| System Data | PatBase |
| Owner Name | Minesoft Ltd; RWS Group |
| Intellogist Report | PatBase |
| Address | Minesoft Ltd.
Boston House
Little Green
Richmond TW9 1QE
Great Britain and Northern Ireland |
| Main Telephone | 1 866 745 3621 |
| Main Facsimile | +44 (0)208 404 0681 |
| Website | PatBase |
| Customer Support Email | support@minesoft.com |
| Tool Type | Patent Search Systems, Commercial/Pay Databases |
| Interface Language | English, Japanese |
| Rating | PatBase |
| |
| Overall Rating |
Rating: 3.9/5 (49 votes) |
| Data Coverage Rating |
Rating: 3.8/5 (49 votes) |
| Document Delivery Rating |
Rating: 2.9/5 (44 votes) |
| Import/Export Functions Rating |
Rating: 3.2/5 (44 votes) |
| Value Rating |
Rating: 3.6/5 (42 votes) |
| Usability Rating |
Rating: 3.9/5 (46 votes) |
| Interface Functionality Rating |
Rating: 3.7/5 (45 votes) |
| Search Accuracy Rating |
Rating: 3.5/5 (48 votes) |
| Company Strength Rating |
Rating: 3.6/5 (41 votes) |
| Customer Support Rating |
Rating: 3.8/5 (45 votes) |
| |
| Data Coverage | PatBase |
| Full Text: Patent Authority Coverage | US, EP, WO/PCT, JP, BE, BR, CH, CN, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, IN, KR, SE, TW |
| Full Text: Patent Kind Coverage | US - Published Applications, Granted Patents, Designs; EP - Published Applications, Granted Patents; WO/PCT - Published International PCT Applications (some full text Japanese and Russian-language documents); JP - Published Applications, Registered Utility Models; BE - Granted Patents; BR - Published Applications, Utility Model Applications; CH - Published Applications, Granted Patents; CN - Published Applications, Utility Model Applications, Utility Models, Designs; DE - Published Applications, Granted Patents, Utility Models; DK - Published Applications, Granted Patents; ES - Published Applications, Utility Model Applications; FI - Published Applications; FR - Published Applications, Utility Model Applications; GB - Published Applications, Granted Patents; IN - Published Applications, Granted Patents; KR - Published Applications, Granted Patents, Utility Model Applications, Utility Models, Design Applications; SE - Published Applications, Granted Patents; TW - Published Applications |
| Full Text: Number of Authorities | 18 |
| Partial Text: Patent Authority Coverage | INPADOC plus the following: special collections for CA, CN, TW; additional authority TH; special original language collections for BG, EA, GR, MA, TR, WO, YU; in-house machine translated English abstracts for documents without English family members, and that were originally published in the following languages: German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Korean, Chinese, Japanese |
| Partial Text: Patent Text Covered | INPADOC - Eng. Abst; CA - Eng. Abst and Claims; CN - Eng. Abst, 1st Claim; TH - Abst and Claims; TW - Abst and Claims; BG, EA, GR, MA, TR, WO, YU - Some Original-Language Titles/Abst; Machine-translated Eng. Abst for docs in German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Korean, Chinese, Japanese |
| Bibliographic: Patent Authority Coverage | INPADOC plus additional authorities TH, TT, UZ |
| Machine Pre-Translated Data |  Yes, at least AR, BR, CN, DE, EP, ES, FR, IT, JP, KR, MX, TW |
| Full Document Images: Patent Authority Coverage | Equal to Espacenet: AP, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CN, CS, CU, CY, CZ, DD, DE, DK, DZ, EA, EC, EE, EG, EP, ES, FI, FR, GB, GC, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, LT, JP, KR, LU, LV, MA, MC, MD, MX, NL, NO, NZ, OA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RU, SE, SG, SI, SK, SU, TR, TW, UA, US, UY, WO/PCT, ZA, ZW |
| Representative/Front Page Images | Representative images are available for many family records. Coverage should be equal to Espacenet. |
| Full Patent Drawing Sets | Links to Espacenet mosaics are available. Coverage will be equal to Espacenet. |
| Corporate Tree Data |  No |
| Non-Patent Coverage | Yes |
| Non-Patent Sources | A chemical name thesaurus is provided from National Library of Medicine (NLM) database ChemIDplus. |
| Special Indexing | No |
| Update Frequency | US, EP, WO/PCT and INPADOC updated weekly. No information is provided about update frequency for other full text collections; update frequency depends on authority. |
| Comments on Missing Coverage | Known gaps exist in INPADOC. As with any patent collection, gaps in coverage may exist but have not been discovered or quantified. |
| Family Data | PatBase |
| Inpadoc Family Data Coverage | Yes |
| Types of Family Definition | Extended INPADOC families. Simple family division display possible within INPADOC families. |
| Derwent WPI Family Coverage | No |
| Citation Data | PatBase |
| Backward Citations | Yes |
| Forward Citations | Yes |
| Citation Data Coverage | US, EP, WO/PCT, JP, AP, AU, BE, BG, CH, CY, CZ, DE, DK, EA, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, IT, KR, LU, NL, NO, SG, TR |
| Special Features of Citation Search | Hyperlinks are provided to forward and backward citations from the record view. Forward and backward citation searching is available from the search interface. A citation visualization tool is also available. |
| Citation Visualization Tool | Yes, the tool is structured around the family concept, so all citations from each family member and their relationships are illustrated. A citation timeline view is also available. |
| Legal Status Data | PatBase |
| Legal Status Data Included | Yes |
| Legal Status Data Sources | INPADOC legal status, plus US reassignment data and links to national registers |
| Classification Data | PatBase |
| Current US Class | Yes |
| Original US Class | No |
| IPC - R | Yes |
| Original IPC data (v1-v7) | Yes |
