Yes, You Can Search Patents using Numeric Property Ranges!

As a reference librarian I frequently get questions about patent search tools and their capabilities.  A request I hear often is “how can I search patent data using a numeric property range?”

If you’re a chemist you have a nice option in Reaxys, or Reaxysfile on STN, but this file is strictly chemistry – it does not cover engineering and mechanical topics.  And you may have heard of Knovel, a non-patent search product that allows property range searching in textbooks.

But where can one find a patent collection with searchable property ranges?  This kind of search is possible in the full text PCT, Australian and Canadian collections on STN.  Read more to find out about the PCTFULL, CAFULL and AUFULL files that have been produced by STN distributor FIZ Karlsruhe.

Top 5 PatBase Update Highlights

A full review of the PatBase System Report on Intellogist was recently completed, and now you can check out all the new updates that have been added to PatBase.  From new full-text country coverage to a Visual Explorer tool, PatBase has added patent data and new search, viewing, and analysis features to improve your patent search experience.  We’ve mentioned that the PatBase updates were some of the best patent search gifts of 2011, so let’s explore a few of these innovative features.

After the jump, learn about the top five PatBase updates in the fully-reviewed PatBase System Report!

A Concept Identification and Visualization Tool for Patent Analysts: Leximancer

Leximancer is an automated text-mining tool produced by an Australian company of the same name, and I recently had the opportunity to test an online version of the tool called LexiPortal.  Leximancer creates detailed lists of concepts and tags prevalent in a set of documents or data, and the user can then customize the concept lists and create a “concept map” or generate a report through the Insight Dashboard.  Although I experienced some problems with uploading documents in the trial version of this system, the tool still may be very useful to patent analysts who want to identify common themes within a set of patent documents.

After the jump, learn about the different versions of Leximancer, how to access the tool, and read about my experience testing the trial version of LexiPortal!

5 Patents for Sports Fans

Danny Rooney here. Manchester United is the team my fake fifth cousin Wayne plays for, and therefore I despise everything about Liverpool FC (except Steve McManaman…great name). Not just for footballing reasons though, although who wouldn’t prefer America’s team (Everton FC), just a 5 minute walk away from Anfield. Everton is the home of Tim Howard, Marcus Hahnemann, Landycakes (Landon Donovan), and possibly Edson Buddle. Still, it’s not quite FulhAmerica of a few years ago. Also, I’ve always been more of a Rolling Stones fan than a Beatles fan. The reason I mention Liverpool FC is because they have been dropped by Adidas (ha, ha!) (the manufacturer of their jerseys), and picked up by Michigan-based Warrior Sports.

Now that I am within shouting distance of the jersey manufacturer for a European soccer club, today seemed like a good day to take a look at some of the best sports apparel that has graced the patent office.

A Quick Guide to Changes on the USPTO Homepage

The patent searchers and patent analysts at Landon IP need to stay up-to-date on the latest patents news, and the most accurate news is usually found by going directly to the source: patent office websites.  For US patent news, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) website is the go-to source for the latest developments in US patent law, examination procedures, and USPTO-produced patent search tools.  The USPTO website also provides valuable search resources and information on US trademarks and other IP law and policy.

The homepage of the USPTO website is a portal that should allow the user to quickly navigate to their desired resource, and this portal recently got a drastic makeover in late December.  How did this makeover change the navigation features and news available on the USPTO homepage?

After the jump, we’ll take a look at the changes to layout, navigation, and news features on the homepage of the USPTO website!

Updates at Patexia: Search IP Lawsuits, Statistics, News, and Company IP Portfolios

We’ve discussed the free visualization tools for US patent data available through the Patexia website in a previous blog post; Patexia is a patent search site that allows users to create customized graphs visualizing search results of both US patent applications (2001-present) and granted patents (1976 to present).   Now, Patexia has even more to offer.  Patexia recently released a number of updates to their website (described in this press release), including:

• New IP research tools: search and create visualizations of IP lawsuits (from 2005 to present) and 2011 patent statistics.
• Company IP portfolios: View intellectual property information on specific companies, including granted US patents, US applications, IP lawsuits, a summary of the company, and the option to follow any updates on the company.
• Nova News: According to the press release, the Nova News Feed, “which delivers content from internal and external sources, now covers innovation news of over 800 corporate and research institutions from the United States, Japan, and Germany.”

