| System Data | QPat |
| Owner Name | Questel-Orbit |
| Intellogist Report | QPat |
| Address | Questel (Main US Office)
1725 Duke St
Ste 625
Alexandria Virginia 22314
United States |
| Main Telephone | 1 (800) 456 7248 |
| Main Facsimile | +1 (703) 519-1821 |
| Website | QPat |
| Customer Support Email | help@questel.com |
| Tool Type | Patent Analytical Tool, Patent Search Systems, Commercial/Pay Databases |
| Interface Language | English, French, Japanese, German |
| Rating | QPat |
| |
| Overall Rating |
Rating: 3.9/5 (30 votes) |
| Data Coverage Rating |
Rating: 4.1/5 (30 votes) |
| Document Delivery Rating |
Rating: 4.1/5 (29 votes) |
| Import/Export Functions Rating |
Rating: 4.0/5 (27 votes) |
| Value Rating |
Rating: 4.2/5 (26 votes) |
| Usability Rating |
Rating: 4.1/5 (27 votes) |
| Interface Functionality Rating |
Rating: 4.2/5 (27 votes) |
| Search Accuracy Rating |
Rating: 4.2/5 (27 votes) |
| Company Strength Rating |
Rating: 4.1/5 (29 votes) |
| Customer Support Rating |
Rating: 4.1/5 (28 votes) |
| |
| Data Coverage | QPat |
| Full Text: Patent Authority Coverage | US, EP, WO/PCT, JP, AT, BE, BR, CA, CH, CN, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, IN, RU, SE, SU, TW |
| Full Text: Patent Kind Coverage | US - Published Applications, Granted Patents; EP - Published Applications, Granted Patents; WO/PCT - Published International PCT Applications; JP - Published Applications; AT - Published Applications, Granted Patents, Utility Models; BE - Published Applications; BR - Published Applications, Utility Models; CA - Published Applications, Granted Patents; CH - Published Applications; CN - Published Applications, Granted Patents, Utility Models; DE - Published Applications, Granted Patents, Utility Models; DK - Granted Patents; ES - Published Applications, Utility Models; FI - Granted Patents; FR - Published Applications; GB - Published Applications; IN - Published Applications, Granted Patents; RU - Granted Patents; SE - Granted Patents |
| Full Text: Number of Authorities | 21 |
| Partial Text: Patent Authority Coverage | INPADOC plus in-house machine translations of English abstracts produced for CN, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, JP, RU, SE, TW, and WO/PCT, and English abstracts and claims produced for French-language CA; KR biblio and claims (machine abstracts replaced with hand translations when available) |
| Partial Text: Patent Text Covered | INPADOC - English Abstracts; CN, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, JP, RU, SE, and TW - English Machine Translated Abstracts. US, EP, and WO/PCT collections - "Key Content" excerpts may be searched; KR - biblio and claims. |
| Bibliographic: Patent Authority Coverage | INPADOC plus special collections for CN, KR, IN, TW, RU |
| Machine Pre-Translated Data |  Yes, full machine-aided translations for JP, CN; machine translations for BR, DK, ES, FI, RU, SE, and non-Latin language PCTs; English abstracts produced for CA, CN, DE, ES, FR, GB, JP, KR, and TW; English claims for CA, hand translated assignee names for JP, KR |
| Full Document Images: Patent Authority Coverage | AP, AU, AT, BE, BG, CA, CH, CN, DK, ES, EP, FI, FR, DE, DD, GB, GR, IE, IT, JP, KR, LU, MC, NL, OA, PT, RO, RU, SU, ES, SE, TW, US, WO/PCT. The system can also provide full text copies of Research Disclosure publications. |
| Representative/Front Page Images | Representative images are available for many family records. Coverage will be equal to esp@cenet. Front pages are available for download from the system. Front page coverage should be equal to the full document image coverage. |
| Full Patent Drawing Sets | Links to esp@cenet mosaics are available. Coverage will be equal to esp@cenet. The service allows mosaics to be downloaded in bulk. Mosaics for US since 2008 and JP since 2005 are loaded locally. |
| Corporate Tree Data |  No |
| Non-Patent Coverage | No |
| Non-Patent Sources | N/A |
| Special Indexing | No |
| Update Frequency | FamPat/PlusPat and major collections are updated weekly, except for AT and BE (monthly) and CH (bimonthly). Fast-track updating of CN, TW, KR, DE, FR, IN records (titles & abstracts) available 1 week after publication, JP (1 to 2 weeks after publication). |
| Comments on Missing Coverage | Known gaps exist in INPADOC. As with any system, gaps in coverage may exist but have not been fully documented. Current/updated classification data is missing for all full text collections, though originally-published data is present. |
| Family Data | QPat |
| Inpadoc Family Data Coverage | Yes |
| Types of Family Definition | PlusPat families (document publication stages), FamPat families (every document must share exactly the same priority data w/some exceptions), and extended INPADOC families |
| Derwent WPI Family Coverage | No |
| Citation Data | QPat |
| Backward Citations | Yes |
| Forward Citations | Yes |
| Citation Data Coverage | US, EP, WO/PCT, JP, AP, AU, BE, CH, CY, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, IT, LU, NL, SG, TR |
| Special Features of Citation Search | Backward citations can be viewed in bibliographic data, while forward citations can be found via the "citation search" form. The "citation search" feature pulls citations from/to the entire FamPat patent family. A dynamic citation mapping feature is included. |
| Citation Visualization Tool | Yes, presented in a dynamic graphical tool which allows users to jump to other patents, display assignees, and selectively show citations by relevance code (X, Y, etc.) |
| Legal Status Data | QPat |
| Legal Status Data Included | Yes |
| Legal Status Data Sources | INPADOC and PATOLIS-e for JP patent legal status (separate subscription req'd), plus links to national registers: AU, CA, CH, CN, EP, GB, KR, US, WO/PCT |
| Classification Data | QPat |
| Current US Class | Yes |
| Original US Class | Yes |
| 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, UK national patent classification, Dutch classification, Locarno for designs, enhanced F-I/F-terms from PATOLIS |
| Search Interface Functionality | QPat |
