1. A method comprising: maintaining a patent matter database, the database including data about the patent matters, the data including for at least one patent matter: a claim set or statement of invention, and a priority date for the claim set or statement of invention; maintaining a database of prior art documents, wherein the prior art database includes data about the prior art documents; associating a prior art document with a first patent matter in the patent matter database; performing an automatic keyword analysis on both the first patent matter and associated prior art document, and automatically identifying a keyword pool for the first patent matter and prior art document based on occurrences of one or more keywords in the first patent matter and associated prior art document; automatically identifying, based on the analysis, at least one keyword occurring uniquely in the first patent matter; and combining at a user interface information including at least identification of the first patent matter, the keyword pool, the at least one keyword occurring uniquely in the first patent matter, and a timeline representing the priority date of the first patent matter and the priority or publication date of the prior art document.
1. A method comprising: maintaining a patent matter database, the database including data about the patent matters, the data including for at least one patent matter: a claim set or statement of invention, and a priority date for the claim set or statement of invention; maintaining a database of prior art documents, wherein the prior art database includes data about the prior art documents; associating a prior art document with a first patent matter in the patent matter database; performing an automatic keyword analysis on both the first patent matter and associated prior art document, and automatically identifying a keyword pool for the first patent matter and prior art document based on occurrences of one or more keywords in the first patent matter and associated prior art document; automatically identifying, based on the analysis, at least one keyword occurring uniquely in the first patent matter; and combining at a user interface information including at least identification of the first patent matter, the keyword pool, the at least one keyword occurring uniquely in the first patent matter, and a timeline representing the priority date of the first patent matter and the priority or publication date of the prior art document. 10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising identifying a cited inventor or assignee of the prior art document and automatically ranking the prior art document by inventor or assignee having the most keywords occurring in the prior art document.