Thursday, April 27, 2006

New way to look at value of patents?

First off - let me apologize for the lengthy delays between postings. I was hoping for at least 2 a week when I started this site but other non-work obligations mean this site will fall to the bottom of my pile for at least another few months. I will keep you posted...

In the mean time, here is something to ponder:

Institute of Physics put out a news article on entitled "Google unearths physics gems". It outlines how the Google page rank algorithm is being used to find, and in some cases uncover, important scientific papers. On a personal note I used the google scholar extensively when doing research for my thesis last year and found it at least as valuable as, if not more, than some of the traditional searches such as ebscohost et al.

My question for the post is this: How can Google's page rank algorithm be used in patent searching and ranking, specifically to help do accurate prior art searches? How can it be used to help determine value of a filed or granted patent?

I think that is something worth postulating... Perhaps for my next thesis. Any thoughts or ideas would be interesting to hear...