word, and a terminal device that receives the explanatory text from the support device. The support device includes a storage unit that stores a plurality of text sentences included in a past patent document created in the past, a data acquisition unit that acquires claim data corresponding to the scope of a claim of a new patent document to be newly created from the terminal device, a word extraction unit that extracts one or more words to be explained in the specification of the new patent document from the words described in the scope of the claim data that correspond to the claim data, and a search unit that searches the explanatory text, which is a text sentence that explains a selected word that is a word selected from the one or more words, from the plurality of text sentences stored in the storage unit, and associates the one or more words with the searched explanatory text and transmits them to the terminal device. The terminal device includes a claim data transmission unit that transmits the input claim data to the support device, and a display unit that associates the one or more words received from the support device with the explanatory text searched by the search unit and displays them on the display unit.

The support method of the third aspect of the present invention includes the steps of: acquiring claim data corresponding to the claims of a new patent document to be newly created; extracting one or more words to be described in the specification of the new patent document from among the words described in the claims corresponding to the claim data; referring to a storage unit that stores a plurality of text sentences included in a past patent document created in the past, searching for an explanatory sentence, which is a text sentence explaining a selected word, which is a word selected from the one or more words, from the plurality of text sentences stored in the storage unit; and displaying the one or more words and the explanatory sentence searched for in the searching step on a display unit in association with each other.

In the program of the fourth aspect of the present invention, a computer is caused to execute the steps of: acquiring claim data corresponding to the claims of a new patent document to be newly created; extracting one or more words to be described in the specification of the new patent document from among the words described in the claims corresponding to the claim data; referring to a storage unit that stores a plurality of text sentences included in a past patent document created in the past, searching for an explanatory sentence, which is a text sentence explaining a selected word, which is a word selected from the one or more words, from the plurality of text sentences stored in the storage unit; and displaying the one or more words and the explanatory sentence searched for in the searching step on a display unit in association with each other.

According to the present invention, example sentences that include explanations of words can be presented to the user.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overview of a support device 1. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a support device 1. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a statement selection screen. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a keyword selection screen. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a screen transition of a description selection screen. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a modified example of a keyword selection screen. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method for searching for an explanatory text. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a process flow in the support device 1. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of a support system S.

[Overview of Support Device 1]
1 is a diagram showing an overview of a support device 1. The support device 1 is a device for supporting the creation of a document that includes sentences explaining the meanings of words, such as a patent specification. The support device 1 is, for example, an information processing device such as a personal computer. In the following, an example will be described in which the support device 1 is a terminal that a user operates for the purpose of creating a patent specification.

The support device 1 extracts explanatory sentence candidates explaining words to be described in a newly created patent specification from past patent documents, which are patent specifications written in the past, and presents the extracted candidates. Words described in a patent specification are, for example, words included in the scope of a patent claim (i.e., claims). The support device 1 inserts the explanatory sentence candidate selected by the user from the presented explanatory sentence candidates into the text of a new patent specification to be created by the user.

Specifically, the support device 1 acquires claim data, which is text data corresponding to the scope of claims, from the patent application documents. The support device 1 extracts words to be explained in the specification being prepared by the user from among the words contained in the claim data. The support device 1 searches for an explanatory sentence, which is a text sentence explaining the extracted word, from a past patent document DB in which past patent documents, which are patent documents written in the past, are stored. The support device 1 displays the explanatory sentence of the searched word in association with the word. The support device 1 receives an operation in which the user selects a suitable explanatory sentence from the explanatory sentences of the displayed words, and inserts the explanatory sentence selected by the user into the document being edited. In this way, the support device 1 supports the user in preparing a new patent specification by allowing the explanatory sentences of words written in past patent documents to be reused in a patent specification being newly prepared by the user.

[Example of configuration of support device 1]
2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the support device 1 according to the embodiment. The support device 1 includes an operation unit 11, a display unit 12, a storage unit 13, and a control unit 14. The control unit 14 includes a data acquisition unit 141, an operation reception unit 142, a word extraction unit 143, a document selection unit 144, a search unit 145, and a display processing unit 146.

