Help on the Boolean Search Page

This page contains information on how to use the Boolean Search Page. If, after reading this page, you have an unanswered question, please read the FAQ. If your question isn't answered there, please mail the help desk.

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The Boolean Search page allows you to search the patent database using simple two-term boolean search. There are 8 steps to using the Boolean search page:

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.
Enter a term in the TextEntry box labeled Term 1
Select what field to apply Term 1 to from the menu labeled Field 1 just below the Term 1 box.
Select a boolean operator from the menu labeled Operator between the two Term Boxes.
Enter a term in the TextEntry box labeled Term 2
Select what field to apply Term 2 to from the menu labeled Field 2 just below the Term 2 box.
Choose how you want the results ranked by selecting either the Chronologically or By Relevance radio buttons.
Hit the Search button.

Some things to Note:

If you want to search for a single term, skip steps 4-6.
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. See the advanced search help page for help on using it. 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 select 'Current US Class' from the 'Field' menu. Just searching for 382/100 in all fields 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 Boolean Search page provides a simple interface to the database for two term searches only. The features available from the Boolean Search page are:

Simple Boolean Expressions

You can use the Boolean search page to compose two-term boolean queries with simple, easy-to-use tools. A boolean search is simply one where you specify that a specific relationship must exist between the two terms you provide. You can specify that either both must be true (the AND operator) at least one must be true (the OR operator), the first must be true and the second false (the ANDNOT operator), or that at least one must be true, but not both (the XOR operator). Some Examples will help clarify.

Example 1

If you entered portable in the Term 1 box, toilet in the Term 2 box and selected AND from the Operator menu, you'd receive back a list of all patents which contain both the word portable and toilet somewhere on the indexed page.

Example 2

If you entered automobile in the Term 1 box, motorcycle in the Term 2 box and selected OR from the Operator menu, you'd receive back a list of all patents which contain either the word automobile or the word motorcycle somewhere on the indexed page.

Example 3

If you entered hypodermic in the Term 1 box, needle in the Term 2 box and selected ANDNOT in the Operator menu, you'd receive back a list of all patents which contain the word hypodermic somewhere on the indexed page but do not have the word needle in them.

Example 4

If you entered cat in the Term 1 box, dog in the Term 2 box, and selected XOR in the Operator menu, you'd receive back a list of all patents which contain either cat or dog somewhere on the indexed page, but don't have both cat and dog.

Note that it is not required for you to fill in the Term 2 box. If the box is left empty, the Search will proceed just using the single term provided. Using this feature in conjunction with selecting a field allows for a simple way to search only in specific fields within each patent.

Field Searching

The Boolean Search page allows you to search within the individual fields found within the patents. You can find a list of all indexed fields in the menu below the Term 1 and Term 2 TextEntry boxes.

To narrow your search to hits occurring within a single field, just select which field you wish to search from the appropriate Field menu. If you don't select a field, the search will default to Any Field. If you need help searching in a particular field, see the Fielded Searching help page.

Example 1

Say you're looking for something patented by a person named Simpson and you know it had something to do with surfing. You'd enter Simpson in the Term 1 box, surfing in the Term 2 box, and select AND from the Operator menu. Then, select Inventor Name from the Field 1 menu below the Term 1 box (Since you think the inventor's name is Simpson), and Any Field from the Field 2 menu below the Term 2 box (since you're not sure which field surfing might appear in) and hit the Search button. Sure enough, patent #5,387,159 comes up.

Example 2

Say you already know the patent # (Let's use 5,387,159 again) and year of issue (95) and want to bring up the page for that patent. Just enter 5387139 in the Term 1 box and leave the Term 2 box empty. Select Patent Number from the Field 1 menu just below the Term 1 box, click on 'Specify', in the Select Database: menu, select 95 from the Specify list, then hit the Search button.

Phrase Searching

If you surround a group of words with quotation marks ("), everything surrounded by those "s will be treated as a single search term. That is, if you were searching for the phrase Vacuum Cleaner rather than vacuum or cleaner, you'd use: "Vacuum Cleaner" instead of just Vacuum Cleaner.

Date Range Searching

You can specify a range of dates you are interested in searching in, rather than having to specify a certain day or month to narrow your search. This feature is only available in date fields, such as Issue Date and Application Date. This is done by using the -> operator between two dates.

Example

Term 1: 11/1/1985->5/12/1986, Field 1: Issue Date

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

The Boolean Search page supports right truncation in queries. This allows you to use a wildcard on the right side of a search term, to match words that start with a certain string.

Example

If you searched for tele*, you'd get several hundred hits, as anything with words starting with tele anywhere in their text would match. Words like television, telephone and telecommunications would all match.

Result Ranking

You can select among two different ways to rank results, using the radio buttons switches in the lower left hand corner. The default ranking in chronological order. This will put newest patents (those with the highest numbers) first.

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.

Search Statistics

Detailed information about your results are available by clicking on the 'Search Summary' link at the top of each search results page. This will show how many times each of your terms occured in how many documents, and the intermediate results of applying all of your specified boolean operators. Also, the total time required to conduct the search is listed. This information should assist you in refining your search.

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