Report:Google Patent Search/Data Coverage/Summary

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Report

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System Data
Overview
Major Recent Updates
System Features
Data Coverage
- Summary
- Patent Coverage
Search Interface
- The Search Forms
Search Syntax
- Searchable Datafields
- Allowed Operators
  - Boolean and Proximity Operators
  - Truncation or Wildcard Operators
- Summary of Limitations
Viewing Results
Import, Export, and Download
- Import and Export Functions
- Downloads
Search History Interface
Usability
Company Strength
Customer Support
- Online Help Features
Security
Pricing
Other Features
Sources and Notes
Revisions

<< System Features | Full Text Coverage >>

Data Coverage

Full Text Coverage

Country Code	Document Types	Dates of Coverage
US	Granted Patents	Claimed coverage: 1790-mid 2006 Actual coverage: Earliest available document has filing date of 1809; current coverage extends through 2007, suggesting the content is being updated.
US	Published Applications	Start date could not be verified, but it's likely that the entire collection from March 15, 2001 is available, to the date of last update.

Other Coverage

Citations: The system contains citation data that has been gathered from information printed on the patents themselves; citation relationships are then represented in the database by forward/backward hyperlinks to the cited/citing patents.

Legal Status: No legal status data is present in the system.

Family Data: No family data is present in the system (beyond priority and continuity information that can be viewed on the patent copies themselves).

Document Images: The system hosts PDF patent copies of all records. In addition, a unique feature of the system is that electronic full text records may be viewed in the context of the complete document image (PNG file), allowing users to view the patent drawings and browse highlighted keyword hits from the same screen.

Bibliographic Coverage

Google Patent Search contains full text collections of US published applications and granted patents. These collections naturally also contain bibliographic data. The US published application coverage could not be verified, but is likely comprehensive back to the first published applications issued in March of 2001. The US granted collection is said to extend back to the early 1790s, which would make it a more extensive collection than both the INPADOC bibliographic file and MicroPatent PatentWeb/Thomson Innovation full text collections, which extend back to 1836.

However, due to errors introduced during the scanning and subsequent OCR digitization process, some of the bibliographic records in Google Patent Search have been shown to be garbled, missing, or incorrect.

Editor's Note:

Although a formal study has not taken place, anecdotal evidence suggests that the US bibliographic data in the INPADOC file (which is hosted by most commercial search systems) and Thomson Reuters collections (which were first digitized by Corporate Intelligence, Inc.) may be of much higher quality than the Google Patent Search collection throughout. Users should be wary of relying on Google Patents when a comprehensive bibliographic search is needed.