III-CXT-Small: Collaborative Research: REGNET - Information Management and Compliance Assistance for Patent Laws and Regulations

REGNET研究项目提议建立一个信息基础设施，以加强政府规章的查阅、检索和透明度，特别是在专利领域。几乎所有的制造和工程产品以及发明和生产这些产品所涉及的过程都需要遵守法规要求。专利法和相关问题复杂而繁多，可能会造成不成比例的负担，阻碍技术和商业创新，特别是对小企业而言。信息技术有可能减轻和帮助解决许多这些复杂的问题，并提高公众的理解。然而，目前大多数在线门户网站主要是为了展示信息而设计的，很难用于进一步处理。为REGNET提出的信息服务基础设施包括作为基础的存储库，更重要的是，包括用于定位、合并、比较和分析信息的工具。这种服务基础设施将以智能的方式利用现在广泛提供给公众的通信和计算资源。计划开展七项任务：（1）文本分析和存储，（2）半结构化的索引存储，（3）解决语义歧义的手段，（4）适合于相关文档的自动检索的交叉引用，（5）相关监管文档的比较分析，（6）在线遵守援助和政府法规的检查，以及（7）需求评估和影响分析。将开发新的和创新的搜索和分析技术，以帮助传播监管数据，并允许查找和比较相关的法律的和监管信息的多个来源。广泛的影响用于法律的和监管目的的信息技术系统正在迅速发展。将研究这种在线监管系统和遵约协助工具的社会和法律的影响及其对监管进程的影响。

The REGNET research project proposes to develop an information infrastructure to enhance the access, retrieval and transparency of government regulations, in particular in the area of patents. Almost all manufacturing and engineered products as well as the processes involved in inventing and producing such products need to comply with regulatory requirements. Patent laws and related issues are complex and voluminous, and can be disproportionately burdensome, hindering technological and business innovations, particularly to small businesses. Information technology (IT) has the potential to mitigate and help solve many of these complicated issues and enhance public understanding.Intellectual MeritGovernment regulations are now available online. However, most of current online portals are primarily designed for displaying the information and are difficult to be used for further processing. The information service infrastructure proposed for REGNET includes repositories as a base and, more importantly, tools to locate, merge, compare, and analyze the information. This service infrastructure will exploit in an intelligent way the communication and computational resources that are now widely available to the public. Seven tasks are planned: (1) textual parsing and storage, (2) semi-structured, indexed storage, (3) means to resolve semantic ambiguities, (4) cross-referencing appropriate for automated retrieval of relevant documents, (5) comparative analysis of related regulatory documents, (6) on-line compliance assistance and checking of governmental regulations, and (7) needs assessment and impact analysis. New and innovative search and analysis techniques will be developed to help disseminate regulatory data and allow finding and comparing multiple sources of related legal and regulatory information.Broad ImpactsIT systems for legal and regulatory purposes are being rapidly developed. The social and legal impacts of such online regulation systems and compliance assistance tools as well as their effects on the regulatory process will be studied.