The operation unit 11 accepts operation input from a user of the support device 1, and outputs a control signal corresponding to the accepted operation to the operation acceptance unit 142. The operation unit 11 is, for example, a mouse or a keyboard. The display unit 12 responds to a control signal from the control unit 14 and displays an image or a display screen generated by the display processing unit 146. The display unit 12 is, for example, a liquid crystal display, an organic EL (Electro-Luminescence) display, etc.

The storage unit 13 includes, for example, a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), a hard disk, or an SSD (Solid State Drive). The storage unit 13 stores various programs for causing the assistance device 1 to function. The storage unit 13 stores a plurality of text sentences contained in past patent documents created in the past. Past patent documents are patent specifications created in the past, published patent publications, or patent publications, etc. The storage unit 13 may store words in association with synonyms of the words. The storage unit 13 stores, for example, a table that associates words with synonyms.

The control unit 14 is, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit). The control unit 14 executes a control program stored in the storage unit 13, thereby functioning as a data acquisition unit 141, an operation reception unit 142, a word extraction unit 143, a document selection unit 144, a search unit 145, and a display processing unit 146.

The data acquisition unit 141 acquires claim data corresponding to the claims of a new patent document to be newly created. The claim data is text data indicating a sentence for specifying the scope of rights for which a patent is to be granted. When the claims are divided into a plurality of claims, the claim data is data indicating all or part of the claims. As an example, the data acquisition unit 141 acquires, as the claim data, text data corresponding to a text sentence entered into a screen for entering the text sentence of the claims. The data acquisition unit 141 may acquire the claim data by reading an electronic file including the claim data from a storage medium or by acquiring the claim data from an external device via a communication line. When the data acquisition unit 141 acquires the claim data, it outputs the claim data to the word extraction unit 143 and the document selection unit 144.

The operation acceptance unit 142 identifies the user's operation content based on a signal input from the operation unit 11. The operation acceptance unit 142 accepts an operation to select a selected word from one or more words. The selected word is a word for which an explanatory text is to be searched for in past patent documents. When the accepted operation content is an operation to select a selected word from a plurality of words included in a keyword selection screen (described later) displayed by the display processing unit 146, the operation acceptance unit 142 outputs the selected word to the search unit 145.

The word extraction unit 143 extracts one or more words to be described in the specification of the new patent document from among the words described in the claims corresponding to the claim data. When the word extraction unit 143 acquires the claim data from the data acquisition unit 141, it performs a morphological analysis. Then, based on the analysis results, the word extraction unit 143 identifies at least one word, a noun, an adjective, or an adverb, contained in the claim data, and extracts the identified word as a word to be described in the specification of the new patent document. The word extraction unit 143 outputs the extracted word to the search unit 145.

The document selection unit 144 selects, as the selected past patent document, one or more past patent documents in which the degree of match between multiple words included in the claim data and multiple words included in each of the multiple past patent documents is equal to or greater than a threshold value. The selected past patent document is a past patent document from which an explanatory sentence of a word is to be extracted. For example, the document selection unit 144 identifies the number of times that each word included in the claim data appears in the past patent document, and selects, as the selected past patent document, a past patent document that contains a word whose number of appearances is equal to or greater than the threshold value. The document selection unit 144 may select, as the selected past patent document, a past patent document that contains multiple words whose number of appearances is equal to or greater than the threshold value.

The document selection unit 144 may select, as the selected past patent document, a past patent document that contains the multiple words in the same order as the order in which the multiple words are written in the claim data. The document selection unit 144 may also select, as the selected past patent document, a past patent document that contains the multiple words at a distance equal to the distance between each of the multiple words in the claim data.

