Visual Search

Using the Search Panel
Building a Search Query
Boolean Operators
Parentheses (Subqueries)
Searching for Patent Families by Application, Publication, and Patent Numbers
Full-Text Search
Dragging Items From Charts and Tables Into the Search Panel

Using the Search Panel

Use the icons displayed in the top menu of the search panel to add search fields to your search query.

	Select one of the icons to add one of the most frequently used search fields to the search panel.
	Hover over each icon to display a high-level explanation of the search field(s) selectable via this icon.
	Click on the “More” icon to access all available search fields.

In the search panel, you can also set what kind of patent families you want to search for.

	Activate the toggle "Include Inactive Families" to include patent families that have the legal status “inactive” (i.e., families with no pending or in force member) as search results.
	Activate the toggle "Include Other IP Rights" to include patent families that only have members that are no patents (e.g., utility models or design patents).

 

 Moreover, you can access your saved searches and perform various actions regarding your search query.

	Click on "Open" to apply a saved search in the search panel.
	Click on "Save" to save your search query for later use.
	Click on "Search History" to access automatically saved searches that you have run in the past.
	Click on "Undo" or "Redo" to undo or to redo unwanted actions. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcuts "Ctrl + Z" and "Ctrl + Y".
	Click on "Copy" and "Paste" to copy and pasted your search query. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcuts "Ctrl + C" and "Ctrl + V".
	Click on "Clear All" to delete your search query.

Building a Search Query

To build a search query, start by adding a search field to the search panel.

	Click on one of the icons, e.g., "Owner". This will add the search field "Owner" to the search panel.
	Enter the name of the desired search item, e.g., the owner "RELX"
	Select the search item to add it to your search query.

Next, you can add another search field.

	Click on another one of the icons, e.g., "Time". This will add the search field "Publication Date" to the search panel
	Move the slider of the search field "Publication Date" to define the desired date range.
	Alternatively, you can click into each of the date fields and select the desired dates.

To run the search to retrieve search results based on your search query, click on the search button at the bottom of the search panel.

The search results in this example show that, as of the Reporting Date 04/06/2023, the owner RELX owned 75 active patent families published between 01/01/2015 and 12/31/2020.

Many search fields come with a drop-down menu that allows you to select a related search field instead. To access this menu, click on the arrow icon displayed next to the search field name.

To access an overview of all available search fields, click on the "More" icon.

	Click on the "More" icon to access all available search fields.
	To quickly search for a search field, enter one or more keywords.
	Alternatively, you can access a section of interest, e.g., "Indicator".
	Select a search field to add it to the search panel.

 

Boolean Operators

In the field search mode, you can use the following Boolean operators between search fields: OR, AND, AND NOT. In addition, you can enclose parts of your search query in parentheses (…) to create subqueries.     

The AND operator is a logical conjunction that combines two conditions. Only patent families for which    both conditions (the condition defined in the search field before the "AND" and the condition defined in the search field after the "AND") are true, are returned as the search results.  When you add a new search field to the search panel, the AND operator will be applied by default between the search fields.

 

Reading Example: As of April 06, 2023, there were 124 active patent families belonging to RELX and including at least one member classified into the IPC subgroup G06F 17.

The OR operator is a logical disjunction. Patent families for which at least one of the conditions (the condition defined in the search field before the "OR" or the condition defined in the search field after the "OR") is true, are returned as the search results.

To apply an OR operator between two search fields, click on the default AND operator, use your keyboard to delete the "AND", and enter an "OR".

Reading Example: As of April 06, 2023, there were 307,149 active patent families either belonging to RELX or including at least one member classified into the IPC subgroup G06F 17 or both.

Note that items within the same search fields are connected by OR operators.

Reading Example: As of April 06, 2023, there were 563,709 active patent families including at least one member classified into the IPC subgroup G06F 17 or into the IPC subgroup H04L 29 or both.

 

NOT Operator

The NOT operator is a logical negation. Patent families for which the condition following the NOT is false, are returned as the search results.

To apply a NOT operator between two search fields, click on any existing operator between the search fields and use your keyboard to replace it by "AND NOT".

Reading Example: As of April 06, 2023, there were 95 active patent families belonging to RELX and not including any member classified into the IPC subgroup G06F 17.

 
If you want to use the NOT operator at the beginning of a search query, enter only "NOT".

