Law Technology Product News (p. 1, col. 2)
February 1997

Category: Online Services

IBM Offers Up Patents Database

INTELLECTUAL property lawyers have a new boon from Big Blue--one of the most comprehensive services for finding and viewing information contained in more than 2 million U.S. patents issued in the past 26 years, which IBM of offering for free on the Web.

IBM's Patent Server Site permits anyone with access to the Web to search and retrieve information free of charge on patents granted since 1971. Searches can be requested by patent number or by keyword in certain categories such as title, inventor, assignee, abstract, claims, attorney/agent and patent reference, IBM says. Full images of nearly 1 million U.S. patents issued since 1987 can also be viewed free of charge, the Somers, N.Y.-based IBM reports.

IBM says that it intends to add the images of the 1974-1986 patents during the first few months of 1997, and in time to expand its patent server's capabilities to include searching of the full text of patents, international patent data and links to other patent information vendors providing additional supplementary services.

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Law Technology Product News (p. 1, col. 3)
February 1997

Category: Speech Recognition Software

SpeechLaw Accommodates Free-Form Dictation Style

IF YOU'VE ever dreamed of dictating directly to your computer with the ease of speaking to a live stenographer, the millennium may be at hand, according to SpeechLaw Inc., the Mission Viejo, Calif.-based company that is developing Phillips Electronics' "Continuous Voice Recognition" technology for the legal profession with a new product called SpeechLaw.

The company says that Speechlaw differs dramatically from all other speech-recognition products on the market because it is specifically designed for continuous, free form dictation rather than discrete speech, which requires legal professionals to speak with short pauses between words. SpeechLaw's software adapts to an attorney's dictation style, the company explains, and will not require special technical training.

The company has recognition modules available using Phillips' SpeechMagic voice recognition engine designed for commercial law and bankruptcy, with modules for personal injury and insurance defense expected early in 1997.

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