37. An apparatus for analyzing potential patent infringement, comprising: a receiver for receiving information regarding a patent; a processing device configured to: identify at least one claim of the patent, parse the at least one claim to identify at least one term in the at least one claim, automatically generate a natural language question for use in obtaining information from an on-line bulletin board, transmit the natural language question to the on-line bulletin board, obtain information regarding at least one of a product and a service from the on-line bulletin board in response to the natural language question, formulate a search query comprising the at least one term, generate a claim chart, and perform a search of the information regarding at least one of a product and a service using the query; and a transmitter for transmitting the information contained in the claim chart to a user communication device in order to display the claim chart.
37. An apparatus for analyzing potential patent infringement, comprising: a receiver for receiving information regarding a patent; a processing device configured to: identify at least one claim of the patent, parse the at least one claim to identify at least one term in the at least one claim, automatically generate a natural language question for use in obtaining information from an on-line bulletin board, transmit the natural language question to the on-line bulletin board, obtain information regarding at least one of a product and a service from the on-line bulletin board in response to the natural language question, formulate a search query comprising the at least one term, generate a claim chart, and perform a search of the information regarding at least one of a product and a service using the query; and a transmitter for transmitting the information contained in the claim chart to a user communication device in order to display the claim chart. 44. The apparatus of claim 37 , wherein the apparatus is programmed for automatic operation.