The guided name search is a variant of the guided object search for name objects. You can execute this search in the entire database or in a user folder/folder structure.
To open the name selector, click on the lookup tool icon on the right side of the name object text box (see Examples in the table below). The names offered in the name selector are automatically retrieved from the database, so you can select the correct name(s) before executing your query.
| Available name search objects with alias | Name selection options | Examples |
| Corporate affiliation CA:() | When you enter the name you want to search for in the text box, you can choose to include/exclude subsidiaries from the query. You can also choose to expand/collapse the hierarchy for more detailed/ simpler view. |
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| Ultimate owner UO:("") | When you enter the name you want to search for in the text box, you can select the items from the list that you want to include in your search. |
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| Original assignee PA:() Standardized assignee PAS: () Normalized assignee PAN:() Current assignee PACU:() Inventor IN:() |
When you enter the name you want to search for in the text box, you can choose from four different options in the dropdown list on the right:
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When you have the name(s) you were looking for, add it/them to the query box by checking in the box in front of each name. You can remove a previously selected name by unselecting the check-box in front of it. Click on Close to finalize your selection and close the lookup tool.
Note: The All assignees PAA:() object is a free text object and has no name selector.
Guided Date Search
The guided date search is a variant of the guided object search for date objects. You can execute this search in the entire database or in a user folder/folder structure. To open the date selector, click in the date object text box.
| Available date search objects with alias |
Date selection options | Examples |
| Publication Date PD: () Application Date AD: () Priority Date PRD:() Document Insertion Time DIT:() |
Alternatively, enter the date directly in the text box above the calendar, and click on the green marker to validate it.
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Click on OK on the date selector tab to add your selected date or date range to the query box.
Note: One document can have multiple priority dates due to for example provisional applications. So when you are searching for documents based on priority dates, your results list will possibly display dates that are outside the query specifications. The results list shows only the earliest priority date for each document. If you open the original PDF, you can see that the priority date you are specifically searching for is part of the array of priority information in the document.
Guided CPC/IPC Search
The guided CPC/IPC search is a variant of the guided object search for the CPC and IPC objects. You can execute this search in the entire database or in a user folder/folder structure.
To open the classification category selector, click on the lookup tool icon on the right side of the name object text box (see Examples in the table below). The categories offered in the selector are automatically retrieved from the database, so you can select the correct category IDs before executing your query.
| Available search objects with alias | Category selection options | Examples |
| CPC CPC:() IPC IPC:() |
You can choose sections, classes, subclasses, groups and subgroups from the list (AH and Y for CPC; A-H for IPC). |
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Click on Close to finalize your selection and close the lookup tool.
Object Search Keyboard Actions
In guided object search, you can choose to list and fill in the objects from the object list, or you can
just type the aliases for each object directly in the query box. For example, if you type the alias TI:
() , you will see that the referred object immediately appears in your object list under the query
box. The same applies to the operators AND , OR and NOT .
| Keyboard Entry | Result |
| TI:(iron) | Corresponding object: |
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Corresponding operator: |
| Any text typed directly in the search box followed by Enter, e.g., "Titanium alloy" . |
Text is searched as full-text search (FT:(Titanium alloy)). |
| Backspace |
Deletes the object. |
Caution: If you use multiple operators (AND/OR/NOT) in your query, use additional parentheses to define the levels of enclosure of the query elements, as shown in the image below:
Parentheses are forbidden characters except for using them to separate query elements. Without parentheses, any text will be treated as a full text object (you can also search for full text objects using the alias FT:() ), such as the term "gold" in the example below:
In this example, the results will include documents with the terms "copper" AND "silver" in the title, AND the term "gold" anywhere in the document.
Authority Selection
By default, TotalPatent One® searches in our entire database when you submit a search query. You can narrow down your search based on relevance to the patent-issuing authority or the geographical region of authorities. You can preselect these options on the Authority selection tab.
| 1 . To preselect your preferred authorities, click on the All authorities option on the search page. 2 . When the Authority selection box opens, select from the list (corresponding to the official UN short name list) the authorities you want to include in your search query. Tip: If you want to exclude only a few authorities from your query, use All to select all authorities, and then individually unselect the ones you want to exclude. 3 . Click OK to save your changes for the query. Note: Your selection will be visible below the search box. The setting will be remembered the next time you log in. |
Caution: For Lexis Advance users, five authorities are available by default: EP, GB, JP, US and WO. They can select/deselect one or more from the five available authorities.
Command Line Search and Query Syntax
If you are familiar with the relevant search syntax and experienced in using more complex queries, you can build your own query without the assistance provided by the guided object search. Building your own query provides more possibilities and options than the guided object search. Experienced users can create and execute their own searches based on the correct query syntax. The main syntax elements are:
- Field search - Field: The optional name or alias of the database field to search (for example: "title" or "TI"). The use of FIELD: is optional, you can also search in all fields by omitting the field definition. The use of a colon (:) after FIELD: is mandatory, as well as the parentheses ().
