Classification and information management for patent collections: A literature review and some research questions

Introduction. With the growth of digital patent collections, and increased open accessibility, the ability to automatically organize these collections had become desirable. Apart from the specific efforts of offices responsible for patenting activity, many relevant discussions can be found in the literature, presenting alternative ways to organize patent collections and to explore the knowledge embedded in patent databases. Method. This paper identifies and discusses four problems related to the patent classification process, reviews relevant literature for the identified problems and formulates research questions for future research. Results. The review finds that there is an ongoing effort to harmonize existing patent classification systems and to improve current systems, trying to develop specific techniques to retrieve the information embedded in patents and to transform it into a more usable format for users. Conclusions. This study contributes to the development of the field of patent management by discussing contemporary issues, open research questions and possible paths to solve related problems.