Patexia seeks prior art for US Patent 7,765,157 (‘157), which allegedly describes a search method using an electronic device. The method provides searching capability based on contextual text received for other purposes. The search could be based on a manipulation of previously available text received for a different purpose. It could also provide real-time feedback from a database regarding the characteristics of the database with respect to a potential or current search request.

Note: References need not be limited to a legal/attorney application.


Figure 1. Example of search method

A simple search can take place by following these steps:

• A user highlights a portion of the text displayed on a screen with some sort of user interface
• A search request is formulated, via user interaction (such as a right click), based on the highlighted portion of text
• The search request includes search text extracted from the highlighted text
• In some cases, the search may give higher weight to some words over others within the search text when generating the search results
• Search results are identified and displayed based on the search text and the search request

Questions

1. Was the source filed or published before May 20th, 1993? (20 points)
2. Does the source describe a system for interactive search? (10 points)
3. Can a user highlight a portion of the text shown on the display? ​(10 points)
4. Can a search request be formulated, via user interaction (such as a right click), based on the portion of the text highlighted? ​(20 points)
5. Can search text be extracted from the portion of the text highlighted? ​
   (10 points)
6. Can search results be identified and displayed based on the search request and the search text? ​(10 points)
7. Does the method give higher weight to some words over other words in the search text when identifying the search results? ​(10 points)
8. Does the source describe an electronic device, such as a computer, that can perform the search using the above method? ​(10 points)