As an example, the document selection unit 144 may calculate the degree of match based on the sum of the number of times each word included in the claim data appears in the past patent document. The document selection unit 144 may calculate the degree of match by calculating a score for each word included in the claim data that is determined from the number of times the word appears in the past patent document and calculating the sum of the scores for each word. The document selection unit 144 may calculate the degree of match based on the number of words that are commonly included in the past patent documents among multiple words included in the claim data. For example, when the words included in the claim data are "electrode group", "capacitive type", and "transparent touch panel", the document selection unit 144 determines that the degree of match of a document that includes two types of words, "capacitive type" and "transparent touch panel", is higher than the degree of match of a document that includes only one type, "electrode group".

In addition, words that are used repeatedly in a document are considered to be important words. Therefore, the document selection unit 144 may calculate the degree of match based on the number of words that appear a predetermined number of times or more in past patent documents among the words included in the claim data, or the ratio of important words to the extracted words.

Furthermore, the document selection unit 144 may calculate the degree of match based on the relationship between the distance at which important words appear in the claim data and the distance at which the same combination of words appear in the past patent documents. The document selection unit 144 may set a word specified by the user as an important word. The document selection unit 144 may perform the above-mentioned process by treating a word and its synonym as the same word.

The document selection unit 144 may select the selected past patent document based on the user's operation of selecting one or more past patent documents from multiple past patent documents. In this case, the document selection unit 144 displays the specification selection screen shown in FIG. 3 via the display processing unit 146 to prompt the user to select the selected past patent document. In the specification selection screen, the display processing unit 146 may display past patent documents whose degree of match obtained from the document selection unit 144 is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold. In the example of the specification selection screen shown in FIG. 3, when the operation reception unit 142 receives an operation in which the "Copy" button is pressed, the document selection unit 144 selects the past patent document selected by the user as the selected past patent document. The document selection unit 144 outputs the selected selected past patent document to the search unit 145.

The search unit 145 searches for explanatory sentences, which are text sentences explaining a selected word, which is a word selected from one or more words, from a plurality of text sentences stored in the storage unit 13. The search unit 145 searches for text sentences including a selected word among the words included in the claim data extracted by the word extraction unit 143 from past patent documents stored in the storage unit 13 as explanatory sentences explaining the word. The search unit 145 searches for text sentences including the selected word, for example, from selected past patent documents input from the document selection unit 144. The search unit 145 may treat one sentence including the selected word as the explanatory sentence, may treat multiple sentences including sentences before and after the sentence including the selected word as the explanatory sentence, or may treat all sentences included in a paragraph including the selected word as the explanatory sentence.

The search unit 145 may search for a text sentence including a sentence in which a selected word is combined with a predetermined particle as an explanatory sentence. The search unit 145 searches for a text sentence including a sentence including a subject in which a selected word, which is a noun, and a predetermined particle are combined. The particle includes a word used as a particle. The predetermined particle is a particle that is registered in advance as a particle used in explanatory sentences, such as "wa", "ga", "toha", or "ni wa te wa". By operating in this manner, the search unit 145 can increase the probability of extracting a sentence that explains the meaning, nature, or action of a word.

The search unit 145 may search for an explanatory sentence, which is a text sentence explaining the selected word, in response to an operation received by the operation receiving unit 142. FIG. 4 shows an example of a keyword selection screen for selecting a word for which an explanatory sentence is to be searched. In the keyword selection screen shown in FIG. 4, a "Search" button is arranged in association with the word input from the word extraction unit 143. When the "Search" button is pressed by a user's operation, the search unit 145 determines the word associated with the button as the selected word, and searches for an explanatory sentence explaining the selected word from past patent documents stored in the memory unit 13.

It is considered that the search unit 145 can increase the probability of finding an explanation of a word that is closer to the user's intention by searching for an explanation from past patent documents in a technical field that is highly related to the technical field of the patent claim corresponding to the claim data. Therefore, the search unit 145 may search for an explanation from multiple text sentences contained in the selected past patent document. In other words, the search unit 145 may search for an explanation of the selected word in the selected past patent document input from the document selection unit 144.

