In company-wide solutions the Knowledge Network is a very helpful tool. The Invention Navigator Knowledge Network enables the collaboration between different teams within a company or within a defined workflow (e.g. patent attorney/client, R&D/patent department, information broker/company). It controls the rights of the different users and automates specific tasks like automatic searches (alerts, monitoring profiles) or legal status monitoring. With the help of the Knowledge Network the individual workflow is displayed.

When using the Knowledge Network each user uses their preferred software version tailored to their needs and experience in patent work. For instance, the patent department would use the Invention Navigator Portable Premium for researches, analyses, administrational tasks and distribution of patents within the company. Staff in R&D departments would use the Invention Navigator Portable R&D for reading and commenting on patents assigned to them manually or via monitoring profiles.

The network is a folder tree similar to the Windows Explorer containing different folder types. According to their rights, these folders can be displayed and editing rights (read, assign, write) can be assigned. The folder structure can show organisational units product groups and work groups.

Depending on the assignment of rights, different users can exclusively see the folder relevant to their work. These folders can be normal folders where other network users assign patents using Drag-and-Drop or right mouse click. They can also be active folders. Active folders are so-called monitoring folders. These folders perform an individually designed search in the global SIP database. Once set up and activated, the search is performed automatically on a weekly basis and new patents corresponding to the search query are added to the folder. The user can be informed about newly added patents via email.

Other active folders are folders containing patents to be monitored regarding their changes in family or legal status.

It can be determined for any folder in the Knowledge Network whether it is family-based or SIP-patent-based. Depending on your task you are able to choose if you want to file the entire family or specific family members in the folder for further editing.