Expert System for Recombinant DNA Invention Disclosure

The information produced by the Human Genome Project and related research is expected torevolutionize biology and medicine in general and recombinant DNA technology in particular. At present,however, obtaining patent protection for inventions involving recombinant DNA technology is anacknowledged bottleneck in the development of the U.S. biotechnology industry. While much attentionhas been focused on the problems that occur during prosecution of patent applications, little has beenfocused on the quality of those applications. This research will assess the technical feasibility ofdeveloping a knowledge-based expert system for facilitating the authoring of recombinant DNA inventiondisclosures. The purpose of the software is to improve the quality of international and U.S. patentapplications for the purpose of reducing the duration of their pendency and associated uncertaintyregarding the scope of their claims. International and U.S. invention disclosure requirements will bereviewed to provide a basis for development of a software requirements specification. Object-orientedprogramming techniques will then be used to prepare high- and low-level software design documentation.Finally, a software prototype will be constructed and subjected to alpha testing.