The invention provides a method and system for training a machine learning-based patent search or novelty evaluation system. The method comprises providing a plurality of patent documents each having a computer-identifiable claim block and specification block, the specification block including at least part of the description of the patent document. The method also comprises providing a machine learning model and training the machine learning model using a training data set comprising data from said patent documents for forming a trained machine learning model. According to the invention, the training comprises using pairs of claim blocks and specification blocks originating from the same patent document as training cases of said training data set.