9. The method of claim 7 further comprising using domain knowledge to refine the selection of patents in said set of similar patents.
9. The method of claim 7 further comprising using domain knowledge to refine the selection of patents in said set of similar patents. 10. The method of claim 9 wherein said step of using domain knowledge comprises: deriving a second seed patent from said group of similar patents; retrieving a second group of patents from said data warehouse related to said second seed patent; extracting a second set of similar patents from said second group of retrieved patents, each of said similar patents in said second set of similar patents associated with said second seed patent using said statistical method; and generating a second refined taxonomy for said seed patent and said second set of similar patents using at least one of words analysis, bag of words analysis, phrases analysis, structured features, and unstructured features.