Advanced Search Help

Functionality

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

Select a database to search from by checking either the All or Week of button.
Select the Full Text button if you wish to search the full text of Claims and Descriptions as well as bibliographic text.
Type your query into the text entry box.
Select your preferred display formats under results.
Hit the Search button.

Some things to note about Search Results:

The Refine Search 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.

Field Searching

The Advanced search page allows you to search within the individual fields found within documents. You can access a list of all indexed fields from the 'Field Codes' link at the top of the Search page. 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 bibliographic text, will be searched (for your search term) if you have selected the Front Page option. By including the CL/ or DE/ field codes before each search term, it is also possible to search the claims and description, respectively, within the Front Page option. Or, if you have selected Full Text and you do not specify a field code, the entire front page bibliographic text and the available full text of claims and descriptions will be searched. Examples of field search queries follow:

WO/02/00157	This will search for the publication number 02/00157
AN/PCT/GB98/02590	This will search for the application number PCT/GB98/02590
IN/Dobbs	This will search for the word Dobbs within the Inventors Name field of the database. Occurrences of the search term anywhere else in the text will be ignored.
IC/H04Q-7/22	This query searches for the IPC H04Q 7/22, and will return a list of all documents with an IPC that matches that class.
DE/needle AND DE/phonograph	This query searches for applications containing both needle and phonograph in the available full text of the description of the invention. Claims and other text fields are not searched.
PA/Motorola AND et/radiation	As this example demonstrates, you can mix field searching with boolean searching. This query would return a list of hits which contain Motorola in the Applicant Name field, and the word radiation in the English Title.

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

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. This allows you to search for a multi-word phrase rather than specifying each word as a separate term.

"printed board"	Searching on this phrase would return a list of all the documents which have the phrase printed board anywhere within the indexed text.
PA/"General Motors"	This query would find all occurrences of the phrase general motors within the Applicant Name field.

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 Publication Date, Priority Date and Application Date. This is done by using the -> operator between two dates.

DP/1.11.97->12.5.01

This query would return all documents in the database which were published any day on or after 1 Nov., 1997 and before or on 12 May, 2001.

Both dates in your query must be properly formatted for your search to work. Valid formats include:

YYYYMMDD (for example, 19981201)
DD.MM.YY or DD.MM.YYYY (for example, 1.12.97 or 1.12.1997)
DD/MM/YY or DD/MM/YYYY (for example, 1/12/97 or 1/12/1997)
DD-MM-YY or DD-MM-YYYY (for example, 1-12-97 or 1-12-1997)

Proximity Searching

The Advanced search page allows you to search for terms that occur near (currently, within 5 words of) one another.

radiation near detect*

This will search for the word radiation near an occurrence of the detect*. Contrast this with radiation and detect* where the two terms are not required to be in proximity to one another.

Right Truncation

The Advanced 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.

elec*	A query like this would return a great number of hits, as it would match documents with words like electricity, electric, electronic, etc.
*PA/"general mot" OR PA/Ford OR PA/Chrysler**	This query would return a list of all documents which contained Ford or Chrysler in the Applicant Name field, or which had a phrase beginning with General Mot there.

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.

virus AND antigen	If you entered this query, you'll receive back a list of all documents which contain both the terms virus and antigen anywhere on the indexed page.
television OR (cathode AND tube)	This query would return documents which contained either the word television OR contained both the words cathode AND tube.
needle ANDNOT ((record AND player) OR sewing)	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.
cat XOR dog	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.

Multi-Language Support

Each search and result page is available in a French, English and Spanish version. Clicking on the English, French or Spanish icons in the upper right hand corner of a page will switch your display mode to the language represented. For document display, field headings and document text are presented in the language selected.

Adjustable Display Format

The results menu at the top of the Advanced Search page allows the user to select how the results of a search should appear.

A menu allows you to select how many results to show on one results page. You can always use the 'Next X' and 'Previous X' hits button to move through all your results.
A checkbox labeled 'Separate window' allows you to have the individual documents from your result list displayed in a separate window from your list, allowing you to keep an overview while reading.
A series of check boxes labeled with field names (Pub. Date, Int. Class, etc.) allow you to select which items will be displayed on a search results page. Pub. No. and Title are included by default, but you can include as many of the available items as desired.

Interactive Search Query History

For users who create an account, a history is kept of the last 20 searches performed. Each history entry is assigned a number, listed along with a brief summary in the History frame, at the bottom of the page. History entries allow the user to click on the number next to a search and bring the results of that search up in the results window.

Four buttons below your list of history entries will allow you to update and maintain your historical list:

Pressing the Delete Entries button will permanently remove any entries you've checked off on your list. If an entry is marked Save it will not be removed.
Pressing the Mark Entries: Save button will set the Save mark on any entries you've checked off on your list. An entry marked Save will not be automatically deleted when you run out of room in your history list. Note: If all of your entries have been marked as saved, and you attempt to add another entry, it will be lost.
Pressing the Mark Entries: Update button will set the Update mark on any entries you've checked off on your list. An entry marked Update will be updated to reflect any changes that have been made to the database since the original search was performed whenever you push the Update Entries button.
Pressing the Update Entries button will update any entries marked Update to reflect any changes that have been made to the database since the original search was performed.

Note: Marking an entry Save or Update that already has that mark will remove the mark.

Result Ranking

You can select among two different ways to rank results, using the toggle switches in the lower left hand corner. The default ranking in chronological order. This will put newest documents (those published more recently) 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 occurred 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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