PatSeer Search Quick Start Guide

Table of Contents
Most Common Syntax Mistakes and their Correction ................................................................................ 2
The basics .................................................................................................................................................... 3
Publication and Family Searching ............................................................................................................... 6
Special symbols ......................................................................................................................................... 10
Search Examples ....................................................................................................................................... 10
Searching For Decimal, Percentage and Math Operators ........................................................................ 11
Plural Matching & Searching ..................................................................................................................... 13
Date Range Searching ............................................................................................................................... 14
Classification Tree/Sub-tree search .......................................................................................................... 14
Proximity Search ....................................................................................................................................... 15
Using Boolean with Proximity ................................................................................................................... 16
Hit Cutoff Query ........................................................................................................................................ 17
Minimum Must Match Query ................................................................................................................... 18
Term Boosting ........................................................................................................................................... 18
Search Scripting......................................................................................................................................... 18
Field Codes and Examples ......................................................................................................................... 21
Query Modifiers ........................................................................................................................................ 26
Chemical Name Searching ........................................................................................................................ 27
Legal Status Searching .............................................................................................................................. 28
Syntax Change Revision History ................................................................................................................ 31

NOTE: This guide assumes you have prior experience of searching in online databases (free or
commercial). This guide covers only the search aspects and further details of other features are present
in the online help section.

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Most Common Syntax Mistakes and their Correction

WRONG USAGE CORRECT USAGE

Not using parentheses properly A query like A OR B AND C is ambiguous. With varying operators each query
across operators portion must be enclosed in brackets.
E.g. TAC:(mobile OR cellphone E.g. TAC:((mobile OR cellphone) AND network)
AND network) E.g. TAC:(mobile OR (cellphone AND network))

Using $ or ! for truncation You should use * for truncation and ? as a single character wildcard.

Using ? to represent 0 or 1 ? in PatSeer stands for exactly one character wildcard and does not match 0
character characters. Use *1 instead to match 0 or 1 characters.

Using wildcard * within double Wildcard does not work within Double quotes. So “hybrid vehicle*” will give
quotes zero results. Since the default operator in PatSeer is an exact match, simply
search for (hybrid vehicle*) to get the desired result set.

Using w/2, w~2, 2d or 2w for You should use w2 for unordered proximity and wd2 for left->right ordered
proximity proximity

You should use w1 and wd1 for unordered and left->right ordered proximity.
Using ADJ or NEAR operators for
Here ‘1’is the number of words to span across. For example w2, w5, wd50
proximity
etc.
You should use wp for same paragraph search. If you want to search within
Using SAME operator for same same sentence you can also use the ws operator. Optionally a number can
paragraph search also be given to restrict the number of words to span across. For example
wp30 will mean within the same paragraph and within 30 words.
Use the wildcard * at the end of the class if you are giving only a portion of
the full class. If you are entering classes within double quotes make sure there
are no spaces between the main and subclass.
Entering a portion of the IPC or
CPC class without a wildcard. E.g. IC:A61K* UC:235*
E.g. IC:A61K E.g. IC:A61K05*
E.g. IC: A61K05/21

In case you want to use & then the term must be enclosed in Double quotes.
So the correct query will be ASN: "AT&T"
Using & in company name.
This is true for text field too. So if you are searching for space & aviation in
E.g. ASN:(AT&T)
text, then it should be enclosed in double quotes. & is not searchable outside
double quotes.
Using semi-colon or comma to
Please use OR between the terms.
separate OR’ed terms
E.g. TAC:(mobile or cellphone or pda)
E.g. TAC:mobile,cellphone,pda
Most inventor names can be surname first. Also some may have an initial. So
Searching inventor name by you will miss out on “Smith John” or “Smith John R” or “John R Smith”. The
first-name surname. best way to search is using bidirectional proximity with scope for
accommodating 1 more initial/middle name in between.
E.g. INV:(John Smith)
E.g. INV:(John w1 smith)

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The basics

 Multiple terms and phrases should be combined together with Boolean operators to form a
more complex query. If all words/phrases are required then AND should be inserted between
them or if Any Word is required then OR should be inserted. To exclude a word use a NOT
before it.

 The default operator assumed between multiple words is Exact Match. If you enter multiple
words without any quotes then an exact match is assumed between them by default. So for
example TA:(carbon nanotube) will search for “carbon nanotube” as an exact match as opposed
to searching for carbon AND nanotube. So if you want to combine words using AND operator,
you will need to specifically mention it in your query. Further you should also specify AND
between different fields when using Command line syntax.

So for example: TAC:(carbon nanotube) IC:A61K* is incorrect and will not work. The correct
query is: TAC:(carbon nanotube) AND IC:A61K*

 In PatSeer records are not grouped by families by default. So you can search individual records
and choose to collapse them by one member per Family or de-duplicate results by Application
Number (i.e., by Patents and Applications). The latter de-duplication is particularly useful for US
records when you would like to keep only the grant and not its corresponding application in the
result. When deduplicating results by family, you can deduplicate by both Simple Family
(SFAM) and Extended Family (EFAM).

 When Searching by Publications, you should Deduplicate by "Application No" in order to get all
the unique publications in your results. Further if you keep the "Preferred Record" to be the
latest publication date then it will ensure that you see the Grants instead of the corresponding
Applications.

 When “Publications -> Publication No.” de-dup option is selected, the results that you see are
deduped by the publication number (without kind code). So even if a record has been
published with 3-4 different kind codes during its life, it will show up as a single result. This is
not applicable for Number search however. If you search for a number in Number Search it will
show you all the matching kind codes as separate results. When “Show all Kind Codes” option is
selected, the results can include multiple kind codes for the same publication number if they
have the matched the search query.

 The Preferred record option allows you to decide which record should be chosen while
deduplicating results. For example when deduplicating results by Application Number, if you
select Latest Publication Date as the preferred record, you will get the Patents in place of
applications in your results. When Deduplicating by Family you can also specify a country
preference along with kind code. The kind code is optional however. E.g. you can give US, EP,

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 WO or with kind code USB*, USA, EPB*, WO, JPC.

 Matching a phrase can also be done by placing it in double quotes such as TA:"metal gate
electrode" or you can use proximity operator wd0 say (metal wd0 gate wd0 electrode). It is
however better to simply use TA:(metal gate electrode) since you cannot use a wildcard
operators within a double quotes. So, for example TA:"optic* fiber" will not work however
TA:(optic* fiber) will work.

 You can use underscore to match all three types of combinations between words – single word,
hyphenated word or exact match. So jet_engine will match jetengine, jet engine and jet-engine.

 PatSeer Search system has no stopwords. To search for words AND, OR, NOT or syntax related
words such as W, WD, WS, WP you can include them in double-quotes.
For example: T:"system and method"
INV:"john w"
Using these words outside double-quote will make the system treat them as operators and not
search terms.

 Use parentheses to precisely indicate in case more than one connector is present and avoid any
confusion in case of complex queries. In command line search, make sure each field’s search
terms are enclosed in a bracket. A common mistake is having a query like A OR B AND C. This is
an ambiguous query and could lead in different results depending upon the sub-queries/field
present in A, B, C. The correct way is one of the two: (A OR B) AND C ; A OR (B AND C)

 All three (left, right and middle) truncation is supported. Use ‘?’ for single character wildcard
and ‘*’ for 0 to any number of characters. For performance reasons a right truncation can only
be used after a minimum of 2 characters. Also a single query can have a maximum of two
words/phrases with left truncation.

