Patent::Retrieve Request for Comments

wanda_b_anon_at_yahoo.com
Date: 02/13/05

  • Next message: John Bokma: "Re: Patent::Retrieve Request for Comments" 
    Date: 12 Feb 2005 19:52:57 -0800

    I have written a new module and propose to submit it to CPAN. Your
    comments would be appreciated.

    Patent::Retrieve is alpha software- my first module, and my intent is
    to see if the perl community has any interest in the idea.

    The module provides a consistent way to obtain patent documents from
    various patent offices that make them available on the web. Typically,
    doing this is relatively easy by hand, but involves screen-scraping if
    you want to do it effectively for many pages or doucments. The offices
    typically make it hard to get the whole document, presumably because
    that is one source of revenue.

    The module uses submodules, specific to patent offices, and comes with
    working examples for the USPTO and EPO, which between them supply
    granted patents in html and tiff (USPTO) and pdf (US, EP, and much of
    the world...).

    For casual users, this module should simplify life. Abusive users will
    likely find their IP address banned by the patent office being
    spidered.

    I propose a new name space, "Patent", because I see no related modules
    in another name space; I am happy to take suggestions. I think it is
    reasonable to have a "Patent" namespace, since patents involve a lot of
    text-wrangling that is single purpose. For example, searches of the
    prior art, patent family relationships, patent applications via XML,
    etc. With a namespace, related modules may be grouped easily.

    Here is the documentation as it now stands:

    Patent::Retrieve

    NAME
        Patent::Retrieve - retrieve a patent page (from United States
    Patent and
        Trademark Office (uspto) website or the European Patent Office
        (espace_ep). )

    SYNOPSIS
        Please see the test suite for working examples. The following is
    not
        guaranteed to be working or up-to-date.

          use Patent::Retrieve;

          my $patent_document = Patent::Retrieve->new(); # new object

          my $document1 = $patent_document->provide_doc('6,123,456');
                # defaults: office => 'uspto',
                # country => 'US',
                # format => 'htm',
                # page => '1', # typically htm IS "1"
    page
                # modules => qw/ us ep / ,

          my $document2 = $patent_document->provide_doc('US_6_123_456',
                                office => 'espace_ep' ,
                                format => 'tif',
                                page => 2 ,
                                );

          my $pages_known = $patent_document->pages_available( # e.g. TIFF
                                document=> '6 123 456',
                                );

    DESCRIPTION
          Intent: Use public sources to retrieve patent documents such as
          TIFF images of patent pages, html of patents, pdf, etc.
          Expandable for your office of interest by writing new
    submodules..
          Alpha release by newbie to find if there is any interest

    USAGE
          See also SYNOPSIS above

          To install the module...

        perl Makefile.PL

        make

        make test

        make install

        If you are on a windows box you could try to use 'nmake' rather
    than
        'make'.

        Examples of use:

          $patent_document = Patent::Retrieve->new(
                                doc_id => 'US6,654,321(B2)issued_2_Okada',
                                office => 'espace_ep' ,
                                format => 'tif',
                                page => 2 ,
                                agent => 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U;
    Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.4b) Gecko/20030516 Mozilla Firebird/0.6',
                                );

        # 'Windows IE 6' => 'Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT
        5.1)', # 'Windows Mozilla' => 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT
    5.0;
        en-US; rv:1.4b) Gecko/20030516 Mozilla Firebird/0.6', # 'Mac
    Safari' =>
        'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/85
    (KHTML,
        like Gecko) Safari/85', # 'Mac Mozilla' => 'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh;
    U;
        PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.4a) Gecko/20030401', # 'Linux
    Mozilla'
        => 'Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.4)
    Gecko/20030624', #
        'Linux Konqueror' => 'Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Konqueror/3;
    Linux)',

          my %attributes = $patent_document->get_patent('all'); # hash of
    all

          my $document_id = $patent_document->get_patent('doc_id');
                # US6,654,321(B2)issued_2_Okada

          my $office_used = $patent_document->get_patent('office'); # ep

          my $country_used = $patent_document->get_patent('country'); #US

          my $doc_id_used = $patent_document->get_patent('doc_id'); #
    6654321

          my $page_used = $patent_document->get_patent('page'); # 2

          my $kind_used = $patent_document->get_patent('kind'); # B2

          my $comment_used = $patent_document->get_patent('comment'); #
    issued_2_Okada

          my $format_used = $patent_document->get_patent('format'); #tif

          my $pages_total =
    $patent_document->get_patent('pages_available'); # 101

          my $terms_and_conditions = $patent_document->terms('us'); # and
    conditions

          my $document = $patent_document->get_patent('document'); # the
    loot

    BUGS
        Pre-alpha release, to gauge whether the perl community has any
    interest.

        Code contributions, suggestions, and critiques are welcome.

        Error handling is undeveloped.

        By definition, a non-trivial program contains bugs.

        For United States Patents (US) via the USPTO (us), the 'kind' is
    ignored
        in method provide_doc

    SUPPORT
        Yes, please. Checks are best. Or email me at Wanda_B_Anon@yahoo.com
    to
        arrange fund transfers.

    AUTHOR
                Wanda B. Anon
                Wanda_B_Anon@yahoo.com

    COPYRIGHT
        This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
    modify it
        under the same terms as Perl itself.

        The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file
    included
        with this module.

    ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
        Andy Lester for WWW::Mechanize, that got me thinking, even if
    cygwin was
        trouble.,

        The authors of Finance::Quote, which served as an example of
    providing
        submodules,

        Erik Oliver for patentmailer, serving as an example of getting
    patent
        documents,

        Howard P. Katseff of AT&T Laboratories for wsp.pl, version 2, a
    proxy
        that speaks LWP and understands proxies,

        and of course Larry and Randal and the gang.

    SEE ALSO
        perl(1).

      _countries_known()
         Usage : internal method only
         Purpose : list all entities that could give a patent
         Returns : ref to a hash with keys of abbreviations and values of
    entities (usually a country) ...

  • Next message: John Bokma: "Re: Patent::Retrieve Request for Comments"

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