Exploratory analytics on patent data sets using the SIMPLE platform

Exploratory Analytics is the process of analyzing data for the purpose of forming hypotheses. Patent data sets, because they are relatively large and diverse and because they consist of a mixture of structured and unstructured information present a formidable challenge and a great opportunity in applying exploratory analytics techniques. In this paper we describe methods we have implemented for effective exploratory analytics on patent data sets using an interactive approach and a web based software tool called SIMPLE. We use real-world case studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of our exploratory analytics approach in the discovery of useful information from the patent corpus.

► Exploratory Analytics is applied to searching patent datasets. ► Addresses problems posed by mixture of structured and unstructured information. ► Proximal search procedures are developed as iterative processes, with user feedback. ► Case studies on licensing and drug discovery illustrate the use of these techniques.