 Limited truncation is also supported and for this you need to specify a number after * . For
example: mix*2 will match mixer and mixed but not mixing. Similarly colo*1r will match color
and colour both. Limited truncation is supported for right and middle truncations only.

 The date syntax to use when searching is YYYY-MM-DD. You can also specify only the year and
month as YYYY-MM or just the year YYYY.

 Field Searching - You can search within any field by typing the field code followed by a colon “:”
and then the term you are looking for. In command-line search if you do not specify any field
then it by default searches the full text with Assignee and Inventor. Field codes are given at the
end of this document.

Proximity Search - Both left-to-right ordered and unordered proximity search is supported. The
proximity operator can be applied using inline proximity characters w and wd. You can also
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 search within the same sentence and search within the same paragraph using the operators ws
and wp respectively. Examples shown below:

Proximity Type Example using Inline Search Explanation

proximity characters
Left-Right TAC:(mobile wd5 network) Mobile within 0 to 5 words of network in the
Ordered same order of occurrence
Proximity
Bidirectional TAC:(mobile w5 network) Mobile within 0 to 5 words of network in the
unordered either order of occurrence
proximity
Range bound TAC:(mobile w2-5 Mobile within 2 to 5 words of network in
proximity network) either order of occurrence
Fixed range TAC:(mobile w5-5 Mobile and network should be separated by
proximity network) exactly 5 words and can be in either order of
occurrence
Exact Match TAC:(mobile network) Search for exact match of phrase mobile
network
TAC:(mobile wd0 network)
Same Sentence TAC:(mobile ws network) Search for mobile and network within the
proximity same sentence. The search will span across
the length of the sentence.
TAC:(mobile ws3 network) Search within 3 words and within the same
sentence. The span across 3 words is
unordered.
Same TAC:(fiber wp optic*) Search for fiber and optic* within the same
paragraph paragraph. The search will span across the
proximity length of the paragraph.
TAC:(fiber wp3 optic*) Search within 3 words and within the same
paragraph. The span across 3 words is
unordered.

IMPORTANT: Search within sentence works for all Latin-text authorities. Search within
paragraph however works correctly for US, EP, PCT, DE, CA and ES. It may or may not work
correctly for countries with OCR’ed text such AU, FR, GB and some others

 Stemming support is integrated into the search form. Stemming cannot be applied to a whole
search string and instead has to be supplied on a per-word basis. To stem a word simply add #
at the end of the word and it will get replaced by its stem and wildcard after that. (So stemming
is nothing but a right-truncated wildcard query internally)

 Classification Searching - To search for a portion of the class you should use a wildcard. Ex.
IC:G06F* or UC:234*. To search for full class please enter the class without any zero padding.
Ex. G06F13/00, 234/45. You can also search a classification tree by putting a $ sign at the end
of class whose sub-tree should also be searched. (See section on Classification Range searching
for more details on this)
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  In PatSeer characters such as hyphen ( - ) , parentheses ( { [ ) } ], apostrophe/quotes ( ‘ ” ), slash
( / or \ ) and comma ( , ) are indexed as space and consecutive spaces are reduced to a single
space

 Searching in Non-English Content - PatSeer has separate fields for each language. The text
fields (Title, Abstract, Claims and Description) for English Language are T, A, C, D, TA, TAC,
TACD. The same fields for German text are TDE, ADE, CDE, DDE, TADE, TACDE, TACDDE where
DE is added to the end of the field. Similarly the following codes can be added to search text in
that language - Japanese - JA, French - FR, Korean - KR, Spanish - ES, Chinese (Simplified) - ZH,
Russian - RU, Swedish - SV, Portuguese –PT, Thai - TH and All Others - OH. In case of records
that do not have a English Title or Abstract, PatSeer copies an English Title or Abstract (if
available) within the simple family of the record i.e., from an equivalent record. The Equivalent
record from where the title or abstract is added is shown within square brackets at the end of
the text.

 Searching across all Languages - To search across all language simply use the fields
T$,A$,C$,D$,TA$,TAC$,TACD$. The keywords given will be searched in text fields across all
languages.

 Plural Matching – Simpler forms of plurals are automatically matched. (See section on Plural
Matching for details) However, it is advisable to use wildcards yourself to have complete
control on your search query.

Publication and Family Searching

The search deduplication (grouping) interface makes it possible to create and save different
dedup settings into templates.

By default, there are two base templates provided – One for Searching Publications and other for
searching Families. You can edit the default settings in each of these and the changes are automatically
saved when you click on Apply.

Further if you would like to maintain different dedup settings for different search projects, then you
can save the settings to a new dedup template too.

SEARCHING PUBLICATIONS

When you are searching by Publications, you can dedup by the following:

- Publication No – In this case the records will be deduplicated based on their published
numbers. For example in case of US, the published number for the application and grant are
separate and so they will still appear separately in your search result if both the records match
your query.
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 - Application No - In this case the records will be deduplicated based on their Application
numbers. So a grant and its application will not show up separately in the search result.
- Show all Kind Codes – No deduplication is done and so you will see all matching records.
Multiple kind codes against the same record may also appear as separate search results.

The Preferred Record option further decides which record to select while deduplication. So if you select
“Latest Publication Date” then the Application No. dedup will keep granted record in the data set and
exclude the corresponding application.

SEARCHING FAMILIES

When searching Families, you can de-duplicate records to one member per family (Simple or
Extended/INPADOC). Simple family comprises those records that have exactly the same priority or
same combination of priorities. Simple Family members can be interpreted as records that in all
probability protect exactly the same invention. An Extended family (same as INPADOC family) includes
records that contain all records that are directly or indirectly linked to at least one common priority.
Extended Family members can be interpreted as records that protect the same and also related
inventions by the same applicant.

When deduplicating by family, you can also optionally give a country code preference and select either
Match or Prefer options. You can also specify a country preference along with kind codes. The kind
code is optional however. E.g. you can give US, EP, WO or with kind code USB*, USA, EPB*, WO. The
working of Match and Prefer options is explained in the table below:

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Deduplication -
Country Dedup
Preference Code Search Action Displayed Record
The search runs across all families
Country and country preference is applied
preference with SFAM(C), only over those members that From one of the matching
Match Option EFAM(C) have matched the search query hits in the family
From the family having
The search runs across all families one or more matching hits
and country preference is applied in order of the country
Country on all members of any family in preference (Not
preference with SFAM(P), which one or more records have necessarily the matching
Prefer option EFAM(P) matched the search query hit)

RESTRICTING YOUR SEARCH TO SELECTED COUNTRIES

You can also limit your Publications/Families search to a particular set of countries. By default the full
global collection is searched.

When searching Publications, if you select one or more countries, then your search query will run only
within those country’s publications.

When searching Families, if you select from or more countries (as shown in the image below) then your
search will run on those families that have members from the chosen set of the countries.

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 IMP Note: When you restrict your Family search query to a set of countries, then this overrides any
country preference you have given within the Family dedup mode.

