Report:PatBase Express/Search Interface/The Search Forms

The Search Forms

Express offers five different search forms:

1) A basic search for entering keywords and/or names

2) A number search for entering a patent, application, or priority number

3) An advanced search for detailed searching and the option to combine the current search with a previous query

4) A non-Latin search for keyword searching in a variety of fields, by, assignee, or by inventor in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, or Thai

5) A Boolean search for keywords within a variety of categories and the option to combine the current search with a previous query

The basic search form is for the most novice users, allowing for searching using keywords or names. Dates and countries searched can be narrowed down by a few categories. This form allows limited usage of the regular PatBase’s operators such as Boolean operators and parenthesis. Stemming is automatically added to your search criteria, and (unless otherwise set by the system administrator) the basic keyword form will search the title, abstracts, and claims.^[1] Words entered into the form are treated as using the AND operator. If a word, phrase, or name is in quotation marks, then the system will search for that exact word/phrase/name only (in the keyword form, some word variation and stemming is still applied).^[1]

The Basic search form.

The "Names" field in the Basic Search form will auto-suggest appropriate names from the PatBase index as the user types.

The Names field autosuggests appropriate names.

The number search allows the user to enter one number to search. Entering multiple numbers will result in no results being returned. The type of record is specified in the Number type section (all, publication number, application number, or priority number). Unless a country code is added before the number, all records containing that number will be shown in the results.^[1]

The Number search form.

The advanced search form is similar to the regular PatBase search form; it offers the user a multitude of text fields for entering search parameters. Boolean and proximity operators can be used in the search fields. Parameters entered into different fields are automatically combined using the “and” operator. However, when multiple keywords are separated by spaces within a text box, the default operator is “adjacent” proximity operator; this ensures that the terms are searched as phrases. See Allowed Operators for more information.

Below is a list of each field as it appears in the figure below. A summary of the purpose and features has been added to some fields for further explanation.

• Menu 1: Dropdown menu: Fields of search. Options include: Full text; Claims, title & abstract; Title & abstract; Claims; Description; Examples.
• Assignee (PA) and Inventor (IN): An assignee or inventor search in PatBase will include both the standardized and non-standardized fields that exist in the underlying data. Users are encouraged to consider spelling variations. However, narrower searches can be created by using the underscore ( brown_a ), which ensures that the terms are found in fixed order (see the Other Operators section for more information). To run a search on exact names, users can enclose the name in quotes, or use the qualifier pae= (Exact Assignee Name) or ine= (Exact Inventor Name) in the command line. In this case, regular PatBase qualifiers work in PatBase Express. Boolean operators can be used in both of these fields.^[1]
• Publication number (PN): The publication number field does not allow any commas (since they represent the “OR” operator), and it does not like a space between country code and number. Additionally, this field appears to accept Boolean operators, so the user can search for multiple publication numbers in this field simultaneously.
• Publication date (PD)
• Priority number (PR): This field appears to accept Boolean operators, so the user can search for multiple priority numbers in this field simultaneously.
• Priority date (PRD)
• Application number (AP): This field appears to accept Boolean operators, so the user can search for multiple application numbers in this field simultaneously.
• Application date (APD)
• Publication country (CC): Enter the country code or multiple country codes. Boolean operators are accepted in this field (i.e. DE or US or WO).^[1]
• Kind Code (CCKD): Search the kind code of a document in conjunction with the country code (i.e. EPB* NOT EPB1). Boolean operators and truncation can be used in this field.
• Int. Classification
• EP Classification
• US Classification
• Combine with previous search statements: This feature, available as of March 2011,^[2] allows users to combine a search with any previous search queries from the current session, using Boolean operators AND/OR/NOT. This option is available when using the Advanced or Boolean search forms.^[2]

The Advanced search form, including the "Combine with previous search statements" option.

The non-Latin search form, available as of March 2011, allows users to search Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Russian, and Thai full-text documents for keywords (as well as Assignees and Inventors) in the original language.^[2] In the search form, the user can select the language and the fields in which the keyword search will be conducted (Full text; Claims, title & abstract; Title & abstract; Claims; Description). Boolean and proximity operators appear to be accepted in this form. Users can now also view non-Latin text contained in the patent through PatBase Express (see the Viewing Non-Latin Text Records section for more information).^[2]

The non-Latin search form.

The Boolean search form allows Boolean operation with the majority of the categories from the Advanced form. Boolean and proximity operators can even be used in each line coupled with the drop-down Boolean operators. This form is particularly helpful because it allows the user to utilize operators such as OR and NOT within the advanced categories, making for more detailed searching.

The Boolean search form.

Like the Advanced search form, the Boolean search now also includes a "Combine with previous search statement" option, where the user can select any previous query from the current session and combine it (using a drop-down menu of Boolean operators AND/OR/NOT) with the current query.

The Boolean search form, with the "Combine with previous search statement" option.

PatBase Express also offers a version of the search interface that only searches US patents. Accessed from a link at the bottom of the page, "PatBase Express USA" incorporates additional functionality for searchers only interested in US results.

Located at the bottom of the page, clicking the "Switch to: PatBase USA" link will change the interface to PatBase USA.

In the Basic interface, PatBase Express USA replaces the country selection buttons with three new buttons that narrow the search to "All US Documents," "US Applications," or "US Granted/issued patents."

The PatBase Express USA Basic search form, featuring three US-specific search options.

The Numbers search remains unchanged in the PatBase Express USA iteration of the interface.

The PatBase Express USA number search form.

The Advanced and Boolean search interfaces gain multiple checkboxes that restrict the searches to specific types of US patent documents. Both the Advanced and Boolean search forms also include the option to combine the current query with a previous search statement (using a drop-down menu of Boolean operators AND/OR/NOT). The only previous search statements which the user can select from are queries from the current session conducted within the PatBase USA interface.

The PatBase Express USA Advanced search form with US-specific checkboxes.

The PatBase Express USA Boolean search form with US-specific checkboxes.

Editor's Note:

The non-Latin search form brings a much-needed feature to the PatBase Express interface, since now users can search and view the original non-Latin text of patent documents in Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Korean, and Thai.