Retrieving Information Across Multiple, Related Domains Based on User Query and Feedback: Application to Patent Laws and Regulations Hang Yu College of Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign Urbana, IL 60801, USA hangyu@uiuc.edu Gloria Lau Engineering Informatics Group Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-4020, USA glau@stanford.edu Siddharth Taduri Engineering Informatics Group Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-4020, USA staduri@stanford.edu Kincho H. Law Engineering Informatics Group Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-4020, USA law@stanford.edu Jay Kesan College of Law University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign Urbana, IL 60801, USA kesan@law.illinois.edu ABSTRACT In this paper, we present a framework that can process user query for retrieval of information from documents of different properties across multiple domains, with specific application to patent laws and regulations.. A case example is given to demonstrate how results from multiple domain searches can be combined using ontology and cross referencing. A user feedback mechanism is also discussed in this paper. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.3.3 [Information Storage and Retrieval]: Information Search and Retrieval – retrieval models, J.1 [Administrative Data Processing]: law. General Terms Algorithms, Design, Economics, Experimentation Keywords .patent, publication, search, ontology 1. INTRODUCTION Huge amount of information is available on line and keeps increasing. More and more knowledge database is available on the Internet. The fast pace of technological innovation is contributing to major changes in governments, societies, and the world economy. We are facing a problem of not being able to easily identify related documents across different information domains. A framework that can enable users to query multiple databases together would be desirable Let us consider a few examples. If a company wanted to study the market for acid reflux drugs, they may choose to go to the FDA web site, they may look for court cases involving these drugs and they may also study some relevant technical publications. Similarly, a start-up company looking to work on therapeutics in the breast cancer space, may choose to study patents in this field, whether some patents were litigated, and the applicable scientific and technological literature. In each situation, we have a common problem. There is relevant information that must be accessed and which is available in different information domains and the information is heavily soloed. In addition, even within one domain, the information may not be easily accessible and searchable. Broadly speaking, we have information on a particular topic in: (a) an administrative agency; (b) the court system; (c) the relevant laws and regulations; (d) other literature such as scientific publications. Related to government regulations, here are administrative agencies that deal with various science and technology issues such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the Federal [SAMPLE COPY RIGHT] Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. ICEGOV2010, October 25-28, 2010, Beijing, China Copyright 2010 ACM 978-1-4503-0058-2/10/10… $5.00