Search Type Deduplication

- Country
Preference Dedup
Modes Code Search Action Displayed Record
Searching The search runs across only From the matching
Families limited to those families that have one families in order of
selected set of Not Applicable SFAM(R), or more members from the the country
Countries (Don’t Care) EFAM(R) given set of countries only preference

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Special symbols

? : matches a single character

(You can use it multiple times to denote more number of characters)

* : matches zero or more characters

_ : matches two words together or with a single hyphen /space

*# : # is any number. Will match zero to N characters.

term~ : fuzzy search

wd# : left to right ordered proximity search

w# : unordered proximity search

ws# : unordered same sentence proximity search

wp# : unordered same paragraph proximity search

[ _ TO _ ] : numeric range

[ YYYY-MM-DD TO NOW] : Only for Date fields. To search from certain date to present

[BEG TO YYYY-MM-DD] : Only for date fields. To search up to a certain date

^ : Term boosting

Search Examples

led light : searches for an exact match of the phase “led light”

"led light" : searches for an exact match of the phrase “led light”

led or "Light Emitting Diode" : searches for led or “Light Emitting Diode”

led and "Light Emitting Diode" : both led and “Light Emitting Diode” must be present

led not infrared : only led must occur without occurrence of infrared

(led wd5 infrared) : led must occur within 5 words of infrared and before infrared

(led w5 infrared) : led or infrared must occur within 5 words of each other in any order

(led wd10 tv wd10 remote wd10 infrared) : All 4 words: led, tv, remote, infrared must occur
within 10 words of each other in the same order.

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optic* : matches optic, optics, optical

optic? : matches optics and not optic or optical

car*t : matches cart, carrot, carrrot, carkit

colo*1r : matched color and colour

mix*2 : matches mixer and mixed but not mixing.

G08B1* : matches G08B1, G08B15, G08B11 and not G08B0

C01G21/06$ : Also matches all the other classes dependent on C01G21/06 such as
C01G21/08, C01G21/10, C01G21/12 etc.

brain~ : matches brain, brake, crain, drain (Fuzzy matching)

claim [4 TO 8] : Matches claim 4, claim 5, claim 6, claim 7, claim 8

skate_board : Matches skateboard, skate-board and skate board

Searching For Decimal, Percentage and Math Operators

Support for Decimals and Percentages

Searching for percentages and decimals is possible and has been made easy. PatSeer automatically
takes care of spaces when searching for decimals or percentages. Further numbers attached to text (or
embedded within text) are also automatically searched.

Here are the examples for searching decimals and percentages:

0.1 - matches 0.1, 0.1mm, K0.1N

.01 - matches .01, .01mm

[0.1 TO 0.3] - matches 0.1, 0.111, 0.101,..., 0.2992, 0.3

0.? - matches 0.1,…, 0.9. Will also match 0.5mm or K0.1N

9e.04 - matches 9e.04, 9e .04

"802.11g" - matches 802.11g, 802.11 g

To search for percentage character, please enclose it in double quotes.

5"%" - matches both 5% and 5 %

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"5%" - same as above

0.01"%" - matches both 0.01% and 0.01 %

?"%" - matches all single digit percentages

??"%" - matches all double digit percentages

[0 TO 100]"%" - matches 0%, 1%, 2% ….. 99%, 100%

[0.4 TO 0.49]"%" - matches 0.4%, 0.40%, 0.405%, 0.41%, 0.41155%,..., 0.489%, 0.49%

[2.1 TO 2.45]"%" - matches 2.1%, 2.101%, 2.11%,…, 2.44%, 2.45%

IMP NOTE: In Range Query, you must use either integers or decimals on both sides of the TO operator.
So [2.5 TO 3] may lead to a ambiguity and may not match 3.0

Additional Searchable mathematical operators

In addition to the already supported Greek characters, we have now the following mathematical
operators also searchable. Please enclose them in double quotes while searching. Here is the list of the
operators whose support has been added:

∑ Sum

∫ Integral

∂ Partial derivative

√ Square root

≠ Not equal to

∞ Infinity

∕ Division slash

∆ Delta

∇ Inverted Delta (Nabla/Del)

≥ Greater than or equal to

≤ Less than or equal to

≈ Approximately equal to

12
Plural Matching & Searching

Simpler forms of plurals are automatically applied to the search terms. This is applicable only for the
text search fields such as T,A,C,D and not any other field. This would make words like 'vehicles' also
match if only 'vehicle' is used in the search query. It applies to words which have an s-only and ies-only
(for words ending in a 'y') plural form.

The following are examples of plurals that will and will not match when you search for the word on the
left:

WILL MATCH ITS PLURAL

 paper -> paper or papers

 grid -> grid or grids
 automobiles -> automobile or automobiles
 strategy -> strategy or strategies
 baby -> baby or babies
 galley -> galley or galleys (As 'y' is not preceded by consonant it matches the s-type plural
form)

WILL NOT MATCH ITS PLURAL

 process -> process ( processes is an es-form of plural and so doesn’t get matched with
process. wildcard should be used for this if both words are needed)
 gas -> gas ( same as above 'gases' will not get matched)
 potato -> potato (same as above 'potatoes' won’t get matched)
 child -> child ( special types won’t be matched and so 'children' won’t be matched)
 fungus -> fungus ( Latin type plurals will not get matched and so 'fungi' won’t be matched)
 phenomenon -> phenomenon ('phenomena' won’t be matched)
 life -> life ('lives' won’t be matched)
 knife -> knife ('knives' won’t be matched)

SEARCHING FOR PLURAL WORD ONLY

To search for the plural form of the word only please enclose the word in double quotes. So "vehicles"
will not match vehicle.

SEARCHING FOR SINGULAR WORD ONLY

To search for the singular form of the word only, you need to apply a NOT as plural forms are
automatically searched. To search for vehicle only and not vehicles in title/abstract the query will be:

TA:(vehicle NOT "vehicles")

13
Date Range Searching

In Field Search, there is a From - To date Range option for Application and Publication dates. You can
enter only a year or year with month and date.

- In the “From” field 2011 converts to 2011-01-01 and 2011-09 converts to 2011-09-01. So the
first day in the year or the first day in the month is automatically assumed.
- In the “To” field 2011 converts to 2011-12-31 and 2011-09 converts to 2011-09-30. So the last
day in the year or the month is automatically assumed

To search for an exact date, enter the same values in both From and To fields.

In Command line search you must specify the exact dates yourself to avoid any ambiguity. If you only
enter year or year-month then the following is taken:

APD:[2009 TO 2012] : matches application dates 1st Jan 2009 to 1st Jan 2012

APD:[2009-06 TO 2009-10] : matches applications dates 1st June 2009 to 1st Oct2009

Using BEG and NOW in date range

You can use BEG and NOW in a range query as shown in the example below:

APD:[2009-06-01 TO NOW] - matches all dates from June 1, 2009 to current date.

APD:[BEG TO 2014-12-31] – matches all dates up to Dec 31, 2014 (including Dec 31, 2014)

Using the Year fields

Each date field also has a corresponding year field. So Application Date APD has APY, Publication Date
PBD has PBY. So you can use these fields if you want to search for a year range. It’s simpler and avoids
any confusion. So:

APY:[2005 TO 2012] : matches all application dates in years 2005 to 2012 (both years included)

Classification Tree/Sub-tree search

Classification tree search allows you to automatically search for the children (dependent classes) of
any full IPC, CPC, US or FI classes.

The search syntax character for this is $ (“dollar”) and you can add that at the end of a “full class”. In
case of IPC the full class would be the Main Group with /00 (E.g. C01L1/00) or Subgroup (E.g
C01L1/195).

For example:

14
IC:C01G21/06 only searches for this class.

IC: C01G21/06$ will also search for C01G21/08, C01G21/10, C01G21/12, C01G21/14, C01G21/16,
C01G21/18, C01G21/20, C01G21/22, C01G21/24, C01G21/26, C01G21/27 in addition to the
C01G21/06.

