Tikotac

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Introduction

TikoTac is a free website which allows users to retrieve granted US patents with "prominent sentences" highlighted, and users can also define keywords which the highlighted sentences must relate to.^[1] The site offers a simple interface in which users are prompted to enter a 7-digit US patent number in the field labeled "Patent Number."^[1] The user also may also enter up to three keywords (one text keyword per field, without spaces or punctuation), and the system will "mark only prominent sentences having user keywords."^[1]

Use

After entering the patent number and optional keywords, the user can select the "Fetch" button or "Fetch Figures" button. If the user hasn't entered keywords, the "Fetch" button will retrieve "the most prominent sentences of the specified patent," and the "Fetch Figures" button will retrieve "the prominent sentences of text [related] to the patent figures."^[2] The "Fetch" option opens a separate window that displays the prominent highlighted sentences at the top of the page, and users can click the link beside each sentence to go directly to the sentence within the text of the patent document. The "Fetch Figures" option lists the text of the figure descriptions above the list of prominent sentences, with important keywords from the figure descriptions highlighted in sentences. The "Fetch Figures" results page also links each sentence in the "Prominent Sentences List" to its location in the original patent document text.

If the user has entered keywords in the search fields, the "Fetch" option will display prominent sentences with the indicated keywords highlighted. The keywords will also be highlighted throughout the text of the entire patent document. With keywords, the "Fetch Figures" option will still display the figure description text and highlighted sentence list at the top of the page, and the keywords in the descriptions, sentences, and full document text will be highlighted.

If the user enters a patent number which the system is not able to retrieve, they will be directed to a page with an error message at the top of the page and the Tikotac objectives, user manual, possible error reasons, average performance times, and future goals listed below.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} "TikoTac." TikoTac website, http://www.tikotac.com/. Accessed October 12, 2011.
2. ↑ "Tikotac user manual." TikoTac website, http://tikotac.com:8080/tomcat_tikotac_servlet/TikoTacServlet?&patentUrl=http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=1234567.PN.&OS=PN/1234567&RS=PN/1234567. Accessed October 12, 2011.