| Search Form | Yes |
| Command Line Style Interface | Yes |
| Index Browsing Feature | Yes |
| Allowed Operators | Boolean and proximity operators are available. Proximity operators include sentence and paragraph based operators and both fixed-order and non-order-specific operators which allow users to define the maximum distance between terms. In addition, a field-specific operator searches for two terms appearing in the same field. |
| Truncation | Limited and unlimited left, right, and internal truncation and SLART are supported. At least one operator can represent 0-or-1 characters. |
| Unique Features of the Search Interface | Search form translates queries into command language; the "multi-lingual" search form translates queries into German and French; the similarity search form automatically searches ECLA class on subject patent. |
| Viewing Results | QPat |
| Max Hit List Size | Unlimited |
| Single Representative Image | Yes |
| View Full Document Image | Yes, full document images are obtained by downloading the image. User settings allow the image to open in a new window, or be accessed from the user's PDF "portfolio." |
| Patent Drawing Thumbnail Overview | Yes |
| Family Sorting | Yes, hit lists may be collapsed by FamPat family when the search returns fewer than 5,000 documents. When searching in FamPat, search results are always presented as FamPat families |
| Sorting by Other Criteria | Yes, hit lists can be sorted by assignee, title, FamPat representative document number or publication number, publication date, and user-defined starred/unstarred status. A relevancy ranking algorithm is used to display 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 6 different colors are available. |
| Highlighting Feature Supports Proximity Operators | Yes |
| Save Custom Lists From Search Results | Yes, up to 2,500 patent families may be saved into a workfile at a time; viewing these files requires an additional subscription based on volume. Saving more than 2,500 documents can result in additional charges for data storage. |
| Combining Custom Patent List | No, however, in Patent Examiner (subscription required) users can "cut" records out of one saved file and "paste" them into another. |
| Unique Features of The Record View | Full text is broken up into tabbed sections; various display formats, including KWIC and Classification formats, control what data is shown in main view; FamPat family members shown with external links to esp@cenet mosaic, EPO register, and file history ordering service. |
| Search History | QPat |
| Saving Search Queries | Yes, queries are automatically stored in the active search history. Queries may be saved individually, or session activity may be saved as scripts. The active search history is deleted if the user switches to a new collection. |
| Organizing Search Queries | Yes, individual queries may be saved all together as a script. However, there is no way to organize search histories by moving individual queries. |
| Stored Search Query Expiration Time | Unsaved queries are cleared each day at 3am GMT. Saved queries do not expire. |
| Combining Search Queries | Yes |
| Exporting Search Histories | Yes, the "session log" may be exported as a search history, however, these logs do not contain information such as which collections were searched, or the date and time the searches were executed. |
| Alerts | Yes, both traditional alerts and RSS feeds are available. |
| Import, Export and Download | QPat |
| Import List of Document Numbers | Yes, up to 100 document numbers may be pasted into the import window at one time. |
| Export Document Data | Yes, up to 2,500 documents may be exported (may be extended upon request). Links to registers, PDF, drawings mosaics and dynamic citation graph are available (no login/password required). User-defined fields and annotations may be exported (from PatentExaminer workfiles). |
| Formats for Export Data | CSV, PDF, RTF, TXT, XML, exports are also BizInt SmartCharts ® compatible |
| Individual Patent Copy Downloading | Yes |
| Bulk Patent Copy Downloading | Yes, up to 200 patent copies may be downloaded at once. Pricing is determined by subscription agreement and can be on a flat-fee basis. |
| File Format for Patent Copy Downloads | PDF only |
| Analysis | QPat |
| Statistical Analysis | Yes |
| Graphs | Yes |
| Keyword Analysis | No |
| Customer Support | QPat |
| Cost/Usage Tracking | Yes |
| On-Site Training | Yes |
| Scheduled Web Seminars | No |
| Live Help | Yes |
| Online User Guide | Yes |
| Pricing | QPat |
| Pricing Policy | QPat offers pricing based on the number of individual "seats" necessary. Contracts are available online. The service's sales representative can customize subscription options to meet individual company needs. |
| Assessment | QPat |
| Primary System Strengths | Family citation search; unlimited left-truncation; machine translated content (replaced by hand translations when available in some cases); full text machine-assisted translated CN collection; user-defined highlighting; interactive analysis module; view full text and images side-by-side in Patent Examiner (subscription req'd). |
| Weaknesses and Annoyances | Family grouping can only be performed on 5,000 documents or fewer when using individual files; full text records are divided up into segments, slowing review time; confusing array of bibliographic display choices; search history can be accidentally erased by switching files. |
| Overall Assessment | The tool is one of the only systems to offer the unique FamPat file, with its exclusive definition of patent families. Although the actual data coverage should be similar to INPADOC, this family database is divided into much smaller family units. |
| Company Strength | Questel-Orbit has a long history as an information provider. Their products include QPat, QWeb, Questel on Imagination, Designfinder, and Merged Markush Service (MMS), and trademark, law and docketing products. In 2007 the company was acquired by SG Capital Europe in an LBO operation. |
