How Major Patent Search Systems will Implement the CPC

The full roll out of the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) is less than a month away, and the classification search options for US and EP patent publications will soon change drastically for prior art searchers.  After January 1, 2013, the CPC will completely replace ECLA, and all US published applications will carry CPC classifications.  The EPO and USPTO released a “CPC launch package” back in October which contained the complete CPC scheme, any finalized CPC definitions, and an ECLA-to-CPC-to-IPC concordance. The USPTO and EPO have been thoroughly preparing for the transition to the CPC, but how are the distributors of major patent search systems preparing for the implementation of the CPC?  From the Major Recent Updates sections of the Intellogist Reports, I’ve compiled a quick guide on how Espacenet, Orbit.com, TotalPatent, Thomson Innovation, PatBase, and Dialog will make the CPC searchable within each of their systems.

Continue reading to learn how each of these major patent search platforms will handle the new Cooperative Patent Classification!

New Chinese Interface and Chinese Granted Patents Translated into English on Thomson Innovation!

Last time Thomson Reuters added major updates to the Thomson Innovation system, the non-patent literature collection for the system was expanded to included Web of Science content back to 1898. The August 2012 update also included new and enhanced features like full-text article linking, ordering, and document delivery, enhanced ability to analyze non-patent literature, new literature search fields, and watched records for citation changes.  As of October 27, another set of updates for the system was included in Thomson Innovation Release 3.6. This release includes a new simplified Chinese interface, coverage for Chinese granted patents translated into English, extended coverage for English-translated Japanese granted patents and applications, Native Japanese patents to fill in gaps for other Japanese collections, EuroPCT transfer record gaps populated with claims from corresponding WO records, and in-line editing now available for Custom Fields.

After the jump, learn about the new simplified Chinese interface, translated Chinese granted patent coverage, and other new features available from the October 2012 release of Thomson Innovation!

Broad Non-Patent Literature Coverage on Thomson Innovation

The Thomson Innovation System Report on Intellogist was fully reviewed and updated earlier in October, and last month I highlighted some of the major updates to non-patent literature search features on Thomson Innovation. Today I’d like to take a step back and highlight the unique non-patent literature (NPL) coverage available on Thomson Innovation, one of the only major patent search platforms to host a broad NPL collection.  Large general content search platforms, such as STN and Dialog, do host both patent and NPL files, but these systems were not specifically designed for patent searchers and analysts.  Some major patent search platforms, such as TotalPatent and Orbit.com, offer access to patent litigation data, and TotalPatent also offers some links to Scopus records for non-patent literature references.  For the most part, however, search platforms designed specifically for patent searchers lack access to scientific and business literature.  Thomson Innovation is an exception, though, since it offers optional access to both a Business Collection and a Literature Collection, searchable on the Thomson Innovation interface.  Users even have the option to search the Patent, Business, and Literature collections simultaneously on Thomson, which may be useful when quickly scoping the possible patent and NPL prior art available for a broad validity search.

Continue reading to learn about the Literature and Business collections available on the Thomson Innovation platform, and how you can search both patent and non-patent literature simultaneously on Thomson Innovation!

Database Update Round-Up – European Patent Register and DWPI

Previously, we looked at updates to the Global Brand Database, SciFinder, and Google Patents, and today I have a fresh round of updates about two important resources for any patent professional: the European Patent Register and the Derwent World Patent Index (DWPI). The European Patent Register (formerly known as Register Plus) is the official register of legal status information for the European Patent Office, and it was recently updated in April with a variety of new features, bug fixes, and changes to both the user interface and back-end system.  Derwent World Patents Index® (DWPI) is a file of patent information produced by Thomson Reuters that “sources patent data from 47 patent-issuing authorities and 2 journal sources,” and the file contains many value-added special indexing features, including Derwent Titles and Abstracts, Derwent Assignee Codes, Derwent Families, Derwent Classes, Derwent Manual Codes, and Chemical Fragmentation Codes.  The DWPI file is available on numerous platforms, including Dialog, STN, and Thomson Innovation.  STN recently added numerical search options for the DWPI file, and DWPI has been discontinued on the Delphion platform.

