AI has been very disruptive, especially over the last couple of years or so. Many new AI platforms have appeared on the market and patent searching database providers have integrated AI tools into their existing products.
A question arises for the patent searcher – are patent searching and AI independent of each other? From personal experience the answer can be yes and no. Let me explain. In a sense, the patent searcher does not know how the AI pools a set of results for semantic (based on a written statement) and similarity (based on a publication number) searches. For a semantic search the patent searcher did provide the input text. This was in their control. How can the patent searcher take further control while still working with AI? Iterate the search input text to get several pools of patent publications from the AI search. Some of the control must be relinquished to truly let the AI shine and this can be done through similarity searching. This often contains most of the references that are cited on the patent, but other gems are there to be found. In this case, we want the AI to be independent of our own search input and bias. It must bring results that were not influenced by our input.
As a patent searcher, in general, we do not expect to locate references without having to search. By working with AI, do not expect to find the right result in the top ten hits or even the first hundred. In some instances, the right reference can be much further down the list.
It’s therefore necessary to work with AI but also let it be independent. This can help confirm we are on the right track with our patent search or give us an indication that a redirection is needed in the strategy. This can only be a good thing for the outcome of the search.
Do we as patent searchers need to be independent from AI during a patent search? Yes. Co-operative and International patent classifications must be searched in full or in combination with keywords. Overall, the search can be viewed as having components controlled solely by the patent searcher, components where the AI has the majority control and then where the AI and patent searcher work together.
