Comparing Workspace Folders

Sometimes you will want to compare two Workspace folders with each other to help you answer some key questions such as "Where do two technology areas overlap?" or "What would it look like if two companies merged their portfolios together?". The folder comparison tool within Workspaces will help you to do this.

To do this, you will want to first go to the option of "New folder" within the Workspace.

Once you reach the "New folder" menu, you will then want to go to the "Calculation folder" tab. From here, you can then give this new calculation folder a name, choose which two folders to compare with each other along with the type of comparison and give the folder a description (we will detail the Boolean logic applied for this folder comparison by default here). 

You can think of the different comparison options being used as follows:

• Intersection (AND) - This will bring you back all the patents that are in both of the comparison folders. This will allow you to determine where two company's portfolios (i.e. where they are co-assignees) or where two technology areas overlap. 
• Union (OR) - This will bring you back all the patents that are contained in at least one of the two comparison folders. This will allow you to determine what would happen if you merged two company portfolios or two technology areas together.
• Subtraction (NOT) - This will bring you back only the patents contained within the 1st folder but not in the 2nd folder that you are subtracting from it. This will allow you to remove overlapping patents between the two company portfolios or technology areas.

Once you have created the new folder, you will see that it will contain the patents that correspond to the comparison you have performed. Please note that with Intersection (AND) and Union (OR) you are able to combine up to 20 workspace folders!