Examples:
- TI:(antenna) , searches in all titles (TI) for the term "antenna".
- CLM:(radio) , searches in all claims (CLM) for the term "radio".
- waves searches the complete database for the search term "waves" (simple text search without FIELD: definition).
- Combine operators - AND/OR/NOT/NEAR/PRE operators; optional commands to combine multiple queries.
- You can introduce Boolean operators ( AND, OR, NOT) between fields. For example TI: (antenna) AND AB:(radio) searches all titles (TI) for the term "Antenna" AND all abstracts (AB) for the term "Radio". You can add as many fields as required to your query.
- You can introduce Boolean or proximity operators between search words. Example: TI: (antenna AND radio) : searches for titles containing "antenna" AND "radio".
- Nesting search terms using multiple operators can be very useful, make sure you put the brackets () in the correct position: EXM:(Smith) AND (TI:(medical*) OR (TI:bone*)) : searches for an examiner called "Smith" who examined patents containing "medical" or "bone" in the title.
- Multiple language search - LANGUAGE_CODE is an optional parameter to select a particular language to search in another language than the default English (for example "FR" for French). LANGUAGE_CODE can only be used in combination with a FIELD: command. Example: TI.FR: (magnétique) : searches in all French (FR) document titles (TI) for the term "magnétique". The field definition should always be followed by an colon (:), the language can be omitted.
The result list shows all documents that contain the French term "magnétique" in the original (French) title. As titles in the results list are translated to your preferred language the results show the English "magnetic". Test the difference yourself by trying for example TI.EN:(magnetic) (search in all English (EN) document titles (TI) for the term "magnetic". This will result in a completely different set and not include the records found using the French.
- Case operator - TRUECASE These are optional commands to filter results on capitalization or plurality. Example: TI:(TRUECASE(ANTENNA)) : searches in all titles (TI) for the term "ANTENNA" in all capitals
Note: Not supported in combination with the fuzzy matching operator (~).
- Wild card and/or fuzzy matching - ~/*/%/? - Search terms can contain wildcards and/or fuzzy or phrase matching parameters operators. The use of WILDCARDS is optional. Example: TI: (aluminum~1) : searches in all document titles (TI) for terms like (~1) aluminum. This is a useful addition to the search when you do not know the correct spelling, or to avoid differences between for instance US and UK English, in this case the command will add/replace 1 letter when applicable. It will return all documents with the term "aluminum" AND "aluminium".
- Folder search - FOLDER is an optional parameter to narrow down your search to a specific user folder or folder structure. If this option is omitted, the search will include the entire database. Folder search syntax does not require a colon (:). If your folder name contains spaces, put it in double-quotes ("") so the spaces will not be interpreted as "AND" in your query. If your folder name consists of a single word without spaces, double quotes are not required. Folder search is case-insensitive, e.g. FOLDER(Pharmacology) and FOLDER(pharmacology) both search in the folder "Pharmacology". Folder search example combined with a different search field: FOLDER("Project 2016-0323") AND TI:(titanium) : searches in the folder "Project 2016-0323" for all document titles (TI) containing the term "titanium".
- Saved query search - QUERY() is an optional parameter to narrow your search to a previously saved search.
- Annotation search - ANNOTATION is an optional parameter to search only documents with annotations. Users can add annotations to documents. Combining this search with folder search can be useful. Annotation search syntax does not require a colon (:). Annotation search example: ANNOTATION(*) searches for all (*) documents with an annotation.
Parentheses in Query Structure
When you are using command line search, you can identify paired parentheses based on automatically added color (red, purple, orange) to easily see query structure. If more than 3 levels of nested parentheses are added, the colors will be repeated.
Command Line Text Search
While the object search option allows you search in a user-friendly way, if you prefer to build your own search queries, you can use a syntax based command line search.
To create a simple free text search, click on the Edit in full page option. Type your search term in the search box and click Search.
In this example, the results will include all documents with the term Titanium anywhere in the text. This type of search is case-insensitive and uses the term as entered.
Examples:
• Titanium and titanium will give the same amount of results.
• Titanium and Titan will not give the same results.
Caution: You can add multiple keywords to a single search, but spaces between keywords are interpreted as an AND operator unless you use double quotes (") surrounding the keywords.
Search with Object Aliases
Adding a field name to your search allows you to specify your query. The query syntax for a field search is [OBJECT]:("search term") . So-called aliases have been added to the database to replace the technical field names. A colon (:) should follow the search field alias in the query. Double quotes ("") are used to search for a text string with spaces.
