Mappings

A mapping compares one patent against one product, claim by claim. Patalyze takes each of the patent's independent claims, breaks it into the individual elements that must all be present, and judges whether the product practices each one, with the evidence behind every call. It is the unit of analysis that turns a wall of claim language into something you can act on.

Read for infringement, a mapping is what practitioners call an infringement claim chart. That name does not always apply: the same comparison can set a patent against a technical standard rather than a product, so it is one of the things a mapping can be rather than another word for it.

A mapping at a glance#

Take one patent and one of its independent claims. Patalyze splits the claim into the elements that all have to be present, then judges the product against each one. Read as a claim it is a paragraph of dense legal text; read as a mapping it is a verdict you can scan in seconds.

In a single look: the product clearly has the cathode, the solid electrolyte and the current collector, most likely has the lithium-metal anode and the conductivity figure, and plainly lacks the protective coating. That one missing element holds the claim at 83%, a High read rather than a clean infringement.

The anatomy of a mapping#

Every mapping is the same shape. A claim breaks into elements, the limitations that must all be met at once. Each element gets a verdict, backed by evidence drawn from the product's own documents. The verdicts roll up into a score, and the score falls into a risk band. The glance above shows only the verdicts; the full mapping sets each claim element beside the reasoning for it, with links back to the feature or document the call rests on:

Every verdict carries its reasoning. A feature reference jumps to the matched product feature; a document reference opens the product PDF at the exact page the evidence came from. That chain, element to evidence, is what makes a mapping something you can defend.

When to map#

A mapping is the unit of evidence behind most patent questions. You reach for one whenever you need to know how a specific claim lines up against a specific product:

• To clear a product for launch, you check it against the live patents around it before you ship, the freedom-to-operate question.
• To build an infringement case, you show, element by element, that someone else's product reads on a patent you hold.
• To invalidate a claim, you map a patent against an earlier product or reference to show its elements were already known.
• To value a portfolio, you see which patents actually read on real products, and how strongly, before you license or buy.

Claim element statuses#

A claim is a list of elements that all have to be present at once. So the unit of judgement is the element, and each one gets one of five verdicts:

• yes the product clearly has this element.
• probably-yes the product most likely has it.
• probably-no the product most likely does not.
• no the product clearly does not have it.
• omit the element is set aside and left out of the score.

How a claim is scored#

A claim's score is the share of its non-omitted elements judged to be present, counting yes and probably-yes. The score is a measure of how close the read is, but it is not the verdict on its own: a claim only reads on a product when every one of its elements is present. One missing element breaks the chain, however high the rest score. Patalyze groups the scores into risk bands so the dangerous claims stand out:

• Critical, at 100%, means every element is present (shown in red).
• High, from 81 to 99%, means almost all elements are present (orange).
• Medium, from 61 to 80%, means a majority are present (yellow).
• Low, from 0 to 60%, means few or none are present (gray).

A Critical band on a live claim is the result you came here to find: a patent your product reads on, in force, owned by someone else. The lower bands are the patents you can set aside, at least for now.

Reviewing mappings#

Patalyze creates mappings automatically: when a product with features meets the patents in a database, it maps them in the background. You can also create and edit mappings by hand, overriding a verdict or omitting an element you have ruled out. The per-claim score surfaces on every patents or products table, one colored cell where a patent and your product intersect.

Click a score and choose Open explanation to read the full mapping, the evidence for each element in turn. An AI agent can do the same through the Patalyze tools, reading and editing mappings without opening the app.