Similarly if you search for C01G21/00$ it will also search all the 16 classes under this.

UC:71/31 only searches for this class.

UC:71/31$ will also search for 32 classes that are dependent on this.

UC:71/64.01$ also searches for 12 classes that are dependent on this.

Important Note: The $ is only supported at the end of a full class and should not be used as a
replacement for wildcard. You cannot use C01L$ or C01$ or C01L1$. You will have to continue to use
the wildcard character * for it.

The classification tree search is supported for CPC, IPC, US and FI classes.

Proximity Search

To do a left-right ordered proximity search use wd operator between the words. For unordered
proximity search use w operator between the words. For example:

(antivirus wd5 software) : searches for antivirus within 5 words of software and antivirus must
appear before software

(antivirus wd0 software) : searches for antivirus within 0 word of software i.e., antivirus should
be right before software. The operator isn’t needed as a search for (antivirus software) will also
achieve the same result.

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(antivirus wd2 software wd2trojan): searches for antivirus, software and Trojan within 2 words of each
other.

IMPORTANT:

 Only for users using the older double-quote syntax for proximity: The disadvantage of using
double-quotes for proximity is that you cannot use wild-card within the double-quote as it will
be ignored. So if you are searching for optic* then the query TAC:(fiber optic*) will work and
TAC: “fiber optic*” will only search for fiber optic.
 To do an unordered proximity search use w or double-quotes and % operator. So(optics w1
fiber)will match both fiber optics and optics fiber
 You can also enter a number range defining limits to number of words to search around. So
(optic w3-10 fiber) will match only those records in which optic and fiber come within 3 to 10
words of each other.

You can order search within the same sentence and same paragraph using the ws and wp inline
proximity operators. See example usage below:

Same TAC:(mobile ws network) Search for mobile and network within

Sentence the same sentence. The search will span
proximity across the length of the sentence.
TAC:(mobile ws3 network) Search within 3 words and within the
same sentence. The span across 3 words
is unordered.
Same TAC:(fiber wp optic*) Search for fiber and optic* within the
paragraph same paragraph. The search will span
proximity across the length of the paragraph.
TAC:(fiber wp3 optic*) Search within 3 words and within the
same paragraph. The span across 3
words is unordered.

Common mistake: Keep in mind that (mobile ws network) is NOT the same as (mobile ws0 network).
(mobile ws network) will span across the length of the sentence and (mobile ws0 network) will look for
an exact match within the same sentence. In that sense (mobile ws0 network) and (mobile w0 network)
is the same since in PatSeer an exact match query anyhow doesn’t span across sentence boundaries.

However (mobile w network) is the same as (mobile w0 network).

Using Boolean with Proximity

Using parentheses within proximity search you can increase the combinations of proximity search to be
conducted. For example:

Using Inline Proximity Explanation

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(optical wd1 (fiber or fibre)) Searches for optical within 1 word of fiber or
fibre
(mobile* OR cellular* OR handheld) wd5 searches for mobile* within 5 words of
(display OR LCD OR screen*) display/LCD/screen* or cellular* within 5 words
of display/LCD/screen* or handheld within 5
words of display/LCD/screen*

You can use multi word phrases inside a Boolean Proximity construct. The inline proximity operators
allow you to nest a proximity within an external proximity. For example:

 (turbo w5 (jet w2 engine*))

 T:((semiconductor laser excit*solid) w10 ((laser w1 amplifier) or (laser w1 device)))

You can also use the parentheses syntax but the multi-word phrases must be enclosed within brackets.
See example of equivalent syntax below:

Using Inline Proximity Explanation

((mobile* phone) OR cellphone OR handheld OR Since we want mobile phone, cellular phone,
(cellular phone) OR (portable wd0 communicat* portable communication device phrases to be
device)) w5 (display or LCD or screen*) matched with (display or lcd or screen) we
have included that in a bracket.

In the example in table above, since there is no operator between mobile* and phone, an exact match
is assumed by default. This is equivalent to entering (mobile* wd0 phone).

Hit Cutoff Query

Say you wanted to search for only those records in which a word or a phrase appears more than X
number of time in the field you have specified. The hit cutoff query is exactly for this type of need. The
query uses a |# syntax that should be added at the end of a word or a phrase that you want to specify a
cutoff for. Here # is the count for cutoff. For example:

Using Hit Cutoff Query Explanation

TAC:(mobile AND network|3) Search for mobile and network but where
network appears 3 or more times within TAC
D: "mobile phone"|5 Search for records that have the phrase mobile
phone appearing 5 or more time in the
description
TACD: "thermal spray"|5 AND coat*|5 The phrase “thermal spray” should appear 5 or
more times and coat/coats/coating/coated
should appear 5 or more times. (the sum of all
variations is counted here)

17
NOTE: Hit Count Cutoff query cannot be used along with a proximity or exact match syntax. So
TAC:(optic*|2 disk) will fail. TAC:(optic*|2 AND disk) will however work.

Minimum Must Match Query

This is query is used when you want to match any X number of words from a list of words. For instance
this type of query can be used if you have 8 words out of which you need atleast 3 words in any record
to be relevant for inspection.

Use any# to enforce a minimum number of words to match within an OR’ed list where # is the number
of minimum words that should be present.

TAC:any2(compute* or terminal or pc or laptop) : This will match any 2 words from the list of
words in OR query.

It’s important that all words within the bracket are combined with an OR only. AND/NOT will not work
inside the list of words. However you can combine the whole query any#() with AND or NOT.

For example: TAC:((any2(compute* or terminal or pc or laptop) AND network* ) NOT protocol)

Wildcards and operators are not to be used inside ANY#, NLPL, NLPM, NLPH query

Term Boosting

You can boost a term or a phrase to influence the relevance order of results.

GPS^4 OR triangulation : matches either words but GPS documents come earlier in results.

"skate board"^10 : the phrase is boosted by order of 10

By default, the boost factor is 1. Although the boost factor must be positive, it can be less than 1 (e.g.
0.2).

Search Scripting

Search scripting helps you combine search queries with identifiers assigned to each search query. So
you can prepare your final search strategy in steps rather than having to formulate the large search in a
single go. Each search added to a script is given an identifier and search identifiers can be combined
using AND, OR and NOT in Command Line Search.

18
The Search Scripts that you create can be seen in the “Script” tab that is present on the right in any of
the search form page.

The overall process of search scripting works in the following manner:

1) Enter your Search on either Quick/Simple/Field or Command line Search form

2) Select the appropriate deduplicate option for your search. (Deduplicate once set for a search
script remains the same for all search strings added to the script)
3) Click on “Add to Script” link next to the Search button
4) You will see the search is added to a search script that is shown in a separate window on the
right. You can pin the “Script” window so that it remains on top always.
5) The First search is assigned an identifier “L1”
6) Further searches that you conduct will be given successive identifiers L2, L3 and so on
7) In command line search form you can now easily use these identifiers to build further queries.
For example you can enter queries like (L1 AND L2) NOT L3.
8) Once your final query is run, click on the search icon next to the query in the script in order to
jump to the results.

A search script that you start preparing is by default stored under the name “Untitled”. Even if you log
out and come back later you will be able to see it under “Untitled”. This is similar to how opening new
word document gives it a default name. You can Rename and save the script into an appropriate name.