After the jump, learn about the new features and interface changes to the European Patent Register, and we’ll also look at the new numerical search features for DWPI on STN and discontinuation of the file on Delphion.

Where to Find the Latest Search News and Database Updates

Search systems are changing constantly; just look at the recent updates to Compendex, Inspec, and PatBase.  How can you stay updated on the latest changes to both free and subscription search systems  for patent and non-patent literature?  Here at Intellogist, we have to constantly check a number of blogs and websites so that we can add the most recent system changes to the “Major Recent Updates” sections of our Intellogist Reports.  We also have to learn about the newest free and subscription search systems and databases to add to the growing list of Community Reports and resources listed on the Resource Finder.

Continue reading to learn about the best blogs and websites for finding the latest database and search system news!

How to Manage Patent Research Projects: Tracking

There are many aspects to patent searching that are important, yet non-obvious (pardon the pun). As I discussed in the “Top 5 Worst Mistakes in a Patent Search” post, two of the foundations to a good patent search are effective communication and management. Patent search projects can be complex and unwieldy if they are not properly and concisely organized.

To this end, it’s important that you and your team come up with a system to organize and track workflow during a patent search project. One of the easiest ways to do this is to utilize the project tracking features that your patent search system of choice employs. In many cases, sub accounts or project IDs are available to help monitor what (and how much) is getting done on that important job of yours.

Read along as I discuss how these tracking features can help you on your next project!

The Secret to Understanding Special Indexing in Derwent World Patents Index

The other day I was conducting a quick-and-dirty search in Thomson Innovation, and I started paying attention to the Derwent Manual Codes listed on my patent hits.  Normally, when you hover your mouse over a classification code in Innovation, a short heading for the class will pop up to give you an idea of what subject matter the class code pertains to.  That didn’t happen for these Manual Codes, and I started wishing for an easy-access DWPI class schedule.   Then, when cruising around the Thomson Reuters site, I found a huge resource that I had never been aware of before:  the DWPI Manual Code Lookup page.  I realized there was an entire page of supplemental reference tools for DWPI that I had never been aware of before – including a lookup tool for Derwent Patent Assignee Codes!

Why It’s Time to Change Your Patent Search System

Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken. Warren Buffet

Is your chosen patent search system meeting your needs? Could it be that it’s not meeting needs you don’t know exist? There are so many options out there when it comes to patent search systems it can be hard to decide which one is the right fit for you. Over at Intellogist®, we aim to solve this problem in a number of ways, from in-depth Intellogist Reports on leading search systems, to a Patent Search System Comparison tool designed to match up systems feature for feature, to providing Intellogist Consulting Services to help you make your unique system purchasing decision.

Today we’ll go over a few situations in which it might behoove you to recognize the chains of your patent searching habit, until they’re too heavy to be broken. Is your system outdated, too expensive, or coming up empty on the documents you need? Find out below!

Custom Fields in Patent Search Systems

It can be a big struggle for corporate IP departments to sort and label all of their patent data. Between granted patent holdings, applications in-process, and pre-application invention disclosures, there’s a lot of internal tracking going on. Add to this the process of monitoring technology areas by classification, keeping tabs on key competitor patent filings, and compiling prior art databases for defending or attacking patent lawsuits…well you can see how the data can runneth over. If we limit our focus in this post to discussing patent search systems, we run into a couple of dilemmas immediately: inconsistent data fields ranging over an array of patent documents and the even larger issue of trying to combine data fields from multiple search systems with different formats altogether.

What’s the solution to this cataloging problem? Although there is no one solution, an emerging solution in the patent information field is the addition of custom fields. Custom fields are a way that patent records can be annotated, collaborated on, searched, and tracked–all within a patent search system.

Read on to find out some specific advantages of a custom field system, see how Thomson Innovation has implemented this feature, and what competitors will also offer this feature!

Search Quirk of the Day

Every once in a while I am doing a project and come across the need to perform what I assume will be a simple task in my patent search software, and then find out that it just can’t be done.

I wanted to start highlighting and cataloging these little quirks, and I don’t mean to pick on any particular system. There have got to be dozens of instances of this kind of thing in most products, as designers can’t anticipate every possible way searchers will want to use these systems – but when a big workflow impediment comes up, it benefits us to document that and let our vendors know.