ABSTRACT The increasing complexity of patented mechanical designs means that their novelty and inventive steps increasingly rely on interacting geometric features and how they contribute to device functions. These features and interactions are normally incorporated in patents through clear patent claims. However, patents can be difficult to interpret and understand for designers due to their legal terminologies. This suggests there is a need for greater awareness of relevant prior art amongst designers in terms of avoiding potential conflict. This paper presents a framework that helps designers obtain insight on relevant prior art and enables emerging design–prior art comparison. The framework mainly contains development of a patent graphical functional representation, a domain-specific ontology and a semantic database. The graphical representation presenting the functional reasoning of patents in terms of interacting geometric features. A domain-specific ontology enables knowledge sharing and conceptualisation, providing a standardised vocabulary for describing patented designs. By formulating patent data into a semantic database, commonality of working principles between an emerging design and prior art can be identified. This enables early identification of potential conflict and thereby could help designers steer their emerging designs away from protected solutions. A computer tool being developed based on this approach is also described.

中文翻译：

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发明设计：识别新兴设计与现有技术冲突的框架

摘要 获得专利的机械设计日益复杂，这意味着它们的新颖性和创造性越来越依赖于相互作用的几何特征以及它们对设备功能的贡献。这些特征和相互作用通常通过明确的专利权利要求纳入专利。但是，由于其法律术语，设计人员可能难以解释和理解专利。这表明在避免潜在冲突方面，设计师需要更多地了解相关的现有技术。本文提出了一个框架，可帮助设计人员深入了解相关的现有技术，并实现新兴设计与现有技术的比较。该框架主要包含专利图形功能表示、特定领域本体和语义数据库的开发。图形表示根据交互几何特征呈现专利的功能推理。特定领域的本体支持知识共享和概念化，提供用于描述专利设计的标准化词汇。通过将专利数据形成语义数据库，可以识别新兴设计和现有技术之间工作原理的共性。这可以及早识别潜在冲突，从而可以帮助设计人员将他们的新兴设计从受保护的解决方案中转移出去。还描述了基于这种方法开发的计算机工具。提供用于描述专利设计的标准化词汇。通过将专利数据形成语义数据库，可以识别新兴设计和现有技术之间工作原理的共性。这可以及早识别潜在冲突，从而可以帮助设计人员将他们的新兴设计从受保护的解决方案中转移出去。还描述了基于这种方法开发的计算机工具。提供用于描述专利设计的标准化词汇。通过将专利数据形成语义数据库，可以识别新兴设计和现有技术之间工作原理的共性。这可以及早识别潜在冲突，从而可以帮助设计人员将他们的新兴设计从受保护的解决方案中转移出去。还描述了基于这种方法开发的计算机工具。