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!

How to Use PatentOptimizer™ Analytics to Filter Documents and Locate Keyword Variants within a Patent Result Set

LexisNexis® PatentOptimizer™ is a patent analysis tool created by LexisNexis, and it was designed to assist patent attorneys and agents when drafting patent documents.  The PatentOptimizer™ Analytics feature may additionally be of use to patent searchers, who can load a set of up to 2000 documents into the Analytics tool and granularly filter the result set by a wide variety of criteria in order to locate very specific subsets within the broader result set.  Searchers who have narrowed their result set down to a list of hundreds of relevant documents can use the Analytics tool to locate only key documents through the filter options. The Analytics tool can also be used to generate a thesaurus on the fly for selected sets of documents and locate all variations of each term/phrase listed in the thesaurus.  This feature may be used by searchers to identify various important keywords and synonyms in a relevant result set in order to expand their search queries.  In general, PatentOptimizer Analytics offers tools that can help patent searchers either narrow their result set (through the filters) or expand their result set (through the keyword variants in the on-the-fly thesaurus).

I recently had the opportunity to watch a demonstration of PatentOptimizer™ Analytics, so continue reading for an overview of the filter and thesaurus options which can help you narrow or expand your patent search results set!

Alert and Export Enhancements on TotalPatent, Plus Links to the European Patent Register!

Last time we looked at the TotalPatent System Report, a number of updates had been made to the patent search portal, including additional full text and bibliographic authorities, the ability for the Semantic Search feature to identify multiple concepts, increased download limits, a Merge tool to normalize data fields while analyzing the data, and improvements to the Work Folder feature. LexisNexis recently released another round of TotalPatent updates for October 2012, and we have a fresh overview of these enhancements provided by the LexisNexis website. The TotalPatent system now includes (or will eventually add) an export option for independent claims from US granted patents, links directly from EP records to the European Patent Register, better performance for displaying Work Folders and subfolders, and improvements to the alerts feature. Some of these enhancements seem to have been implemented, but the LexisNexis website is not particularly clear about the availability of these new features.

Stay up-to-date on the latest changes to the TotalPatent search system, and learn about recent export options, alert enhancements, and new European Patent Register links after the jump!

A Patent Analysis Tool For Merging Assignee Names in TotalPatent Charts

The semantic search option on TotalPatent is a unique tool for patent searchers which I highlighted in a previous post, so today I’d like to call attention to a new TotalPatent feature created specifically for patent analysis purposes: the Merge tool. TotalPatent includes an Analytics tab where users can create charts using saved datasets from search results, folders, or document retrieval results.  Users can now normalize the fields displayed in the charts by manually combining specific data points using the Merge tool.  This tool will be useful to patent professionals performing initial analysis of a patent dataset because users can merge equivalent assignee or inventor names and therefore generate a more accurate visualization of the dataset.  The visualization and data cleaning tools on TotalPatent are very simple and are no substitute for detailed patent landscape studies. The charts created under the TotalPatent Analytics tab shouldn’t be used to make important business or legal decisions, but they will provide an initial overview on certain aspects of the dataset through a simple visualization.

Continue reading for a closer look at how to use the Merge tool on TotalPatent can be used to combine equivalent assignee names!

4 Great Features of the Semantic Search on TotalPatent

The TotalPatent Intellogist Report was recently updated, and one of the more notable improvements to the search functions is that the Semantic Search feature on TotalPatent now identifies multiple concepts in a search query.  TotalPatent’s Semantic Search feature impressed the Intellogist writers who first tested it, since it allows users to re-rank terms and customize the semantic query before conducting the search.  This post will look at four of the innovative features of the TotalPatent Semantic Search tool which make it one of the best semantic search options for patent documents available today.

After the jump, read about four useful features of the Semantic Search on TotalPatent, including the options to view up to 30 extra suggested terms, re-rank any search terms, add your own search terms, and preview the 20 most relevant results before conducting the query!

Major Updates to TotalPatent!

TotalPatent (created by LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc) is a large player in the patent search system field, and the it’s undergone a number of major updates in the last year.  The TotalPatent System Report on Intellogist is now fully updated, and you can read in detail about the new coverage and features available on the TotalPatent interface.  Broader coverage has been added to TotalPatent, and the system’s bibliographic collection features 100 patent authorities, including 30 in full text. New analytical tools, such as the option to compare and analyze up to three search result sets, and new organizational options, like the ability to create sub-folders and search within a work folder, have also been added to TotalPatent.

After the jump, get a taste of the latest coverage, search, download, analysis, and organizational features available on TotalPatent that are featured in the updated System Report on Intellogist!

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!

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!

New Patent Search System: CPA Global Discover

Today, CPA Global launched their new patent search system: Discover. In a public webinar, CPA Global went over some of the more interesting features of this search system, which is “available exclusively to CPA Global’s corporate and law firm clients.” It was an alluring showing for a search system newcomer, displaying both industry standard features as well as a few forward looking aspects. Read on to hear our take on a couple of the features shown today.

Are you catching reassigned US patents in your search?

Update: This post has been edited to reflect that PatBase is jointly operated by Minesoft and RWS Group.

Experienced patent searchers know that searching for patent databases by company name is hard – and I mean really hard.  A company which owns a patent is called the patent “assignee” in the US.  Take a look at our assignee best practices wiki article over on the main Intellogist site to get an overview of some of the obstacles that can trip you up during this kind of search.

One thing that makes patent owner searching so difficult is simply that patents change hands, and when they do, the information published on the patent face is no longer correct.   Another difficulty is that these types of transactions are not always on record at the USPTO.  However, the USPTO does keep a US patent assignment database of all the transactions that they *have* been notified about.   And fortunately, patent search vendors can update their electronic databases with the new assignment information.  (by the way, as far as I know, US reassignment data is the only reassignment data that gets collected and added into commercial patent search products on a regular basis.)

Here is a quick summary of what some major commercial providers do with US reassignment data: