Field search is used by roughly 90% of all users – and for a very good reason. With field search, you can define exactly what you want to find. It is possible to create a query piece by piece, selecting the different fields that your keywords are going to be searched in, and the operators that will help you make your query as specific as you need it to be. It allows for the most control over exactly what comes back in your search.
In this article, we are going to cover the following topics:
User Interface
This is what the Field search page looks like:
You'll notice that Field Search is made up of different sections.
You can find the 'Search Helper', 'Save template', and 'Settings' buttons at the top.
There are drop-down menus that will allow you to choose the fields and operators you want to include in your query, and text boxes to type in your keywords.
You also have the option of rearranging the different fields by dragging them to a different position which will also change your query. Click and hold the area right next to the field operator to drag:
On the right side of your field and keywords input section, there are helpers that will provide you with relevant search terms for your query.
At the bottom, you'll find a text box, which allows you to see how your query is coming along. When you hover over a bracket, the corresponding other bracket will also be highlighted at the same time, allowing you to better read your query as you are building it.
Additionally, the search fields in the text box will be colored green. And if your query becomes too long to fit in its entirety within the box, you can scroll up and down or adjust its size by clicking on the handle found at the top (center) of the text box and dragging.
Here you will also find the 'Edit Search' and 'Combine Searches' options (more on those later), the "Save Query" option and the toggle switch to include machine translations as part of your search, and buttons for 'Clear', and 'Search'.
And on the left side of the screen, there is a refinement tool that will allow you to filter out results by patent types and/or jurisdictions.
Fields
Here's an explanation of the different fields you can find within the Field Search various drop-down menus.
Main Fields
You can search using either keywords, a company's name or a patent number here. This will search within title, abstract, claims, description, publication number, application number, assignee, inventor and IPC/UPC/LOC for what was inputted.
Text
- Title/Abstract - PatSnap will search throughout the title and abstract for the keywords that were inputted.
- Title - PatSnap will search throughout the title only for the keywords that were inputted.
- Title/Abstract/Claims - PatSnap will search throughout the title, abstract and claims for the keywords that were inputted.
- Title/Abstract/Claims/Description - PatSnap will search throughout the title, abstract, claims and description for the keywords that were inputted.
- Abstract - PatSnap will search throughout the abstract only for the keywords that were inputted.
- Claims - PatSnap will search throughout the claims only for the keywords that were inputted.
- Description - PatSnap will search throughout the description only for the keywords that were inputted.
- Technical Field - PatSnap will search throughout the technical field only for the keywords that were inputted. This is currently available for CN patents only.
- Background Art - PatSnap will search throughout the background art only for the keywords that were inputted. This is currently available for CN patents only.
- Summary of Invention - PatSnap will search throughout the summary of invention only for the keywords that were inputted. This is currently available for CN patents only.
- Brief Description of Drawings - PatSnap will search throughout brief description of drawings only for the keywords that were inputted. This is currently available for CN patents only.
- Description of Embodiments - PatSnap will search throughout description of embodiments only for the keywords that were inputted. This is currently available for CN patents only.
- Independent Claims - PatSnap will search throughout the independent claims only for the keywords that were inputted, where the independent claims are considered to be claims that reference the essential features of the invention. This is currently available for English language, CN, JP and KR patents only.
Classification Number
- IPC - PatSnap will search within IPC codes for what was inputted.
- Main IPC - PatSnap will search within the main IPC code(s) for what was inputted.
- CPC - PatSnap will search within (official) CPC codes for what was inputted.
- Official/Predicted CPC - PatSnap will search within either official or our predicted CPC codes for what was inputted.
- Main CPC - PatSnap will search within the main (official) CPC code(s) for what was inputted.
- IPC & CPC - PatSnap will simultaenously search within both IPC and CPC codes for what was inputted.
- UPC - PatSnap will search within US patent classification codes for what was inputted.
- LOC - PatSnap will search within LOC codes (which are specific to design patents) for what was inputted.
- FI - PatSnap will search within FI codes (which are Japanese) for what was inputted.
- F-Term - PatSnap will search within F-Term codes (which are also Japanese) for what was inputted.
- Application domain - PatSnap will search within application domains (which are created by PatSnap) for what was inputted.
- Technology topic - PatSnap will search within technology topics (which are created by PatSnap) for what was inputted.
- SEIC - PatSnap will search with SEIC codes (which are Chinese) for what was inputted.
- GBC - PatSnap will search within GBC codes (which are also Chinese) for what was inputted.
Company / People
- All Assignees - PatSnap will search within 4 separate assignee fields for what was inputted. These 4 fields are Standardized Current Assignee/Current Assignee/Standardized Original Assignee (Applicant)/Original Assignee (Applicant).
- Standardized Current Assignee - PatSnap will search within standardized current assignees for what was inputted.
- Current Assignee - PatSnap will search within current assignees for what was inputted. You may also find this article useful: What Is The Difference Between Assignee And Current Assignee?
- Grouped Assignee - PatSnap will search within grouped assignees for what was inputted.
- Standardized Original Assignee (Applicant) - PatSnap will search within standardized original assignees for what was inputted. You may also find this article useful: What Is The Difference Between Assignee And Standardized Assignee?
- Original Assignee (Applicant) - PatSnap will search for the person or entity to whom ownership of a patent or patent application belongs or was assigned at the first time it was applied.
