New Features and Improvements

Accessibility Improvements

With this release, we are pleased to announce a number of improvements to the accessibility of the user interface, bringing the platform in line with AA compliant Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0). All AA technical accessibility criteria have been addressed and contrast criteria have been met through the addition of a new High Contrast (WACG) theme.

The majority of improvements include the addition of alt texts and form labels. These improvements provide additional context to the user interface and improve the overall experience for visually impaired users who rely on screen reader technologies.

Please note, the accessibility improvements apply to the main Lens app (i.e. patent and scholarly works search, work area, etc.) but not to the PatCite or PatSeq apps.

Updated About Site

The Lens About site has also been updated in this release, revising the design and content and upgrading the version of WordPress to the latest version. The design update paves the way for use case content coming in future updates. A WCAG Conformance Report (VPAT) is also available on the updated About site, see https://about.lens.org/vpat/.

Patent Delta Processing

We are pleased to announce the completion of a migration to delta processing for Lens patent data. This upgrade improves data currency by increasing the update frequency to weekly and reducing latency to within 24-48 hours of data being published on Thursdays. Considerable effort went into ensuring that the new delta processing architecture maintained the data integrity and accuracy produced by bulk processing.

Please note, patent saved query alerts will now be run weekly. So If you have alerts set up, expect to receive more frequent updates from Lens.org. You can change your alert preferences from the Saved Queries tab of your account work area.

Bulk Data Delta Download API

Introducing Bulk Data Delta files available via the API, providing a bulk data snapshot and weekly Patent delta files and fortnightly Scholarly Works delta files. With this release we have added an additional API endpoint for automating patents and scholarly works bulk data downloads and updates using bulk data delta files. The API includes a Releases endpoint for identifying the latest bulk data delta files, and utilises the existing Download endpoint for downloading the files. See the Bulk Data Downloads support post for more details, including an example Python script for updating a local database.

New Language Options – Italiano (Italian)

Continuing with the updates to our localisation, with this release we are pleased to announce the addition of translated message properties in Italiano (Italian). Much of this localisation has been done using machine translation with a check from a native Italian speaker.

Please note, not all elements of the UI have been checked for each language. If you see a term that is not translated correctly or should be improved, please let us know by contacting us at Support. The updated localisation does not include PatSeq, PatCite, In4M or individual reports.

Other Improvements and Changes

The Lens is a work in progress and with each release The Lens team improves on certain features or perfects the quality of the data and the service to provide you with the most comprehensive data we can source. While often these changes stem from users’ feedback, they also originate from improved data processing and improvements in the source data. In this release, here is the list of other improvements and changes that were implemented:

• Added logo filter banner for Agents and Attorneys.
• Updated saved query alerts to restrict results to the corresponding data update only and not subsequent updates.
• Updated the Metrics charts, added Cited Scholarly Works and Citing Scholarly Works counts to the scholarly works metrics chart, and added Cited Scholarly Works, Cited Patents and Citing Patents counts to the patent metrics chart.
• Updated search history formatting, adding viewed individual scholarly works to the search history.
• Added the Cited Phase and Citation Category to the Cited Works tab on individual patents.
• Added the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property to the Registry of subscribing institutions and supporters.
• Added CiteSource to the Lens Labs Community Apps & Data page.
• Updated the open graph image for Lens report URLs.
• Added a Reports tab to Lens Profiles to display users’ public reports.
• Added search term highlighting to abstracts and claims in the expanded results view.
• Added Has US Term Extension to the patent Flag filters.

Fixes

• Select all on the Work Area Notifications tab.
• PatSeq menu when swapping between apps.
• Fixed an issue changing from the Analysis view to the List view on collections.
• Fixed logo grid tooltips from displaying incorrect information from other logo grids.
• Disabled the Share Dashboard modal that was triggered after saving.

API & Data Improvements

Patent data:

• Updated the legal status calculation for US patents by improving US terms of grant coverage. As a result, the number of US documents with terminal disclaimer has been improved by 45% to 1.3M+ patents and the coverage of US patents with a term extension increased by 45% to 6.4M+ patents.
• Added US Term Extension Days (legal_status.term_extension_days) field to patent search. The field provides the number of days for the US term extension.
• Added improved US term extension days to the Legal Status Calculation Log field.
• Updated the CPC and IPC classification schemas to the latest versions (CPC version 2024.05, IPC version 2024.01).

Lens API (version 2.12.0):

• Added additional checksums (crc32c, crc32, sha1, sha256) with different hash functions to bulk data release endpoint.
• Added support for MONTH interval in the date histogram aggregation.

For guidance navigating the API, please check the API Documentation, and to report bugs/issues, usability related questions, or to request features, please use our GitHub issue tracker.

Interested in supporting the sustainability of The Lens?

• Contact your library, research office or technology transfer and commercialization teams, and let them know about Lens for Institutions and the Institutional Toolkits.
• If you need to use Lens.org for commercial uses, please comply with Lens Terms of Use by either subscribing to an Enterprise Toolkit, or if you are a sole practitioner or SME, an individual commercial use license. See account and pricing options. If you need more than 4 seats or have other special circumstances, please contact us at support@lens.org.
• Do you know someone who would be interested in The Lens? Share a search or collection with them, or suggest that they register for our newsletter here.

Interested in helping us improve?

• Collective Action needs connected actors. The Collective Action Project provides a number of different activities for all stakeholders to participate in collective problem solving. See how you can participate.
• Are you supportive of The Lens mission and interested in volunteering your expertise and time to support The
  Lens? We welcome expressions of interest. Please contact us at support@lens.org. We are happy to learn more about your skill sets and see if there is a good fit of skills and timing to contribute to The Lens.
• If you have published using Lens tools or data, or created an application using the API or data from the Lens, please share your work with us so we can share it with others on Lens Labs to help improve The Lens as a public resource.
• Share your use case with us and explore how The Lens can help you and keep sending us your feedback on The Lens features and functionality.

The Lens is a public good project run by Cambia, a global social enterprise that is committed to making the innovation process more transparent, inclusive and effective for those seeking to solve problems and make a social impact and thus, we welcome your active engagement, participation, and support.