All saved search scripts can be seen under the “Saved Searches” tab.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

 You can remove an entry from a search script. Such an action will also remove any other entries
that dependent on it. For instance if you remove L2 and let’s say that L6 = L2 AND L4, then L6 is
also going to be deleted.
 A new Search identifier will always be one more than the highest search identifier. Deleted
search identifiers are not reused in the same script.

19
 For the counts to be accurate, the Dedup option is fixed with the first search query that is
added to the script. All further search queries use the same dedup option. You cannot change
the dedup for an existing script and you will have to create a new script in that case.

20
Field Codes and Examples

TEXT FIELDS

T Title T:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)

A Abstract A:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
C Claims C:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
INC Independent Claims INC:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
D Description D:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
SOI Summary of Invention (Within Description) SOI:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
ADV Advantage of Invention (Within Description) ADV:(improve* w5 (speed or velocity))
DRW Description of Drawing (Within Description) DRW:((arm w1 rest) AND chair)
DPA Prior/Background Art Section within Description DPA:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
DEX Examples Section at end of Description DEX:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
TA Title and Abstract TA:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
TAC Title, Abstract and Claims TAC:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
TAI Title, Abstract and Independent Claims TAI:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
(Full Text) Title, Abstract, Claims and
TACD TACD:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
Description
TAS Title, Abstract, Summary of Invention TAS:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
TAW Title, Abstract, Drawings section TAW:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
Title, Abstract, Indep. Claims, Summary of
TAIS TAIS:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
Invention
TACS Title, Abstract, Claims, Summary of Invention TACS:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
TAIW Title, Abstract, Indep. Claims, Drawings section TAIW:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
TACW Title, Abstract, Claims, Drawings section TACW:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
TAIA Title, Abstract, Indep. Claims, Advantages TAIA:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
TACA Title, Abstract, Claims, Advantages TACA:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
Title, Abstract, Indep. Claims, Advantages,
TAIAS TAIAS:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
Summary
TACAS Title, Abstract, Claims, Advantages, Summary TACAS:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
TAX Title, Abstract, Examples Section TAX:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
TASX Title, Abstract, Summary, Examples Section TASX:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
TAIX Title, Abstract, Indep. Claims, Examples Section TAIX:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
TACX Title, Abstract, Claims, Examples Section TACX:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
Title, Abstract, Indep. Claims, Summary,
TAISX TAISX:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
Examples
TACSX Title, Abstract, Claims, Summary, Examples TACSX:((led OR "light emitting diode") AND display)
FCL First Claim FCL:(rechargeable lithium cell and phthalocyanine*)
FCW First Claims Word Count FCW:[10 TO 100]

NINC Number of Independent Claims NINC:3 AND TAC: sucrose

21
DATES AND YEARS

APD:2007-06-21; APD:2009-12; APD:[2001-01-01

APD Application Date
TO 2009-12-31]
APY Application Year APY:2001; APY:[2001 TO 2004]
EED:2012-01-23; EED:2012-12; EED:[2012-01-01
EED Estimated Expiry Date
TO 2015-12-31]
EEY Estimated Expiry Year EEY:2015; EEY:[2013 TO 2014]
EPBD:2001-01-23; EPBD:2001-01; EPBD:[2010-01-
EPBD Earliest Publication Date (for Extended Family)
01 TO 2010-12-31]
EPBY Earliest Publication Year (for Extended Family) EPBY:2001; EPBY:[2001 TO 2002]
EAPY Earliest Application Year (for Extended Family) EAPY:2001; EABY:[2001 TO 2002]
EPRD:2004-11-21; EPRD:2004-11; EPRD:[2001-01-
EPRD Earliest Priority Date (for Extended Family)
01 TO 2005-12-31]
EPRY Earliest Priority Year EPRY:2004; EPRY:[1992 TO 2000]
PBD:2011-11-20; PBD:2011-11; PBD:[2003-01-01
PBD Publication Date
TO 2007-12-31]
PBY Publication Year PBY:2011; PBY:[2010 TO 2011]
PRD:2001-03-23; PRD:2001-03; PRD:[2001-01-01
PRD Priority Date (at Record level)
TO NOW]
PRD:2001-03-23; PRD:2001-03; PRD:[2001-01-01
PRD Priority Date (at Record level)
TO NOW]
PRY Priority Year (at Record level) PRY:2011; PRY:[2010 TO 2011]
SPBD:2015-08-17; SPBD:2015-08; SPBD:[2015-01-
SPBD Earliest Publication Date (for Simple Family)
01 TO 2015-12-31]; SPBD:[2015-01-01 TO NOW]
SPBY Earliest Publication Year (for Simple Family) SPBY:2001; SPBY:[2001 TO 2002]
SABY Earliest Application Year (for Simple Family) SABY:2001; SABY:[2001 TO 2002]
SPRD:2015-08-17; SPRD:2011-08; SPRD:[2015-01-
SPRD Earliest Priority Date (for Simple Family)
01 TO 2015-12-31]; SPRD:[2015-01-01 TO NOW]
SPRY Earliest Priority Year (for Simple Family) SPRY:2004; SPRY:[1992 TO 2000]

CLASSIFICATIONS

AC All Classes (IPC,CPC,US,FI,FTERM,EC) AC:(B23B29* OR “713/201”)

CPC Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) CPC:B23B29/24$; CPC:A01N47*
CPCG CPC Main Group CPCG:B23B29*
CPSC CPC Sub Class (First 4 letters) CPSC:C07C
FI Japanese File Index Classification FI:C08L*; FI:"C08L25/04"
FTERM Japanese FTERM FTERM:4J001*; FTERM:"3C058/AA09"
FOC Field of Search FOS:"714015"
IC International Classification (All versions) IC:G06F13*; IC:G06F13/00
ICGR International Patent Classification Group ICGR:B66D3
ICO International Classification (Version 1 to 7) AC:(B23B29* OR “713/201”)
International Classification Revised (Version 8 -
ICR ICR:G06F13*; ICR:"G06F13/00"
9)
ICSC International Patent Classification (Sub Class) ICSC:A61K
JFF Japanese F-I Facets JFF:LDR

22
LOC Locarno Classification LOC: 1216
UC US Classification UC:"713/201"; UC:713*
NCPC Number of Cooperative Patent Classification NCPC:[10 TO 15]
Number of Cooperative Patent Classification
NCPSC NCPSC:6
(Sub Class)
NFTERM Number of Japanese FTERM NFTERM:50
Number of International Patent Classification
NICR NICR:3
Full
NUC Number of US Full Classification NUC:3 AND PBY:2014
Number of International Patent Classification
NICSC NICSC:3
Main

PARTIES (ASSIGNEES, INVENTORS, ATTORNEYS)

