The Advanced Search page allows you to make a case-insensitive query of the patent database using a command-line style search syntax. There are 4 steps to using the advanced search page:

1. Select which database to search from the Select Database list.
   Clicking the 'All' radio button will search all our database at once and clicking the 'Specify' button will allow you to pick a year or range of years to search from the menu beside it.
2. Type your query into the TextEntry box marked Query:
3. Choose how you want the results ranked by selecting either the Chronologically or the By Relevance Radio button.
4. Hit the Search button.

Some things to Note:

• The search is case-insensitive. Searching for Needle and searching for needle will produce the same results.
• The Refine Query box uses the same search syntax as the advanced search page. The refined search is automatically conducted in the same database as your original search.
• The Start At box allows you to enter a number to skip to in your search results list. For long search results lists, entering '250' in the Start At box is easier than hitting the 'Next 50 Hits' button 5 times.
• For some terms, you must specify the field to search in to get the hits you expect. For instance, if you're searching for patents classified in class 382/100, you must search for CCL/382/100. Just searching for 382/100 will not turn up hits in this field. If you are having difficulty searching for a specific field, please see the fielded search help page.

The Advanced Search page provides the greatest flexibility for complex searches of the Patent databases.
These features include:

• complex boolean expressions
• field searching
• phrase searching
• date range searching
• right truncation
• results sets in chronological order
• results sets in relevance-ranked order
• search statistics

Complex Boolean Expressions

You can use the Advanced Search page to create and execute complex boolean queries using an infix notation. In plain English, you can generate queries that use the boolean operators (OR, AND, ANDNOT, XOR) to specify your search in interesting ways. Along with these operators, you can use parentheses to remove ambiguity from your expressions.

Example 1

If you entered this query, you'll receive back a list of all patents which contain both the terms whoopee and cushion somewhere on the indexed page.

Example 2

This query would return patents which contained either the word television OR contained both the words cathode AND tube.

Example 3

This complex query generates a list of hits that contain the word needle, but don't contain any references to sewing. None of the hits would contain the combination of record AND player, either.

Example 4

This query would generate a list of hits that contain either cat or dog but not both.

In general, boolean searches are fairly straight-forward. In the absence of parentheses, all operators associate from left to right, as you might expect.

Field Searching

To narrow your search to hits occurring within a single field, prefix the word you are searching for with the abbreviated field name, followed by a forward slash (/). If you do not specify a specific field to search within, the entire front page will be searched for your search term. If you need help with fielded searching, see the Fielded Searching help page.

Example 1

This will search for the word Dobbs within the Inventors Name field of the Patents Database. Occurrences of the search term anywhere else on the front page will be ignored.

Example 2

This query searches for the Class/Subclass combination 270/31, and will return a list of all patents which match that class.

Example 3

As this example demonstrates, you can mix field searching with boolean searching. This query would return a list of hits which contain MCNC in the Assignee Name field, and the word solder in the Title.

Note that field names are not associative. That is, ttl/(nasal or nose) does not mean 'patents which have nose or nasal in the title'. ttl/nasal or ttl/nose is the correct phrasing.

Phrase Searching

Example 1

Searching on this phrase would return a list of all the patents which have the phrase bowling balls anywhere within the indexed text.

Example 2

This query would find all occurrences of the phrase general motors within the Assignee Name field.

Example

This query would return all patents in the database which were issued any day on or after Nov. 1, 1985 and before or on May. 12, 1986. If your range is just all the patents issued in a particular year, you will get fater results just by selecting that year as the database to search instead of specifying all the dates in that year as a range.

Both dates in your query must be properly formatted for your search to work. See the help entries on Issue Date and Application Date for details.

Right Truncation

Example 1

A query like this would return tons of possible hits, as it would match patents with words like, electricity, electric, electronic, etc.

Example 2

This query would return a list of all patents which contained Ford or Chrysler in the Assignee Name field, or which had a phrase beginning with General Mot there.

Result Ranking

Relevance ranked searches return a list of results in the order of most relevant to least relevant. A complex information science algorithm is used to determine which documents most closely match your submitted query and ranks these above documents which have a lower relevance score.

Questions or Comments about the Patent Search Pages?
Mail them to www@ptodata.com