With conventional patent maps, it had not been possible to express inclusion relations or associations of embodiments with regard to the scope of patent claims. In the present invention, an embodiment is expressed with either a point or an arbitrary object, etc., similar to a point (first marking), and the scope of a patent claim is expressed with an approximate fan shape (second marking). If a patentee of a given patent and a practitioner of a given embodiment are the same, then the central angle of the approximate fan shape (the second marking) with which the scope of the patent claim is expressed is positioned either to overlap with or be near the point, etc., with which the embodiment is expressed (the first marking). When a plurality of the approximate fan shapes (the second markings) are present, said plurality of the approximate fan shapes (the second markings) are positioned radially. If, on the other hand, the practitioner is a third party, then when the embodiment is included in the scope of the patent claim, the point, etc., with which the embodiment is expressed (the first marking) is positioned so as to be positioned within the approximate fan shape (the second marking) with which the scope of the patent claim is expressed, and when the embodiment is not included, the point, etc., with which the embodiment is expressed (the first marking) is positioned so as to be positioned outside the approximate fan shape (the second marking) with which the scope of the patent claim is expressed. In such a situation, the first marking is positioned near to the second marking if few differences are present, and the first marking is positioned far from the second marking if many differences are present.
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