Stemming
TotalPatent One® uses a gentle stemming algorithm designed to remove suffixes from words to reduce them to their root form. The stemming algorithm retrieves results based on the following logic:
| Query | Result |
| TI:(Car) Stemming=ON | 616766 results including titles with 'car' & 'cars', but also titles with 'caraxle', 'bumper-car' etc. |
| TI:(Cars) Stemming=ON | 616766 results including titles with 'car' & 'cars', but also titles with 'caraxle', 'bumper-car' etc. |
| TI:(Cars) Stemming=OFF | 64657 results, only titles with the word 'cars'. |
| TI:(Car) Stemming=OFF | 552612 results, only titles with the word 'car' |
Command Line Date Search
You can search for a single date and also for date ranges. Note: Since date searches can retrieve a significant number of results, you may want to limit your search for example by authority (in the examples below, we used the Peruvian patent authority).
- Single date: PD:(2015-08-08) . Searches all documents with a publication date (PD) of "2015-08-08". The date format YYYY-MM-DD is mandatory. The result are two documents published exactly on the 8th of August 2015.
- Dates before: PD:[* to 2015-08-08] . Searches all documents with a publication date (PD) before and including "2015-08-08". The date format YYYY-MM-DD is mandatory, the square brackets [] are mandatory for date ranges. The results are all documents including the two published on the 8th of August 2015. You can also use the smaller than or equal to sign (<=); PD:<=2015-08-08 to obtain the same results. To exclude the two documents on the 8th of August just use the smaller than sign (<): PD: (<2015-08-08).
- Dates after: PD:[2015-08-08 to *] . Searches all documents with a publication date (PD)after and including "2015-08-08". The date format YYYY-MM-DD is mandatory, the square brackets [] are mandatory for date ranges. The results are all documents including and since the two published on the 8th of August 2015. You can also use the larger than or equal to sign (>=); PD:(>=2015-08-08) to obtain the same results. To exclude the two documents on the 8th of August just use the larger than sign (>); PD:(>2015-08-08).
- Dates between: PD:[2015-08-08 to 2015-08-09] . Searches all documents with a publication date (PD) between and including "2015-08-08" and "2015-08-09". The date format YYYYMM-DD is mandatory, the square brackets [] are mandatory for date ranges. The results are all
documents published on the 8th or 9th of August 2015.
Combined Search Aliases
To enable searching in multiple fields at the same time we have added additional search aliases. They can be used as any other search alias in the field position.
| Alias | Description |
| FT:() | Searches 'Title' or 'Abstract' or 'Claims' or 'Description'. |
| TAC:() | Searches 'Title' or 'Abstract' or 'Claims'. |
| TA:() | Searches 'Title' or 'Abstract'. |
Address Search
For most of the legal persona the TotalPatent One® database also contains address information. You can search for addresses using an ALL addition to the search alias:
| Alias | Description |
| INALL:() | Searches 'Inventor' names and addresses |
| PAALL:() | Searches 'Original assignee' names and addresses |
| PANALL:() | Searches 'Normalized assignee' names and addresses |
| PACUALL:() | Searches 'Current assignee' names and addresses |
| AGALL:() | Searches Attorney/Registered Agent' names and addresses |
Execute a Number Search
Search publication and application numbers with the Number Search option. Patent authorities have their own number formats which have changed over time to meet new requirements. As the LexisNexis® database contains numbers from all over the world, starting from the first ever registered patent, the amount of variations in numbers is significant. For an overview of the number variations of the largest authorities, refer to the Number Search Companion in the list of support documents of TotalPatent One®.
Enter manually or paste publication or application numbers in the query box. Alternatively, you can directly upload a number list to the application as a CSV file. In both cases, the results can be viewed in a results list and exported directly
Execute a number search by following the steps below:
1 . Select the Numbers tab to execute a number search.
2 . Type, paste, or upload (as a CSV file) your search criteria in the search box. For example, you have received a list of publication numbers in an email: EP3040745A1, EP3037445A1, EP3037563A1, RU258853C2.
Remember: The list of numbers entered, pasted, or uploaded (as a CSV file) must meet the search syntax requirements. Separate each number from the others by a comma.
Remember: To avoid long-running queries, add only one batch of 4500 (or less) numbers at a time to the list of numbers entered, pasted, or uploaded (as a CSV file).
3 . If you entered your query, click on the Check availability option to start the search.
The retrieved documents can be exported directly, or saved to a folder. If you have any document numbers that do not have a match in the database, you can copy the non-matching numbers for future reference, or edit them directly and run another search. The Include non-matching numbers in export option allows you to export the non-matching numbers for later analysis.
Prepare and Upload a CSV File
You can directly upload your list of publication or application numbers as a CSV file. The results can be viewed in the result list or exported directly. To meet search syntax requirement, you can use Notepad++ or Microsoft Excel (see the next section) to prepare the upload file. You can use for example the following formats to upload your number list: CSV, Excel, and Word.