In addition, by having the search unit 145 search for explanatory texts that explain synonyms of the selected word, the possibility of finding an explanatory text that can be used as an explanatory text for the selected word increases. Therefore, the search unit 145 may search for explanatory texts that are text sentences that explain one or more words and one or more synonyms stored in the memory unit 13 as synonyms of the one or more words. The search unit 145 refers to information that associates words and synonyms stored in the memory unit 13, and identifies synonyms of the selected word. Then, the search unit 145 searches for explanatory texts that explain the identified synonyms. By configuring the search unit 145 in this way, the support device 1 can easily find explanatory texts that match the user's intentions with few operations.

[Example of the operation screen for searching descriptions]
Here, the flow of searching for an explanatory text will be described with reference to Fig. 5. Fig. 5 is a diagram showing the transition of screens from when the user selects a word for which he wants to search for an explanatory text on the keyword selection screen to when the user inserts the searched explanatory text into the document he is editing. Fig. 5(a) shows an example in which the keyword selection screen shown in Fig. 4 is displayed superimposed on a window in which document editing software is running. The document being edited by the user is displayed in the window in which the document editing software is running. When the user presses the "Search" button associated with a word on the keyword selection screen, the display processing unit 146 displays the search result display screen shown in Fig. 5(b).

Figure 5 (b) is an example of a search result display screen that displays a list of sentences searched for as explanatory sentences that explain the selected word and prompts the user to make a selection. In this way, the display processing unit 146 displays one or more words and the explanatory sentences searched for by the search unit 145 in association with each other on the display unit. That is, the display processing unit 146 displays, as an explanatory sentence search result, a word and an explanatory sentence of the word obtained as a search result in association with each other on the search result display screen. As a method of displaying the word and the explanatory sentence in association with each other, the display processing unit 146 may highlight the selected word included in the explanatory sentence to emphasize it, or may display the selected word in a specified field on the search result display screen.

When the operation receiving unit 142 receives an operation to select a suitable explanatory sentence from the displayed explanatory sentence candidates, the display processing unit 146 inserts the selected explanatory sentence into the window in which the document editing software is running, as shown in FIG. 5(c). The display processing unit 146 inserts the selected explanatory sentence into a predetermined position. The predetermined position is, for example, the end of the document being edited, or a place on the screen that is specified as an input position.

Here, if the explanatory text selected by the user is inserted at a position corresponding to the selected word entered in the specification being edited, it is highly convenient for the user. Therefore, the display processing unit 146 may display the selected text text selected by the user from multiple text texts included in the past patent document in the display area for editing the specification of the new patent document, and then display the explanatory text in a position immediately before or after the position where the selected word is displayed in the selected text text.

The display processing unit 146 displays the searched explanatory text on the search result display screen, and inserts an explanatory text selected by the user from among the explanatory texts displayed on the search result display screen, in a position immediately before or immediately after the position where the selected word is displayed in the window in which the document editing software is running. The display processing unit 146 may insert the explanatory text in the window being edited, immediately before or immediately after a period that separates a sentence including the selected word from another sentence. The display processing unit 146 may insert the explanatory text into the specification by replacing the text indicating the selected word with the explanatory text in the window in which the document editing software is running. This configuration allows the display processing unit 146 to insert the explanatory text at a position desired by the user, thereby reducing the user's operations.

Incidentally, on the keyword selection screen, if information indicating whether or not the explanatory text corresponding to a word is included in the selected past patent document is displayed, the user's operation for searching for selected past patent documents that do not include the explanatory text can be reduced, which is highly convenient. Therefore, the display processing unit 146 may associate information indicating whether or not each of one or more words is included in the selected past patent document with each of the one or more words and display it on the display unit 12. In other words, the display processing unit 146 determines whether or not the words acquired from the word extraction unit 143 are included in the selected past patent document acquired from the document selection unit 144, and displays a screen indicating whether or not each word is included in the selected past patent document on the display unit 12.

