Introduction
The following section contains subjective comments about the system that represent our editor's opinions, and should not be viewed as fact. Editor's opinions include positive and negative judgments about the product written in consideration of wider context, including related products and the industry at large. Further subjective information is presented in clearly labeled "Editor's Notes" throughout the report.
Although the search input interfaces are designed to accommodate the novice searcher, Delphion’s search features are flexible and advanced. The operator sections below go into detail about allowed operators, including the weighting and relevancy ranking features available in Delphion.
In addition, data integration within Delphion may promote search accuracy by including other collection data in a search for only certain documents. Although the database is designed for searching by country-specific collection, Delphion’s approach to patent information is inclusive, designed to integrate records with their family data. For example, the “integrated view” display style for full-text record viewing been designed to include INPADOC family data right in the display (even when INPADOC is not selected as a searchable collection, this data is still displayed as part of a patent record). Additionally, according to help file materials, Delphion will substitute a closely-related family member’s abstract into records without a searchable abstract.
From the Help File:
- “If the patent you have requested does not contain an abstract, and another patent with the same number but a different kind code does have an abstract, then the abstract will be shown on the Delphion Integrated View. In addition, this ‘replacement’ abstract will be searchable. When this occurs, the Delphion Integrated View will show ‘from equivalent’ and the patent number of the equivalent (which will be linked to that patent's Integrated View).”