All Assignee Fields (ASNN, CASN, RASN,

AASN AASN:"General Motors"
ASNO, ASNNL)
ASN Assignee ASN:"General Motors"
ASNN Normalized Assignee ASNN:LG ELECTRONICS CO LTD
ASNNL Assignee Non Latin Search within all Non Latin Assignee Names
ASNO Assignee Original ASNO:LG ELECTRONICS INC
ASNC Assignee Country ASNC:(US OR CA)
ASNA Assignee Address ASNA:NY or “New York”
ASNST Assignee State ASNST:(CA or California)
ASNCT Assignee City ASNCT:Boston
ASNPIN Assignee City Pincode ASNPIN:90210
ATN Attorney, Agent or Firm ATN:"Richardson"
ATNA Attorney Address ATNA:NY or “New York”
ATNPIN Attorney Pincode ATNPIN:90210
Current Assignee + Original and Normalised
CAAN CAAN:IBM
Assignees
CASN Current Assignee CASN:IBM
PASN Parent Corporate Owner PASN:Alphabet
EXMR Examiner EXMR:"John"
INV Inventor INV:”MICHAEL CLARK”
INVC Inventor Country INVC:AU
INVA Inventor Address INVA:NY or “New York”
INVST Inventor State INVST:WY or Wyoming
INVCT Inventor City INVCT:Boston
INVPIN Inventor City Pincode INVPIN:90210
US Reassignment Assignee + Original and
RAAN RAAN:IBM
Normalised Assignees
RASN All Assignees in US Reassignment History RASN:("International Business Machines" or IBM)
ASNT Assignee Type ASNT:Govt
NASNN Number of normalized Assignee NASNN:[3 TO 5]
NCASN Number of Current Assignee NCASN:[3 TO 5]

23
NINV Number of Inventors NINV:2; NINV:[2 TO 10]

CITATIONS

ALLCT All Citations (BCT or FCT) ALLCT:WO2014150626A1

BCT Backward Citations BCT:US6000000
FCT Forward Citations FCT:US6000000
FCTPA Forward Citations by Applicant FCTPA:US6000000
FCTPX Forward Citations by Examiner FCTPX:US6000000
where # can be X,Y,A,D,I,L,O,P,T,E Search in
FCTCX FCTCX:US6000000
Forward Citations of a particular category #
FCTREJ Forward Citations Rejected by Examiner FCTREJ:US6000000
REF References (Non Patent backward citations) REF:"Physics Today"
NBCT Number of Backward Citations NBCT:2; NBCT:[5 TO 100]
NREF Number of Non-patent References NREF:[3 TO 100]

COUNTRIES, NUMBERS AND FAMILIES

APN Application No APN:EP20070824897

APNO Application Number APNO:553/MUMNP/2009
DS Designated States DS:(BE OR AT OR CH)
SFAM Simple Family SFAM: EP0261739; SFAM: EP0261739B1
FAMC SFAM All countries FAMC:(DE OR FR)
EFAM Extended Family EFAM: EP0261739; EFAM: EP0261739B1
EFID PatSeer Extended Family ID EFID:4423585
FAMID PatSeer Simple Family ID FAMID:27177089
KC Kind Code KC:(B1 OR B2)
PN Patent No PN: EP0261739
PNC Patent No with Kind Code PNC: EP0261739; PNC: EP0261739B1
PNKC Patent No with Kind Code PNKC:(EP2469552B1 OR US8261433B1)
PRN Priority No PRN:DE200610054043
PBC Publication Country PBC:CA
PRC Priority Country PRC:(WO OR EP)
PTYP Record Type (Patent, Application, Utility Model) PTYP:Patent; PTYP: Application
RPNC Related Publications of the Input Numbers US7375059 OR US2010251777 OR CN100361579C

LEGAL STATUS AND OTHERS

LSC Current Legal Status TAC:(graphene) AND LSC:(Active-Granted / Applied)

LSE:"DE 2004" ; LSE:((US OR EP)) wd5 ([20040101
LSE Legal Status Events
TO 20101231])
REGST Register Status (US Only) REGST:"Patented Case"
LDSA Active in Designated States LDSA:DE
LSSE Legal Status - Other Significant Events LSSE:opposition
LST Legal Status Text LST:hybrid vehicle
LLSE:"DE 2004" ; LLSE:((US OR EP)) wd5
LLSE Latest Legal Status Event (INPADOC)
([20040101 TO 20101231])

24
LSED Latest Legal Status Event Date (INPADOC) LSED:[20170101 TO 20170801]
Numeric Legal Status 0-Unknown, 1- Dead, 2-
LSN LSN:(2 OR 3)
Active Pending, 3-Active Granted
REGD Register Status Date (US Only) REGD:[2017-06-01 TO NOW]
REG Region REG:Asia
DOM Technology Domain DOM: "Mechanical Engineering"
SDOM Technology Sub-Domain SDOM: "Mechanical Tools"
Similar Patents to a given patent or list of
SIM SIM:(US5884323A OR US6000000)
patents

SEARCHING IN OTHER LANGUAGES

T$, A$, C$, D$, TA$, TAC$, TACD$ Search in All Languages
T, A, C, D, TA, TAC, TACD Search in English
TDE, ADE, CDE, DDE, TADE, TACDE, TACDDE Search in German
TFR, AFR, CFR, DFR, TAFR, TACFR, TACDFR Search in French
TKR, AKR, CKR, DKR, TAKR, TACKR, TACDKR Search in Korean
TJA, AJA, CJA, DJA, TAJA, TACJA, TACDJA Search in Japanese
TES, AES, CES, DES, TAES, TACES, TACDES Search in Spanish
TZH, AZH, CZH, DZH, TAZH, TACZH, TACDZH Search in Chinese
TRU, ARU, CRU, DRU, TARU, TACRU, TACDRU Search in Russian
TSV, ASV, CSV, DSV, TASV, TACSV, TACDSV Search in Swedish
TPT, APT, CPT, DPT, TAPT, TACPT, TACDPT Search in Portuguese
TTH, ATH, CTH, DTH, TATH, TACTH, TACDTH Search in Thai
TOH, AOH, COH, DOH, TAOH, TACOH, TACDOH Search in Other Languages

STRING SEARCH FIELDS

The following field codes are for complete string only searches where the input must be an exact match of the
searched text. The Search is case sensitive and will also not match portions on names. Wildcards aren’t
allowed and only complete names will be matched. Search for text/names with multiple words should be
enclosed in double-quotes
PTYP_S:”Patent”
PTYP_S Record Type (String Format)
PTYP_S:”Design Application”
ASN_S Full Assignee name (in Uppercase) ASN_S:”GOOGLE INC”
INV_S Full Inventor name (in Uppercase) INV_S:”JOHN SMITH”

SIMILAR RECORDS BY CLASSIFICATION / ASSIGNEE / INVENTOR SEARCH

The following field codes take a record no. (With or without kind code) and searches for similar records by the
field code criterion given. Usually the field code is ANYXX or ALLXX where XX is the particular field being
matched.
ANYIC Any IC of input patent number ANYIC: WO2014028879A1
ALLIC All IC of input patent number ALLIC: WO2014028879
ALLICGR All IC Group of input patent number ALLICGR: WO2014028879A1
25
ALLICSC All IC Sub-Class of input patent number ALLICSC: WO2014028879A1
ANYUC Any UC of input patent number ANYUC: US6667125B2
ALLUC All UC of input patent number ALLUC: US6667125B2
ALLUCMN All UC Main Class of input patent number ALLUCMN: US6667125B2
ANYCPC Any CPC Class of input patent number ANYCPC:EP2711422
ALLCPC All CPC Class of input patent number ALLCPC:EP2711422
ALLCPCG All CPC Group of input patent number ALLCPCG: WO2014028879
ALLCPSC All CPC Sub-Class of input patent number ALLCPSC: WO2014028879A1
ANYASN Any Assignee of input patent number ANYASN: CN203179714U
ALLASN All Assignee of input patent number ALLASN: CN203179714
ANYINV Any Inventor of input patent number ANYINV: EP2711422
ALLINV All Inventor of input patent number ALLINV: EP2711422A1

Query Modifiers
Query modifiers are special functions that take a search query as an input and modify the results of
that query.