Figure 6 is a diagram showing a modified screen configuration of the keyword selection screen. In the keyword selection screen shown in Figure 6, "●" and "★" are displayed before extracted words. Here, "●" indicates that the word is included in the selected past patent document, and "★" indicates that the word is not included in the selected past patent document. Note that "●" and "★" are only examples, and whether or not a word is included in the selected past patent document may be displayed in any manner, such as by using different font sizes or colors.

[Search processing using machine learning models]
The search unit 145 may perform the search process using machine learning. Fig. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the search process of the search unit. The search unit 145 may input a past patent document to a trained model that has been trained using a word to be explained, a text sentence including the word, and a flag indicating whether the text sentence is a sentence explaining the word as training data, and may search for an explanatory sentence by acquiring a text sentence output by the trained model as an explanatory sentence.

Specifically, the search unit 145 generates a trained model that learns the relationship between a word and an explanatory sentence that explains the word, using as training data the word to be explained, a text sentence containing the word, and a flag indicating whether the text sentence is an explanatory sentence of the word. The search unit 145 inputs the selected past patent document or a plurality of text sentences and the selected word contained in the selected past patent document to the generated trained model, thereby identifying an explanatory sentence that explains the selected word contained in the selected past patent document.

[Word replacement process]
When the search unit 145 searches for an explanatory text of a synonym similar to the selected word, if the explanatory text of the synonym is inserted into the specification being prepared by the user, the user will need to replace the synonym with the selected word. In this case, when the search unit 145 searches for a plurality of explanatory texts corresponding to one or more words and one or more synonyms, the display processing unit 146 may display, on the display unit, explanatory texts after replacing one or more synonyms included in the plurality of explanatory texts with one or more words. When the search unit 145 searches for an explanatory text corresponding to a synonym of the selected word and receives an operation to insert the searched explanatory text into the document being edited, the display processing unit 146 replaces the synonym included in the explanatory text with the selected word, and then inserts the explanatory text after replacing with the selected word into the document being edited. The display processing unit 146 is configured in this way, which can reduce the user's work, thereby shortening the time required to prepare a specification.

In addition, there may be cases where the symbol assigned to the selected word in the description searched by the search unit 145 is different from the symbol assigned to the selected word in the specification created by the user. In this case, the user will need to replace the symbol after the description is inserted into the specification. Therefore, when different symbols are assigned to multiple selected words included in multiple descriptions searched by the search unit 145 from multiple past patent documents, the display processing unit 146 may replace the different symbols with a single symbol and then display the multiple descriptions on the display unit.

Specifically, when the operation receiving unit 142 receives an operation to insert an explanatory text into the document being edited, the display processing unit 146 replaces a symbol corresponding to the selected word included in the explanatory text with a symbol corresponding to the selected word in the document being edited by the user, and inserts the replaced explanatory text into the document being edited. When a symbol is not added to the specification being edited by the user, the display processing unit 146 may delete the symbol from the explanatory text searched from the past patent document. When a symbol is not added to the specification being edited by the user, the display processing unit 146 may display a screen for setting a symbol to be added to the selected word, and add the input symbol to the selected word.

[Processing flow in the support device 1]
Fig. 8 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in the support device 1. The flowchart shown in Fig. 8 starts at the point when the support device 1 is started up and is ready to search for an explanatory text.

The data acquisition unit 141 acquires claim data (S01). When the data acquisition unit 141 acquires the claim data, it outputs the claim data to the word extraction unit 143. The word extraction unit 143 extracts words contained in the input claim data (S02). The word extraction unit 143 outputs the extracted words to the document selection unit 144 and the search unit 145. Based on the input words, the document selection unit 144 selects documents containing words that match the claim data from past patent documents (S03). The document selection unit 144 outputs the selected past patent documents to the search unit 145.