Reading Example: As of April 06, 2023, there were 14,267,590 active patent families not including any member classified into the IPC subgroup G06F 17.

	Click on the "Number" icon add the search field "Patent Family" to the search panel.
	Click on "Add" to enter the application, publication, patent number you want to search for.
	Enter the application, publication, or patent number you want to search for.
	Select the related patent family that was matched to your input.
	Click on the search button to run the search.

You can also add multiple numbers at once. To do so, enter the numbers separated by semicolons:

	Click on the "Number" icon add the search field "Patent Family" to the search panel.
	Click on "Add" to enter the application, publication, patent numbers you want to search for.
	Enter the application, publication, or patent numbers you want to search for separated by semicolons.
	Select the related patent families that were matched to your input.
	Alternatively, you can select all patent families that were matched to your input.
	Click on the search button to run the search.

Tip: You can use the same approach for the search fields "Owner", "Applicant", "Assignee", "Assignor", "Inventor", "Opponent", "IPC", "CPC", and "F-Term".

To add a large quantity of numbers to the search panel at once, you can copy and paste numbers from an external file into the input 

field of the "Patent Family" search field.

.

	Copy application, publication, or patent numbers from an external file, e.g., from an Excel spreadsheet.
	Paste the application, publication, or patent numbers into the input field of the "Patent Family" search field.
	Use the arrows in the input field to navigate through the list of numbers you have pasted.
	Select the related patent families that were matched to your input.
	Alternatively, you can select all patent families that were matched to your input.

Tip: You can use the same approach for the search fields "Owner", "Applicant", "Assignee", "Assignor", "Inventor", "Opponent", "IPC", "CPC", "F-Term", and "UN SDGs".

The four input numbers have now been added to the search panel.

	The 4 input numbers have been added to the search panel. Each patent family is represented by the document number of the family representative.
	The search button displays the number of patent families returned as the search results. In this example, the number of active patent families found is 2, while there is a total of 4 patent families in the search query.
	To include inactive patent families and/or other IP rights, use the toggles in the top menu of the search panels.

Full-Text Search

The PatentSight full-text search runs on the English-language versions of all documents available in our database, regardless of their original language. If a human translation of a document is not available, state-of-the-art machine translation is used.
This means that your search may only contain English keywords. For example, if you search for "water", the full-text search will also find Chinese documents that contain the character "水" ("water").
In the field search mode, you can add the full-text search to the search panel just like any other search field.

	Click on the "Full-Text" icon to add the search field "Full-Text Search" to the search panel.
	The search field "Full-Text Search" has now been added to the search panel. By default, the segments "Title", "Abstract", and "Claims" are preselected.

Next, select the document segment(s) you want to search in and enter the keywords you want to search for.

	Select one or more segments you want to search in, e.g., "Title".
	Enter the keywords you want to search for, e.g., "steel AND alloy".
	Based on your input, the full-text search will determine the number of hits that meet the search criteria.  Note that the search field displays the total number of documents found and not the number of patent families.

In the PatentSight full-text search, you can use Boolean operators, parentheses (subqueries), proximity operators, and wildcards.

For more details, see also → Full-Text Search or the → Search Companion. Alternatively, you can hover over the "Full-Text Search" search field to display an overview of the full-text search syntax.

Dragging Items From Charts and Tables Into the Search Panel

It is possible to drag and drop items from data visualizations (charts, tables, owner summary, family summary etc.) into the search filter. Doing so will adjust your search query accordingly.
For example, you can drag an owner from the "Related Owners" tab of the owner summary into the search panel.

You can drop an owner item into an existing "Owner" search field. When the search field is highlighted in light blue, you can let the item go.

Alternatively, you can drop it an item directly into the search panel. This will create a new search field including this item. By default, the new search field will be added with an AND operator.

In the same manner you can drag items used as vertical groupings in tables and drop them into the search panel.

In tables, you can also select multiple items and drag them all at once into the search panel.

It is also possible to drag and drop an item from a chart. Depending on the chart type, you can drag items either from the chart legend or from the chart axis. However, it is not possible to drag multiple items at once or to drag items from chart labels (e.g., bubble labels or line labels).

Tip: In the field search mode, you can drag an item anywhere into your search query: above an existing search field, between two search fields, or under an existing search field. The default operator added along with the item will always be the "AND" operator.