Guest editorial: Special issue on information retrieval in the intellectual property domain

Abstract

Intellectual property (IP) management consists of all the processes linked to the recognition, the publication and the exploitation of creations of the human mind. Patents on inventions are granted by 74 patent offices worldwide under the condition that the patent claims are new, inventive and show industrial applications. Information retrieval (IR) has been recognized as the computing field appropriate to aid in assessing the novelty aspect of the IP processes by proposing methods to search, compare and analyse patent documents. Patents are complex search objects. They attempt to describe that most elusive concept, the ‘‘invention,’’ in a manner that distinguishes it from what has gone before. Unfortunately for the inventor, many of the modern methods for communicating new technical information, such as video, animations, CAD-CAM displays or even, most recently, 3D printing, are little accepted within the patent system, with the result that many new patent