Using Snapshot		 Updated: Jan 25, 2006


What Snapshot is:
Snapshot is a unique analytical tool that summarizes selected bibliographic patent data from a query Result Set or a Work File and creates a bar chart "snapshot" of the summary. You can then select specific summaries to continue to work with, allowing you to focus your research on only those patents or groups of patents that are most likely to meet your requirements.

Delphion Snapshot utilizes normalized names enabling a more useful Assignee analysis. When creating your Snapshot you can choose from three name normalized fields that will help you see relationships among patents that would otherwise not be apparent. (See Name normalization of the Unified Company, Parent Company, and Ultimate Company fields following for additional details on this feature.)

Snapshot works with both patent office data and Derwent World Patents Index data. Your Snapshots can contain a mix of both patent office and DWPI data.

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What to use Snapshot for:
Use it to analyze selected bibliographic data from a group of patents. You can immediately see which companies hold the most patents in a specific area, or who the top inventors are and where they reside. Or, search by IPC code and get a quick picture of how many patents are being filed each year for a given technology. You can then select specific summaries to continue to "drill in" and refine your results for further analysis.

Snapshots of Derwent data give you a truer picture of a technology's landscape because there is only one Derwent record per invention (no matter how many patents are actually filed).

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Interpreting Snapshot results:

Patent office results sometimes skewed
Because a single invention can be filed in multiple collections, Snapshot results can sometimes appear skewed when conducting cross-collection searches. Multiple occurrences are either a result of foreign filings or prosecution history.

For example, if R. Smith filed a patent for an invention in the US and then filed for a patent for the same invention in six other countries, a Snapshot of US patents would show one patent for R. Smith, but a cross-collection Snapshot could yield seven patents. All seven patents, however, are probably the same invention.

Using DWPI data would alleviate this problem because there is only one DWPI record per invention.

Combined patent office and DWPI results
When working with a patent office Result Set, you can request that DWPI fields be summarized. When you do this, the DWPI data in your Snapshot comes from the DWPI record corresponding to the patent.

Conversely, when working with a DWPI Result Set, you can request that patent office fields be summarized. In this situation, the patent office data in your Snapshot would be from the basic patent from which the DWPI record was created.

Only Snapshot fields that begin with 'Derwent'come from Derwent data. All other fields draw from the patent authority data; this applies to analyzing both patent authority Results data and Derwent Results set data.

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Fields available for summarization:
When choosing the data elements you want to summarize for your Snapshot, you can select a default set of four fields — the defaults for patent office data and Derwent data are different.

Default fields for patent office data:
  • Applicant/Assignee
  • Inventor
  • IPC Class - 4-digit
  • Publication Year
Default fields for Derwent data:
  • Derwent Assignee Code
  • Derwent Inventor
  • Derwent Class (all)
  • Publication Year
Following is the entire list of fields that can be summarized:

Assignee
Assignee City
Assignee State
Assignee Country
Designated Country
Application Year
Application Year/Month
Attorney
Inventor
Inventor City
Inventor State
Inventor Country		 IPC Code - 4-digit
IPC Code - full
Publication Year
Publication Year/Month
Priority Year
Priority Year/Month
US Assignee Code
US Class - 3-digit all
US Class - full
US Examiner
US Maint. Status
US References - all		 US Forward Refs - all
Unified Company
Parent Company
Ultimate Company
Derwent Assignee Code
Derwent Inventor
Derwent Class - main
Derwent Class- all
Derwent Manual Code
Derwent Update


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Overview of the Snapshot control panel:
The following is a high-level overview of the control panel for Snapshot:

Screen capture of the Snapshot control panel

When your Snapshot displays, the control panel changes to offer you options for refining your request and generating a new Snapshot.

Screen capture of an overview of the control panels for Snapshot

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How to create a Snapshot:
  1. Click the SNAPSHOT tab on the fully-integrated Delphion Result Set interface.

  2. Delphion displays the Snapshot control panel (shown following), the core display remains the Result Set or Work File you have already chosen to work with.
 Screen capture of the Snapshot control panel

  1. Highlight the fields you want summarized in the Summarize by selection box. Hold Ctrl to select multiple fields. Each data field you select will be represented by a separate bar chart.