1. Prepare your list of PIDs in a single CSV file. A PID consists of the following elements: [Authority code] [Number] [Kind code] . Example: [GB][2249734][A] . Store each PID on a separate line, as below:
The kind code is optional. The following number element separator characters are removed from the search: space, tab, comma (,), semicolon (;), forward slash (/) or pipe (|).
2. Select the Numbers tab on the main search page, and click on "browse" to upload a CSV file from your local drive.
3. At the top of the popup screen you can use the option Upload a CSV file. Click browse to select your CSV.
4. Select the type of export you prefer (CSV, Excel, PDF) and what fields to include. You can choose the same options as when you export your search results.
5. Click OK to start your export. The CSV file in not stored for later retrieval and the upload is not stored in history
You can save your results to a folder or download them
- To prepare the CSV all publication numbers must be put in a single Excel column, the first cell can contain the phrase "Publication Number" but this is not mandatory. Try to cleanup the numbers as good as possible. The system cannot handle PID number element separator characters like: space, tab, comma(,), semicolon ( ; ), or pipe (|). So remove all foreign characters before importing like the spaces in the first number in the example.
- Select the column and mark all cells as "Text".
- Use File > Save as to save the file as a CSV file, make sure to mark the file type as CSV.
Caution: The number of characters that can be parsed in the query box for PN:() queries is 65.000 (see Appendix I: Limitations in the Application on page 122). Including kind codes, depending on the number format, you can upload approximately 5.000 publication numbers in a single CSV file. Without kind codes (2 characters per number), you can upload more. The number of results that can be displayed in the results list is (the first) 10.000 documents. If you have large input files, divide them into smaller and manageable batches.
Search by Standardized Numbers
Patent publication numbers ( PN ), application numbers ( AN ), and priority numbers ( PRN ) are standardized in the TotalPatent One® database. Number standardization makes it possible to always
retrieve the relevant documents from various authorities (using different number formats) and from different time periods (numbering rules may change over time).
A list of numbers can only be uploaded directly into the application if it complies with the search syntax requirements. For example, the US application number 14/199,939 will be stored in our database as AN:(14199939) (the number standardization removes all special characters and spaces). To upload a list of standardized numbers, follow the steps below:
- Open your list of application numbers 14/307,226, 14/199,939, 14/199,661, 2013-139308.
- To standardize the numbers, remove all specials characters and spaces: 14307226, 14199939, 14199661, 2013139308.
- Select and copy these cells/this list.
- Open the search page of TotalPatent One®.
- Type the field code for application numbers ( AN:() ) in the query box .
- Paste the copied application numbers in between the quotes: AN:(14307226, 14199939, 14199661, 2013139308)
Caution: The number of characters that can be parsed in the query box is 65.000
Remember: To avoid long-running queries, add only one batch of 4500 (or less) numbers at a time to the list of numbers entered, pasted, or uploaded (as a CSV file).
7. Click Search and review your results:
As a consequence of number standardization, multiple documents from different authorities may be stored in the database under the same number. For example, the results list displays three different
documents (line 8 to 10 in the image below) with the same standardized application number 2013139308. The first one was issued by the Japanese authority ( JP2015011694A ), and the other two by the Russian authority ( RU2588538C2 and RU2013139308A ).
The documents issued by the Russian authority refer to food products, and the one issued by the Japanese authority refers to an electronic product, but as they have the same standardized number, all of them are displayed. To avoid such scenarios, specify your search with additional information.
For example, if you know the authority code of a document you are looking for, add it as a filter to your query.
Number Search by Authority
You can specify your number search to focus on documents from a given authority. For example, if you have a list of priority numbers, but you only want to retrieve patents from a specific authority, e.g. USPTO, follow the steps below:
1 . Open your list of priority numbers: 102011003478, 1020140048812, 10 2014 208 187, 10-2013-0051306.
2 . To standardize the numbers, remove all special characters and spaces: 102011003478, 1020140048812, 102014208187, 1020130051306.
3 . Select and copy this list.
4 . Open the search page of TotalPatent One®.
5 . Type the field code for the US authority ( PC:(US) ) and the field code for priority number in the query box ( AND PRN:() ).
6 . Paste the copied priority numbers in between the brackets: PC:(US) AND PRN: (102011003478, 1020140048812, 102014208187, 1020130051306)
Caution: The number of characters that can be parsed in the query box is 65.000
Remember: To avoid long-running queries, add only one batch of 4500 (or less) numbers at a time to the list of numbers entered, pasted, or uploaded (as a CSV file).
7. Click Search and review your results:
For more specific results (e.g. to retrieve documents from both USPTO and WIPO), you can combine search fields in your query as follows: (PC:(US) OR PC:(WO)) AND PRN:()