Monitoring progress of patenting, investigates patent families associated with applications to be monitored, detecting and revealing any variation

摘要

At regular or irregular intervals, enquiries are carried out concerning patent families associated with a patent application to be monitored. The currently-determined status of the patent family, is compared with the corresponding status determined at an earlier point in time. Information is output, concerning the type and/or content of the variation in the patent family, when alteration is detected. Independent claims are included for the (1) computer (2) computer program product used to carry out the procedure.