This paper on "An Intelligent Patent Search Engine for Product Design and Development" was presented at the NAFEMS World Congress on The Evolution of Product Simulation From Established Methods to Virtual Testing & Prototyping - 24-28 April 2001, The Grand Hotel, Lake Como, Italy.

Summary

Central to designing novel products is the generation and ownership of intellectual property. This is of particular importance in cooperative and collaborative product design and especially when reverse engineering is used during the innovation process. Design research and practice show that the complexity of design problems is such that exhaustive search or direct deduction of a unique solution from the specification is not possible. An effective search for new design solutions takes place through communication rather than through invention, which highlights the need for more effective search strategies. Here we consider equally important both dialogue and structured review of accumulated design experience of engineering practitioners. This paper discusses the issues relating to strategic search of novel design solutions applied within a group based design process. Also, it presents a comprehensive approach to identifying, reviewing and assessing design strategies applied in existing products and patents. A comparative analysis of existing web resourced facilities developed for this purpose, such as IBM, Questel Orbit, Derwent, US PTO and Espace (EP) sites containing a great deal of useful design data is provided. In particular, the features of their patent search engines are described. Finally, the paper presents an original intelligent patent search engine that is currently under development.