| ECLA | Yes |
| Japanese File Index Terms | Yes |
| Japanese F-Terms | Yes |
| Other National Classification Systems | Yes, DEKLA and Locarno |
| Search Interface Functionality | PatBase |
| Search Form | Yes |
| Command Line Style Interface | Yes |
| Index Browsing Feature | Yes, the "browse index" feature can be used to look up assignee or inventor names, classification codes, and document numbers. The "browse index" for full text terms no longer appears to be available. |
| Allowed Operators | Boolean and proximity operators are available. Proximity operators include fixed-order and non-order-specific operators which allow users to define the maximum distance between terms. |
| Truncation | Unlimited right truncation is supported (no left-hand truncation is supported). At least one operator can represent 0-or-1 character truncation, and limited internal truncation is available. Stemming is also available. |
| Unique Features of the Search Interface | Quick and easy to refine and/or combine search queries via the command line interface; chemical name thesaurus available; non-Express version offers non-Latin text search capability. |
| Viewing Results | PatBase |
| Max Hit List Size | 100,000 |
| Single Representative Image | Yes |
| View Full Document Image | Yes, full document images are available. |
| Patent Drawing Thumbnail Overview | Yes |
| Family Sorting | Yes, hit lists and saved results are always presented with patent documents already grouped into extended INPADOC families. |
| Sorting by Other Criteria | Yes, a result set or work file can be sorted by a wide range of data elements, including "number of times cited," and a relevancy ranking system for search results. |
| Deduplication | N/A |
| On-the-Fly Machine Translations | Yes |
| Keyword Term Highlighting | Yes |
| Keyword Term Navigation | Yes |
| User-Defined Highlighting | Yes, up to 5 different colors are available. |
| Highlighting Feature Supports Proximity Operators | Yes |
| Save Custom Lists From Search Results | Yes, unlimited documents may be saved into a folder, which does not expire. |
| Combining Custom Patent List | Yes |
| Unique Features of The Record View | Records are shown as patent families; all bibliographic data points are aggregated into the family record; thumbnail images and full family member data is available from the hit list; full text viewing window allows any full text family member to be opened and viewed. |
| Search History | PatBase |
| Saving Search Queries | Yes, the system retains queries automatically for an active session. Unsaved histories can be automatically deleted in a number of scenarios. |
| Organizing Search Queries | Yes, however, there is no way to delete or re-organize queries in a search history without loading and re-running the entire history. |
| Stored Search Query Expiration Time | Saved queries do not expire. |
| Combining Search Queries | Yes |
| Exporting Search Histories | Yes, session activity can be exported in a session log or the history may be copied and pasted into another document. |
| Alerts | Yes, alerts are not included with a basic subscription; however, alerts can be purchased in batches. All alerts support RSS. |
| Import, Export and Download | PatBase |
| Import List of Document Numbers | Yes, document numbers may be entered into the browser window with some variation in formatting. |
| Export Document Data | Yes, data can be exported for each document in a patent family, documents that have been pre-selected from the hit list, or publications that correspond to a certain country of origin. User-defined annotations, rankings, and highlighting may be exported. |
| Formats for Export Data | BizInt Smart Charts® (BPD), DOC, CSV, HTML, Patent iNSIGHT Pro, PDF, RTF, VantagePoint, XLS, XML, INTELLIXIR |
| Individual Patent Copy Downloading | Yes |
| Bulk Patent Copy Downloading | Yes, however, this requires a separate subscription to the system's PatentOrder downloading service. |
| File Format for Patent Copy Downloads | PDF |
| Analysis | PatBase |
| Statistical Analysis | Yes |
| Graphs | Yes |
| Keyword Analysis | Yes |
| Customer Support | PatBase |
| Cost/Usage Tracking | Yes |
| On-Site Training | Yes |
| Scheduled Web Seminars | Yes |
| Live Help | Yes |
| Online User Guide | Yes |
| Pricing | PatBase |
| Pricing Policy | The system offers yearly, per-seat or site license options. The service's sales representative can customize subscription options to meet individual company needs. |
| Assessment | PatBase |
| Primary System Strengths | Unique family based data structure; non-Latin language text content for JP, CN, KR, TH, TW, and WO documents; non-Latin text search options; machine-translated English abstracts; versatile command line; excellent interface; heavy linking to free external data sources. |
| Weaknesses and Annoyances | Possible although unlikely to lose current search history by accident (unchecking a box prior to log-in); aggregated family data can cause some false hits (same-publication field qualifiers may help with this problem) and long record display length. |
| Overall Assessment | This unique tool takes advantage of many free on-line data sources such as links to legal status registers. The use of aggregated families promotes more efficient searching, and the user interface enables in-depth scrutiny of patent full text and drawings. |
| Company Strength | PatBase (and the related PatBase Express) is the only search tool offered by partners Minesoft and RWS. Since its introduction in 2003, the tool has continued to add new data and features. The addition of full text Asian data in 2008 and a visual explorer option in 2011 shows that the company is forward-thinking. |