The display processing unit 146 displays a keyword selection screen on which the words extracted by the word extraction unit 143 are arranged (S04). The search unit 145 determines whether or not a word selection has been accepted on the keyword selection screen (S05). If the operation acceptance unit 142 has not accepted a word selection (NO in S05), the search unit 145 returns to S05 and makes a determination again. If the operation acceptance unit 142 has accepted a word selection (YES in S05), the search unit 145 proceeds to S06.

The search unit 145 searches for an explanatory text of the selected word from past patent documents stored in the memory unit 13 (S06). The display processing unit 146 causes the display unit 12 to display a search result display screen showing the explanatory text search results (S07). The display processing unit 146 determines whether the operation acceptance unit 142 has accepted the selection of an explanatory text (S08). If the operation acceptance unit 142 has not accepted the selection of an explanatory text (NO in S08), the display processing unit 146 returns to S08 and makes a determination again. If the operation acceptance unit 142 has accepted the selection of an explanatory text (YES in S08), the display processing unit 146 proceeds to S09.

The display processing unit 146 inserts the selected explanatory text into a predetermined position in the window in which the document editing software is running (S09). The operation acceptance unit 142 determines whether a termination condition is met (S10). An example of the termination condition is that the user has performed an operation to close the keyword selection screen. If the termination condition is met (YES in S10), the operation acceptance unit 142 ends the process. If the termination condition is not met (NO in S10), the operation acceptance unit 142 proceeds to S05 and waits for a word selection operation.

[Effects of the support device 1]
As described above, the support device 1 includes a storage unit that stores a plurality of text sentences included in past patent documents created in the past. The word extraction unit 143 extracts one or more words to be described in the specification of a new patent document from among the words described in the claims corresponding to the claim data acquired by the data acquisition unit 141, and the search unit 145 searches the plurality of text sentences stored in the storage unit for an explanatory sentence, which is a text sentence that explains a selected word, which is a word selected from one or more words. The display processing unit 146 associates one or more words with the explanatory sentence searched by the search unit 145 and displays them on the display unit 12.

By configuring the support device 1 in this way, it is possible to present the user with example sentences that include explanations of words included in the claims created by the user, thereby saving the user the trouble of creating explanatory sentences for the words. Furthermore, even if the user does not have sufficient knowledge of a word, it is possible to create a high-quality specification by reusing explanatory sentences from past patent documents.

[Modification]
9 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a support system S according to a modified example. The support system S includes a support device 2 and an information terminal 3. The support device 2 is a server that receives claim data and information indicating a user's operation from the information terminal 3, and transmits to the information terminal 3 words included in the claim data, search results of past patent documents, and search results of explanatory texts explaining the words. The support device 2 may be configured by a single computer, may be configured by multiple computers linked to each other, or may be configured by cloud computing, which is a collection of computer resources.

The support device 2 has a communication unit 21, a memory unit 22, and a control unit 23. The control unit 23 has a data acquisition unit 231, a word extraction unit 232, a document selection unit 233, and a search unit 234. The support device 2 has functions corresponding to those of the support device 1, but differs in that it displays an operation screen to the user via the information terminal 3 and accepts operations from the user. In the following, the functions described for the support device 1 will be omitted, and the differences between the support device 2 and the support device 1 will be mainly described.

The communication unit 21 is a network interface for transmitting and receiving data to and from the information terminal 3. The memory unit 22 and the control unit 23 have functions corresponding to the memory unit 13 and the control unit 14 in the support device 1, respectively. The data acquisition unit 231 acquires complaint data from the information terminal 3 via the communication unit 21. The word extraction unit 232, the document selection unit 233, and the search unit 234 have functions corresponding to the word extraction unit 143, the document selection unit 144, and the search unit 145 in the support device 1, respectively, but differ in that they accept user operations from the terminal device via the communication unit 21, transmit the results of their processing to the information terminal 3 via the communication unit 21, and display them on the screen of the information terminal 3.