The list of Query Modifiers are:

This query modifier will give all the extended family E.g. EFAMOF(C:((led OR "light
EFAMOF()
members of the results of input query in the result set emitting diode") AND display))

This query modifier will give all the simple family members E.g. SFAMOF(C:((led OR "light
SFAMOF()
of the results of input query in the result set emitting diode") AND display))

This query modified will give all the backward citations of

E.g. BCTOF(TAC:((led OR "light
BCTOF() the results of the input query. Only the first 1000 results of
emitting diode") AND display))
the input query will be considered.

This query modified will give all the forward citations of the
E.g. FCTOF(TAC:((led OR "light
FCTOF() results of the input query. Only the first 1000 results of the
emitting diode") AND display))
input query will be considered.

This query modifier runs a Natural Language Search in E.g. NLPH(TAC:(This statement is
High Sensitivity Mode over the inputted text. The field only an example of the free text you
NLPH()
code specified in the query will be used as the portion to can enter to match across the
match the inputted text. patents.))

This query modifier runs a Natural Language Search in E.g. NLPM(TACD:(This statement is
Medium Sensitivity Mode over the inputted text. The field only an example of the free text you
NLPM()
code specified in the query will be used as the portion to can enter to match across the
match the inputted text. patents.))

This query modifier runs a Natural Language Search in E.g. NLPL(TA:(This statement is
Low Sensitivity Mode over the inputted text. The field only an example of the free text you
NLPL()
code specified in the query will be used as the portion to can enter to match across the
match the inputted text. patents.))

26
Chemical Name Searching

PatSeer has these chemical names indexed in a fashion that makes the search process simpler for you.
You only need to keep a one key rule in mind to form your queries for chemical name searches:

 In PatSeer characters such as hyphen ( - ) , parentheses ( { [ ) } ], apostrophe/quotes ( ‘ ” ), slash

( / or \ ) and comma ( , ) are indexed as space and consecutive spaces are reduced to a single
space

So all you have to do is put down the name or a portion of it within an exact match query and remove
all above characters.

Let’s take a couple of examples of to understand this.

Search syntax for exact Search syntax to match

Chemical name to search match variations

(2,3-trans)-tetrahydro-2- TAC:(2 3 trans tetrahydro 2 TAC:(2 3 trans tetrahydro* 2

phenyl-5- hydroxy-3- phenyl 5 hydroxy 3 phenyl 5 hydroxy 3
hydroxymethylfuran hydroxymethylfuran) hydroxymethyl*)

6(r)-[2-[8(s)(2,2- TAC: (6 r 2 8 s 2 2 TAC: (6 r 2 8 s 2 2

dimethylbutyryloxy)-2(s) dimethylbutyryloxy 2 s) dimethylbut* 2 s)

3,4,6-trideoxy-3- TAC: (3 4 6 trideoxy 3 TAC: (3 4 6 trideoxy 3

(dimethylamino-ß-d-xylo- dimethylamino ß d dimethylamino* ß d
hexopyranosyl xylohexopyranosyl) xylohexopyr*)

In the search syntax we have assumed you are searching within Title, Abstract and Claims. In order to
match all name variations from a portion simply use a wildcard to truncate it as shown above in the last
column. For example TAC:(6 R 2 8 S 2 2 dimethylbut* 2 S) will also match 6(R)-(2-(8(S)(2,2-
DIMETHYLBUTRYLOXY)-2(S) in addition to 6(R)-[2-[8(S)(2,2-dimethylbutyryloxy)-2(S).

27
Legal Status Searching

If you are looking to search Legal Status codes and descriptions then LSE - Legal Status Events is field to
use. LSE allows you to search by PRS code and also restrict it by country. The following examples
explain how to search within the LSE field:

matches all legal events in DE. EP and PCT records that face a legal event
LSE:DE
in their national phase DE records are also matched.
LSE:(DE 2004) matches all legal events in DE in the year 2004
LSE:(DE wd5 R123) matches DE and PRS Code R123
matches records that have PRS code R123 in DE in year 2004
LSE:((DE 2004) wd5 R123)

matches all records that have “Revoked” mentioned anywhere in their

legal status
LSE:Revoked
IMPORTANT: PRS Code descriptions are not always present in legal
status definitions. So it is always advisable to search by PRS Code.
matches all records that have Revoked mentioned in their legal events
LSE:(DE wd10 Revoked)
for DE
LSE:((DE 2004) wd10
Same as above but only for events in year 2004
Revoked)
LSE:20150115 matches any LSE update on 15th Jan 2015
LSE:[20151001 TO
matches any LSE update from 1st Oct 2015 till 30th Nov 2015
20151130]
LSE:[201510 TO 201510]
Alternatively, you can use
matches any LSE update in month of October
LSE:[20151001 TO
20151031]
LSE:[201510 TO 201511] matches any LSE update in month of October and November 2015
matches any LSE update in 2014 or 2015 (No change if only searching by
LSE: [2014 TO 2015]
year)
LSE:[20151015 TO
matches any LSE update on 15th or 16th of October 2015
20151016]

NOTE: In Field Search form, next to the LSE field you will also see an LSE Query Builder icon, which
makes it easy for you to construct advanced LSE queries. It is recommended that you use the LSE Query
builder as much as possible.

28
In addition to LSE, PatSeer also includes two calculated fields- LSC and LSSE

LSC or Current Legal Status is the current status of the record as calculated by PatSeer when going
through its details. Every time new legal status data is received the LSC gets updated for all applicable
records. For each record LSC can only one of the following values:

Name Valid Values Description of Value

Inactive – Withdrawn / Surrendered If a record has been voluntarily given up
A granted patent or an application that has
Active – Granted been granted
Active - Applied A pending application
If a record has been revoked or has become
Inactive - Opposition / Revoked inactive due to opposition
Inactive - Rejected / Refused / If an application has been rejected prior to
Current Legal
Suspended grant.
Status - LSC
If an SPC is Active or has been applied for
SPC Active - Granted / Applied the record
If the SPC has expired of the SPC application
SPC Inactive - Expired / Rejected was rejected
Inactive – Expired If a granted patent has expired
If a granted patent has expired due to non-
Inactive – Non Payment payment of maintenance fee

LSSE or Legal Status Other Significant Events captures other events in the life of the record that do not
necessarily affect the status of the record but may be important to a searcher. This field is also updated
regularly for all records where legal status updates are received. For each record this field can have one
or more of the following values:

Name Valid Values Description of Value

Opposition If the record has faced an opposition.

If a record has been limited in scope for example if

Scope Limited claims have been removed or revoked.

Not Active in one or more Designated States - If a

EP, PCT record has faced cancellation/expiry/
Legal Status Other Inactive in Designated withdrawal/abandonment in one or more
Significant Events - State designated states.
LSSE
Assignment If the record has been reassigned to another entity.

Collateral If the record has been given as security to a bank.

Licensing If the record has been licensed to another entity

Agent Change If the Agent for the record has changed

29
 Litigation If the Record has faced a Litigation in court

If the patent has faced a reexamination request

Reexamination after grant

Term Extension If the term of the patent has been extended

If the Record was reinstated after expiry of a

Reinstatement payment window

In Field Search if you press a spacebar in the LSC or LSSE fields, then you will see a drop down with a list
of the valid values for you to select from.

