| System Data | Qweb |
| Owner Name | Questel-Orbit |
| Intellogist Report | Qweb |
| 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 | Qweb |
| Customer Support Email | help@questel.com |
| Tool Type | Patent Search Systems, Non-Patent Data Provider, Commercial/Pay Databases |
| Interface Language | English |
| Rating | Qweb |
| |
| Overall Rating |
Rating: 3.0/5 (1 vote) |
| Data Coverage Rating |
Rating: 4.5/5 (4 votes) |
| Document Delivery Rating |
Rating: 3.3/5 (3 votes) |
| Import/Export Functions Rating |
Rating: 4.0/5 (2 votes) |
| Value Rating |
Rating: 3.5/5 (2 votes) |
| Usability Rating |
Rating: 3.0/5 (2 votes) |
| Interface Functionality Rating |
Rating: 4.7/5 (3 votes) |
| Search Accuracy Rating |
Rating: 4.7/5 (3 votes) |
| Company Strength Rating |
Rating: 4.5/5 (2 votes) |
| Customer Support Rating |
Rating: 4.7/5 (3 votes) |
| |
| Data Coverage | Qweb |
| 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 | Available for most patent document collections; complete coverage information not given. |
| Representative/Front Page Images | Available for most patent document collections; complete coverage information not given. |
| Full Patent Drawing Sets | Available for most patent document collections; complete coverage information not given. |
| Corporate Tree Data |  No |
| Non-Patent Coverage | Yes |
| Non-Patent Sources | LitAlert; Compendex; Inspec; PASCAL; ALIT, TULSA, WPAM (related to the petroleum industry); many others. |
| Special Indexing | Yes; for some specialized files such as Inspec and Compendex. |
| 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 patent collection, gaps in coverage may exist but have not been discovered or quantified. |
| Family Data | Qweb |
| 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), extended INPADOC families, and DWPI families. |
| Derwent WPI Family Coverage | Yes |
| Citation Data | Qweb |
| 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 | Citation data can be extracted for any record in any system at any time with the CITED command. |
| Citation Visualization Tool | No |
| Legal Status Data | Qweb |
| Legal Status Data Included | Yes |
| Legal Status Data Sources | INPADOC legal file; comprehensive JP legal status; LitAlert; IFI Claims legal status |
| Classification Data | Qweb |
| 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 |
| Search Interface Functionality | Qweb |
| Search Form | No |
| 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. Browsing/display indexing operators are also available. |
| Truncation | Depending on the file chosen, truncation is available in limited and unlimited formats for left, right or internal truncation. |
| Unique Features of the Search Interface | Modern, updated take on a classic command line environment. |
| Viewing Results | Qweb |
| Max Hit List Size | Unlimited. |
| Single Representative Image | Yes |
| View Full Document Image | PDF download available for most documents. |
| Patent Drawing Thumbnail Overview | No |
| Family Sorting | Yes |
| Sorting by Other Criteria | Yes; any field can be sorted with the SORT command. |
| Deduplication | Yes |
| On-the-Fly Machine Translations | No |
| Keyword Term Highlighting | Yes |
| Keyword Term Navigation | No |
| User-Defined Highlighting | No |
| Highlighting Feature Supports Proximity Operators | No |
| Save Custom Lists From Search Results | Yes; records can be saved. |
| Combining Custom Patent List | Yes |
| Unique Features of The Record View | Different levels of information can be displayed for varying costs. |
| Search History | Qweb |
| Saving Search Queries | Yes |
| Organizing Search Queries | Yes; search histories can be modified. |
| Stored Search Query Expiration Time | Once saved, stored searches do not expire. |
| Combining Search Queries | Yes |
| Exporting Search Histories | Yes |
| Alerts | Yes |
| Import, Export and Download | Qweb |
| Import List of Document Numbers | No |
| Export Document Data | Yes |
| Formats for Export Data | TXT, HTML, RTF, PDF, XML |
| Individual Patent Copy Downloading | Yes |
| Bulk Patent Copy Downloading | Yes |
| File Format for Patent Copy Downloads | PDF or hardcopy by mail |
| Analysis | Qweb |
| Statistical Analysis | Yes |
| Graphs | No |
| Keyword Analysis | No |
| Customer Support | Qweb |
| Cost/Usage Tracking | Yes |
| On-Site Training | Yes |
| Scheduled Web Seminars | No |
| Live Help | Yes |
| Online User Guide | Yes |
| Pricing | Qweb |
| Pricing Policy | Pricing is based on the number of individual "seats" necessary, but this is a nominal fee. Search charges are incurred on a transactional (pay-per-use) basis, including connect time. Contracts and pricing sheets are available online. |
| Assessment | Qweb |
| Primary System Strengths | Proprietary FamPat patent family organization; flexible command line search; wide variety of files available to search. |
| Weaknesses and Annoyances | Connect hour and pay-per-record-view pricing system expensive and cumbersome for new users. Command line interface also unfriendly for new users. |
| Overall Assessment | Qweb is a powerful system for users comfortable with the connect hour fee structure. However, potential users should evaluate this product next to the STN and DialogClassic data collections to determine which vendor offers the fullest data collection for the target technology or industry. |
| 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. |