The information terminal 3 has functions corresponding to the operation reception unit 142 and the display processing unit 146. That is, the information terminal 3 identifies the user's operation content and transmits the user's operation content to the support device 2. The information terminal 3 also receives data from the support device 2 and displays various operation screens on the display unit. The information terminal 3 also has a complaint data transmission unit, and when the operation reception unit 142 receives an input operation of complaint data from the user, transmits the input complaint data to the support device 2.

[Effects of Support System S]
As described above, the support system S includes the support device 2 that searches for explanatory texts that explain words, and the information terminal 3 that receives explanatory texts from the support device 2. The support device 2 includes a storage unit 22 that stores a plurality of text sentences included in past patent documents created in the past, a data acquisition unit 231 that acquires claim data corresponding to the scope of claims of a new patent document to be newly created from a terminal device, a word extraction unit 232 that extracts one or more words to be described in the specification of the new patent document from among the words described in the scope of claims corresponding to the claim data, and a search unit 234 that searches for explanatory texts that are text sentences that explain a selected word that is a word selected from one or more words from the plurality of text sentences stored in the storage unit 22, and transmits the one or more words and the searched explanatory texts to the information terminal 3 in association with each other.

The information terminal 3 includes a complaint data transmission unit that transmits the input complaint data to the support device, and a display processing unit that associates one or more words received from the support device 2 with the explanatory text searched by the search unit 234 and displays them on the display unit. By configuring the support device S in this way, a system is provided that can present example sentences containing explanations of words to the user while reducing the impact on the user's environment.

Although the present invention has been described above using embodiments, the technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the scope described in the above embodiments, and various modifications and changes are possible within the scope of the gist of the invention. For example, all or part of the device can be configured by distributing or integrating functionally or physically in any unit. In addition, new embodiments resulting from any combination of multiple embodiments are also included in the embodiments of the present invention. The effect of the new embodiment resulting from the combination also has the effect of the original embodiment.

Reference Signs List 1 Support device 2 Support device 3 Information terminal 11 Operation unit 12 Display unit 13 Memory unit 14 Control unit 141 Data acquisition unit 142 Operation acceptance unit 143 Word extraction unit 144 Document selection unit 145 Search unit 146 Display processing unit 21 Communication unit 22 Memory unit 23 Control unit 231 Data acquisition unit 232 Word extraction unit 233 Document selection unit 234 Search unit

Claims (11)

