I would like to share my fascination with the patent clustering agent SparkIp (at www.sparkip.com , easily available via PatentPal I reported earlier). It visualises clusters of patent relating to keyword in a way that makes wandering through patent landscape enjoyable. I did not understand how it works, as it does not seem to follow the classification system (it includes only US patenets and some of the applciations currently), and am not fully convinced it is reliable, but it is surely intriguing and potentially add a qualitative factor to patent search.

I would be happy to learn more about it and gain from your experience with it.

An update - On June 16 SparkIP will launch a new and improved version with many additional features including international patent coverage, exports, bookmarks, alerts and custom portfolios. 

Regards,

Ophir.