Other improvements to the site include access to US patent applications (2001-present) in the IP Research section, all content generated by members accessible within the Nova section, and an improved online community interface.

Read on to discover the new tools available through Patexia, including search of IP lawsuits, statistics, company IP portfolios, and an innovative IP news feed.

Free Asian Patent Searching Information from the EPO Virtual Helpdesk

Here at Intellogist, we’ve always prided ourselves on reaching out to the global patent community. As part of this we’ve done many posts on one of the fastest growing patent regions: Asia. In the past few months alone we’ve done posts commenting on translations, chemical and sequence searching in China, and lessons learned from PATINEX 2011 in Korea.

Our sponsor, Landon IP knows that it’s more important than ever to incorporate Asian sources into any prior art search, and not just stick to the same old US and EP databases that English language searchers might be used to.

Intellogist reflects this belief, with resources such as the Interactive Patent Coverage Map for finding patent information around the world. Our Community Reports page is another great place to find niche search systems and tools; check out our China Patent Search tagged articles for example.

With this global focus in mind, let’s take a look at one of our favorite Asian patent information resources on the web: the EPO’s Asian Patent Information Virtual Helpdesk.

Read on to find out about how the Virtual Helpdesk can assist you with finding answers to your common questions, information about grant procedure and numbering, statistics on filing, and even a starter for your next patent search.

Google Translate vs. Bing Translator, Part 2: Chinese and Japanese Machine Translations

Last week, we compared the language options and interface features of Google Translate and Bing Translator (powered by Microsoft Translator), and we looked at examples of German and Korean patent document abstracts, translated from their original languages to English by both translation services.  We then compared the text of both translations for each abstract using a text comparison feature from the file history tool Patent Workbench®, where text that is present in the Google translation but absent from the Bing translation is highlighted in strike-through red, text that is unique to the Bing translation is highlighted in underlined green, and text common to both translations is displayed as normal black text.

After the jump, we’ll look at two more examples of Chinese and Japanese abstracts, translated by both Google Translate and Bing Translator to English.  We’ll also get some input from Sonja Olson,  Landon IP’s Director of Translation Services, on which translation service she thinks produces better machine translations for patent documents.

An Incredible Free Patent Citation Search and Analysis Tool: The CCD

Citation search and analysis tools are available in many subscription patent databases; PatBase allows users to view both patent and non-patent literature citations for entire patent families, and users can view the citations graphically through “citation trees.” A July 2011 update to PatBase added the additional features of a citation timeline and citation line graph.

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if there was a patent citation tool, with similar functions to the PatBase citation features, that was also free?  Thanks to the EPO, JPO, and USPTO, such a tool now exists.  The Common Citation Document (CCD) allows users to view documents cited by the EPO, USPTO, JPO, and PCT citations for patent families related to a specific patent application.  The CCD application includes the capability to view full-text of cited patent documents, the division of cited documents in a list by source of citation and connection to a specific patent application, the category of relevance for EPO citations,  a compilation of “classifications and fields searched” for an entire patent family, and a timeline view to illustrate the time span for a collection of citations.

Read on for a detailed description of the coverage, features, and functions of the CCD application!

Patents for Working Out at the Workplace

Well, we’re still here. I guess the Mayans were wrong. Who would have expected that the end of the world wouldn’t have actually occurred except for Harold Camping …wait, what’s that? The Mayans actually predicted that December 21 was the date in question? And it’s really just the end of a cycle and not the end of the world? John Cusack, how could you let me down like that? I haven’t been this disappointed in you since Hot Tub Time Machine.

The New Year is a time for deep reflection and creating resolutions based upon said deep reflection. But who are we kidding…everyone’s top two resolutions are losing weight and making more money. I can’t help you out with the later unless you are interested in some real estate that also happens to cross a body of water, but I can help you lose those holiday pounds fueled by booze, cubed cheese, cookies, and processed meat-based substances using products that Billy Mays would have been proud to shoot at you while watching TV at 3 am on a Tuesday.

Read all about the exciting world of workout-while-at-work patents ahead!