the present invention provides a system and method for dividing patent claims into segments for display . a segmentation engine of a computer program searches for transitional phrases or other strings and divides the patent claims into a segment for each claim . the segmentation engine also searches for dependency references . a display engine of the program uses the dependency data to display the claims in a tree structure . the segmentation also divides each claim into subsegments containing the various components of the claim . the subsegments of each claim are displayed in a tree structure nested within the tree structure of the claims . a user may manipulate and / or select segmentation rules to determine how segmentation is carried out , or may alter display settings to determine which segments or subsegments are shown and which are hidden to expedite claim analysis .