  2. Choose to Sort by item count or field value.
    • Item count yields a bar chart with the patents with the highest number of entries in that field shown first.

      NOTE: Year fields are always shown in reverse chronological order.

    • Field values sorts alphabetically or numerically depending on the type of data field selected.

  3. Choose to Display Results in Single column or Double column.

  4. Choose to Take Snapshot of the First 500 Items or All Items (up to 20,000).

  5. Click SUMMARIZE to generate Snapshot.
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What a Snapshot looks like:
The Snapshot shown following was created with these parameters:
  • From the query (carbon <in> ti)
  • Summarized by two fields: Filed Year and IPC Class - 4 digit
  • Sorted by item count
  • Double column display
 Screen Capture of what a Snapshot results looks like

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How to refine a Snapshot:
When refining a Snapshot, it is important to remember that you are now working from a Snapshot and not from a whole query Result Set or Work File. The tabbed interface is no longer visible because the Snapshot only contains selected patent data fields — full patent records from a query Result Set or a Work File are required for the other tools.

Following is the control panel from a Delphion Snapshot display:

Screen capture of the Snapshot display control panel

  1. From the control panel on a Snapshot screen, choose to change:
    • The fields in the Summarize by box
    • The Sort by order
    • The number of columns in the Display Results
  2. Choose the Display Parameters for the rows in the bar charts.
    • Min Item Count is the number of items that must be in a grouping for it to display as a row on the bar chart.
    • Max Rows Shown is the number of rows of data displayed in your bar chart. At the end of each bar chart, there is a line item indicating the number of rows omitted because of the parameter set in this field.
  3. Click SUMMARIZE to generate a refined Snapshot.
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How to view patent records from a Snapshot:
To view selected patent records,
  1. From the Snapshot bar chart display, check to select the items for which you want to see documents.
  2. Click View documents.
  3. Delphion displays the Selected Snapshot items page with the selected records shown in the Result Set display format.
 NOTE: Your selected Snapshot items are the equivalent of a "new" Result Set and, because you are now, once again working with a Result Set, the tool tabs are again visible and you can choose to move to other tools with this "new" Result Set. You can also purchase patent records, create Work Files, or display the Delphion Integrated Views or Derwent records (if this is a Derwent Result Set) for selected items.

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Name normalization of the Unified Company, Parent Company, and Ultimate Company fields:
Name normalization has two facets. The first is a simple combination — or normalization — of different representations of the same name, like IBM and International Business Machines. When normalization is used, one search will find both versions of the name as well as misspellings, etc.

The other very important facet of name normalization is the grouping of companies related by merger, acquisition, etc. Companies related in this manner are unified for the purpose of giving you a complete picture of the entire organization's patent activity.

Name normalization applies to US, EP and PCT Patents and Patent holders. It covers approximately 1,000 of the top patent holders.

The decision to unify is based on the patent activity and the relationships of the covered companies:
  • Companies or business units that have had more than 40 US patents issued in the last five years will be covered under a Unified Company name.
  • When an operating unit or subsidiary exists, but does not have more than 40 patents, it is covered under its parent Unified Company name.
  • Parent Company and Ultimate Company names show the linkage between operating units and subsidiaries. Patent activity for Unified Companies roll up into their Parent and Ultimate Company names.
  • When a merger or an acquisition takes place, the merged companies are kept under a Parent Company or Unified Company name so that they can still be separately tracked.
  • When a subsidiary or operating unit exists, but does not patent under a separate name, its patents are carried under the parenting name.
Three name normalized fields are included in your summarization options for Snapshot, these fields all reference the Assignee/Applicant data:
Field Normalized? Unified? Explanation
Ultimate Company Yes Yes Ultimate Company is at the highest level and could be a holding company. An example is an entity like AOL Time-Warner, Inc.
Parent Company Yes Yes Parent Company is a stand-alone business unit or company that others report to. An example is AOL itself. A parent company could also include some joint ownerships.
Unified Company Yes Yes Unified Company is simply a company that has enough patent activity to warrant the combining of all variations of its name.

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