30
 Syntax Change Revision History
Query Changes effective August 7, 2017

- New Classification Tree Search: Use the $ operator at the end of a full class to search for all the
lower classes in the hierarchy of that class

Query Changes effective August 18, 2015

- New Syntax operator - Underscore: Use underscore to match all three types of combinations
between words – single word, hyphenated word or exact match. So jet_engine will match
jetengine, jet engine and jet-engine.
- New Query Modifiers for Natural Language Searching: NLPH(), NLPM() and NLPL() - They allow
you to combine natural language searches with Boolean search.

Query Changes effective April 15, 2015

The key changes are:

- New FCTOF() and BCTOF() query modifiers – As the name suggests these query modifiers
allows you to get all the forward citations or backward citations respectively for your input
query. Note that due to performance reasons, only the first 1000 results from the input query
will be considered.

Syntax Changes effective June 10, 2014

The key changes are:

- Kind Code support in Deduplication preference: Get greater control in selection of which
family member to display in your result set. When Deduplicating records by simple/extended
families you can now specify the kind code. So the dedup. preference can be given like: USB*,
USA, EPB*, WO, JPC . It’s not mandatory to give kind code however. You can still give a
preference like: EP,WO,US
- New Minimum Must Match Query - Use any# to enforce a minimum number of words to
match within an OR’ed list. E.g TAC:any2(compute* or terminal or pc or laptop) - This will
match any 2 words from the list of words in OR query. Similarly you can use any5, any10 etc.
- New EFAMOF() and SFAMOF() query modifiers - Get all family members for resulting records
of your query in one go ! These Query modifiers will take another query as in input and will
return all the family members of the results of that query. E.g. EFAMOF(TAC:antivirus) – This

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 query will give all extended family members of the results of TAC:antivirus in the search results
page. Any complex query can be passed as an argument to these query modifiers.

Syntax Changes effective May 12, 2014

The key changes are:

- Left Truncation support has been added and it now possible to have queries such as *capsule*
- Automatic matching of basic s-type and ies-type plurals. (So if you search for vehicle it will also
match vehicles. Or if you search for strategy it will also match strategies.)
- List of values in Legal Status Current (LSC) field have been changed
- Field Codes Table with Examples updated with latest set of all field codes

Syntax Changes effective April 4, 2014

The key changes are:

- It is no longer necessary to enclose Full Classes in double-quotes for accurate classification

searching. So the following are now valid examples of searching in classifications:

CPC:B23B29/24 CPC:A01N47* CPC:B23B29/2*

IC: G06F13/00 IC:G06F13/* IC:G06F*

UC:713/201 UC:713/* UC:713* UC:713/201.*

Same is true for searching in FI, FTERM AND FOS (Field of Search)

Syntax Changes effective August 10, 2013

The key changes are:

- Wildcards are no longer supported within double quotes. A double quote query has been
upgraded to do an exact phrase match and so syntax terms such as
AND,OR,NOT,W,WD,WS,WP can also be searched within double quotes
- You are advised to use the inline proximity operators (w,wd,ws,wp) for your proximity searches
as it supports wildcards and is more powerful than using double quotes with ~ or %. As using
double-quotes for proximity doesn’t bring any inherent advantages over the inline proximity
construct, its use has been deprecated and may be completely remove in the future.
Note: This doesn’t affect using double quotes for phrase matching and that will always work.
- Support for searching within Sentence (using the ws# operator) and Searching within same
paragraph (using the wp# operator) has been added
- A new type of search - Hit Cutoff Query using the | operator after a term or phrase has been
introduced

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Syntax Changes effective May 23, 2013

PatSeer upgrades effective today (May 23, 2013) include changes and enhancements that you should
be aware about. This short guide will help you quickly understand these.

The key motivation behind these changes and enhancements is to help you form more powerful search
queries (such as nested phrase and proximity queries) and also to leverage searching styles that you
may already be used to.

To sum up in this update, there is one change and one major enhancement to proximity syntax.

Details of the Change

We have changed the default operator between keywords to be an exact match instead of the AND
operator. The examples below will help understand the effects of this change:

Sample Search Query Older Interpretation New Interpretation

T:(jet engine) T:(jet AND engine) T: "jet engine"

Basically it is interpreted as
an exact match. Note that
this will also match
occurrences of jet-engine
too.

T:”jet engine” T:”jet engine” Remains the same. There is

no change for phrases
within an exact match.

T:turbo jet or jet engine or T:((turbo AND jet) or (jet AND engine) T:”turbo jet” or “jet
rocket engine or (rocket AND engine)) engine” or “rocket engine”

T:jet AND engine T:(jet AND engine) Remains the same.

So if you want to combine words using AND operator, you will now need to specifically mention it in
your query. Further you should also specify AND between different fields when using Command line
syntax.

So for example:

TAC:(carbon nanotube) IC:A61K*

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is incorrect and will not work now. The correct query is:

TAC:(carbon nanotube) AND IC:A61K*

Details of the Enhancement

We have introduced inline proximity operators to the search syntax in addition to the existing
proximity syntax. These new inline operators are w for bidirectional and wd for left-right ordered
proximity.

Valid usage is w (same as w0 meaning within 0 words), w5 (within zero to five words), w2-4 (within two
to four words), w4-4 (within exactly 4 words). Similarly wd, wd5, wd2-4, wd4-4 can be used for left-to-
right ordered proximity.

Note: There is no change with the existing proximity syntax and both the syntax can be used. So all your
older queries will still work and you can continue to use the older syntax too.

So if you want to search for optic* within 2 words of fiber then you can give it as:

TAC:(optic* w2 fiber) This will be look for optic* and fiber appears within two words and appearing
in any order

TAC:(optic* wd2 fiber) This will be look for optic* and fiber appears within two words and appearing
in same order

A key benefit of the new syntax is that you can use phrases within proximity searches too by chaining
the proximity operators. (Please make use of parentheses here to avoid ambiguous queries)

For example:

TAC:((optic* w2 (fiber or fibre)) wd5 (transmission amplifier))

This query will search for optic* within 2 words of fiber or fibre and occurring within 5 words of the
phrase transmission amplifier. Also note that since there is no operator between transmission and
amplifier and exact match is assumed as discussed above.

So the combination of the changes and enhancements allow you to use multiple phrases within a
proximity construct.

TAC:((thermal or flame or (wire arc) or warm or cold or (high velocity oxy fuel) or HVOF or plasma or
detonat*) wd2 (spray* or coat*))

In the query above wire arc and high velocity oxy fuel is treated as exact match. The rest are searched
within 2 words of spraying or coating. So the query will match phrases like:

 Plasma spraying/coating

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  Detonation spraying/coating

 Wire arc spraying/coating

 Flame spraying/coating

 High velocity oxy-fuel spraying/coating (HVOF)

 Warm spraying/coating

 Cold spraying/coating

Finally, note that you can even use a combination of the old and new syntax. For example:

"(((mobile* wd1 phone) OR cellphone OR (cell wd1 phone) OR handheld OR (hand held) OR (cellular wd1
phone) OR (portable communicat* device)) AND (display or LCD or screen*))"%5

In the above example multiple proximity operators have been used within a double quote proximity
construct. The above query could also have been written as:

((mobile* wd1 phone) OR cellphone OR (cell wd1 phone) OR handheld OR (hand held) OR (cellular wd1
phone) OR (portable communicat* device)) w5 (display or LCD or screen*)

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