A storage unit that stores a plurality of text sentences included in past patent documents created in the past;
a data acquisition unit for acquiring claim data corresponding to the scope of claims of a new patent document to be newly created;
a word extraction unit that extracts one or more words that are to be described in the specification of the new patent document from among words described in the scope of the claims corresponding to the claim data;
a document selection unit that selects, as a selected past patent document, one or more of the past patent documents having a degree of matching between a plurality of words included in the claim data and a plurality of words included in each of the past patent documents that is equal to or greater than a threshold value;
a search unit that searches for an explanatory sentence, which is a text sentence explaining a selected word, which is a word selected from the one or more words, from the plurality of text sentences included in the selected past patent document , the explanatory sentence being a text sentence including a sentence in which the selected word is combined with a predetermined particle ;
a display processing unit that displays the one or more words and the description searched for by the search unit on a display unit in association with each other;
An assist device having the above configuration. The search unit inputs the past patent document into a trained model that has been trained using as training data a word to be explained, the text sentence containing the word, and a flag indicating whether the text sentence is a sentence explaining the word, and searches for the explanatory sentence by acquiring the text sentence output by the trained model as the explanatory sentence.
The support device according to claim 1 . the display processing unit causes information indicating whether each of the one or more words is included in the selected past patent document to be associated with each of the one or more words and displayed on the display unit;
The support device according to claim 1 . an operation receiving unit that receives an operation of selecting the selected word from the one or more words;
the search unit searches for the explanatory sentence, which is a text sentence explaining the selected word, in response to the operation acceptance unit accepting the operation.
3. The support device according to claim 1 or 2 . The storage unit stores a word and a synonym of the word in association with each other,
the search unit searches for the explanatory text, which is a text sentence explaining the one or more words and one or more synonyms stored in the storage unit as synonyms of the one or more words;
5. An assistance device according to claim 1. When the search unit searches for a plurality of the explanatory sentences corresponding to the one or more words and the one or more synonyms, the display processing unit causes the display unit to display the explanatory sentences after replacing the one or more synonyms included in the plurality of the explanatory sentences with the one or more words.
6. The support device according to claim 5 . The display processing unit displays an explanatory sentence selected by the user from among explanatory sentences searched by the search unit at a position immediately before or immediately after a position at which the selected word is displayed in a display area for editing the specification of the new patent document displayed on the display unit .
7. An assistance device according to any one of claims 1 to 6 . the display processing unit, when different symbols are assigned to the selected words included in the multiple explanatory sentences searched for by the search unit from the multiple past patent documents, replaces the different symbols with one symbol and then displays the multiple explanatory sentences on the display unit;
8. An assistance device according to any one of claims 1 to 7 . A support device that searches for an explanatory text that explains a word, and a terminal device that receives the explanatory text from the support device,
The support device includes:
A storage unit that stores a plurality of text sentences included in past patent documents created in the past;
a data acquisition unit that acquires claim data corresponding to the claims of a new patent document to be newly created from the terminal device;
a word extraction unit that extracts one or more words that are to be described in the specification of the new patent document from among words described in the scope of the claims corresponding to the claim data;
a document selection unit that selects, as a selected past patent document, one or more of the past patent documents having a degree of matching between a plurality of words included in the claim data and a plurality of words included in each of the past patent documents that is equal to or greater than a threshold value;
a search unit that searches for an explanatory sentence, which is a text sentence explaining a selected word, which is a word selected from the one or more words, from the plurality of text sentences included in the selected past patent document , the explanatory sentence being a text sentence including a sentence in which the selected word is combined with a predetermined particle , and that associates the one or more words with the searched explanatory sentence and transmits them to the terminal device;
Equipped with
The terminal device
a claim data transmission unit that transmits the input claim data to the support device;
a display processing unit that displays, on a display unit, the one or more words received from the support device and the explanatory text searched for by the search unit in association with each other;
Equipped with
Support system. The computer executes
Obtaining claim data corresponding to the claims of a new patent document to be newly created;
A step of extracting one or more words that are to be described in the specification of the new patent document from among words described in the scope of claims corresponding to the claim data;
A step of selecting one or more past patent documents as selected past patent documents, the past patent documents each having a degree of match between a plurality of words included in the claim data and a plurality of words included in each of a plurality of past patent documents created in the past being equal to or greater than a threshold value;
a step of referring to a storage unit that stores a plurality of text sentences included in the selected past patent document , and searching for an explanatory sentence, which is a text sentence explaining a selected word, which is a word selected from the one or more words, and which includes a sentence in which the selected word is combined with a predetermined particle, from the plurality of text sentences stored in the storage unit;
a step of displaying, on a display unit, the one or more words and the description retrieved in the retrieval step in association with each other;
A method of support that provides: On the computer,
Obtaining claim data corresponding to the claims of a new patent document to be newly created;
A step of extracting one or more words that are to be described in the specification of the new patent document from among words described in the scope of claims corresponding to the claim data;
A step of selecting one or more past patent documents as selected past patent documents, the past patent documents each having a degree of match between a plurality of words included in the claim data and a plurality of words included in each of a plurality of past patent documents created in the past being equal to or greater than a threshold value;
a step of referring to a storage unit that stores a plurality of text sentences included in the selected past patent document , and searching for an explanatory sentence, which is a text sentence explaining a selected word, which is a word selected from the one or more words, and which includes a sentence in which the selected word is combined with a predetermined particle, from the plurality of text sentences stored in the storage unit;
a step of displaying, on a display unit, the one or more words and the description retrieved in the retrieval step in association with each other;
A program that executes the following.

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