- First Original Assignee - PatSnap will search within the first original assignee for what was inputted in the original document when first submitted.
- First Current Assignee - PatSnap will search within first current assignees for what was inputted where first assignee is the first assignee listed on the original patent document.
- Standardized Current Assignee Type - PatSnap will search for patents that have a standardized current assignee of a particular type (Company/Person/Academy/Government/Hospital/Bank/Other). You may also find this article useful: What is the Standardized Assignee Type?
- Inventor Name - PatSnap will search within inventor names for what was inputted.
- First Inventor - PatSnap will search within first inventor names for what was inputted where first inventor is the first inventor listed on the original patent document.
- Agency - PatSnap will search within agency names for what was inputted where an agency is the law firm that an attorney works within.
- Attorney Name - PatSnap will search within attorney names for what was inputted.
- Primary Examiner - PatSnap will search within primary examiner names for what was inputted.
- Assistant Examiner - PatSnap will search within assistant examiner names for what was inputted.
Date
- Application Date - PatSnap will search for patents applied for between the dates inputted. If the left-hand option is left blank then the search will be up to the date inputted on the right and if the right-hand option is left blank then the search will be from the date inputted on the left.
- Publication Date - PatSnap will search for patents published between the dates inputted. If the left-hand option is left blank then the search will be up to the date inputted on the right and if the right-hand option is left blank then the search will be from the date inputted on the left.
- Priority Date - PatSnap will search for patents with a priority date between the dates inputted, where you can find more about priority dates here: What Are Priority Dates?. If the left-hand option is left blank then the search will be up to the date inputted on the right and if the right-hand option is left blank then the search will be from the date inputted on the left.
- Estimated Expiry Date - PatSnap will search for patents that have or are estimated to expire between the dates inputted. If the left-hand option is left blank then the search will be up to the date inputted on the right and if the right-hand option is left blank then the search will be from the date inputted on the left.
- Issue Date - PatSnap will search for patents issued between the dates inputted. If the left-hand option is left blank then the search will be up to the date inputted on the right and if the right-hand option is left blank then the search will be from the date inputted on the left.
- Substantive Examination date - PatSnap will search for patents that were in substantive examination between the dates inputted. If the left-hand option is left blank then the search will be up to the date inputted on the right and if the right-option is left blank then the search will be from the date inputted on the left.
- PCT Entry Date - PatSnap will search for patents that have entered an application with WIPO between the dates inputted. If the left-hand option is left blank then the search will be up to the date inputted on the right and if the right-hand option is left blank then the search will be from the date inputted on the left.
- Legal Status Date - PatSnap will search for patents that had a legal status update between the dates inputted. If the left-hand option is left blank then the search will be up to the date inputted on the right and if the right-option is left blank then the search will be from the date inputted on the left.
Number
- Publication Number - PatSnap will search within publication numbers for what was inputted.
- Application Number - PatSnap will search within application numbers for what was inputted.
- Priority Number - PatSnap will search within priority numbers for what was inputted.
- Kind Code - PatSnap will search within kind codes for what was inputted.
- PCT Application Number - PatSnap will search within PCT application numbers for what was inputted.
- PCT Publication Number - PatSnap will search within PCT publication numbers for what was inputted.
Address
- Original Assignee Address - PatSnap will search for the address of the person or entity to whom ownership of a patent or patent application belongs or was assigned at the first time it was applied.
- Current Assignee Address - PatSnap will search for the address of the current assignee for what was inputted.
- Inventor Address - PatSnap will search within inventor addresses for what was inputted.
- Priority Country - PatSnap will search within priority countries for what was inputted where the priority country is the jurisdiction where the priority document for a particular patent was filed.
- Authority - PatSnap will search within authorities for what was inputted.
Citation/Family
- Cite Patent - PatSnap will search for patents cited by a particular patent.
- Cited by Patent - PatSnap will search for patents that cited a particular patent.
- Cite Or Cited By Patent - PatSnap will search for patents that cited or were cited by a particular patent.
- Count of Cites Patents - PatSnap will search for patents that have cited a number of patents between the values inputted. If the left-hand option is left blank then the search will be up to the number inputted on the right and if the right-hand option is left blank then the search will be from the number inputted on the left.
- Count of Cited by Patents - PatSnap will search for patents that have been cited by a number of patents between the values inputted. If the left-hand option is left blank then the search will be up to the number inputted on the right and if the right-hand option is left blank then the search will be from the number inputted on the left.
- Cited By Current Assignee - PatSnap will search for patents that have cited a specific assignee's patent.
- Citation Category - PatSnap will search for patents based on if they have citations of a specific category.
- Simple Family - PatSnap will search for the simple family members for a particular patent.
- INPADOC Family - PatSnap will search for the INPADOC family members for a particular patent.
- PatSnap Family - PatSnap will search for the PatSnap family members for a particular patent.
- Simple Family Count - PatSnap will search for patents that have a count of simple family members between the values inputted. If the left-hand option is left blank then the search will be up to the number inputted on the right and if the right-hand option is left blank then the search will be from the number inputted on the left.
- INPADOC Family Count - PatSnap will search for patents that have a count of INPADOC Family Members between the values inputted. If the left-hand option is left blank then the search will be up to the number inputted on the right and if the right-hand option is left blank then the search will be from the number inputted on the left.
- PatSnap Family Count - PatSnap will search for patents that have a count of PatSnap Family Members between the values inputted. If the left-hand option is left blank then the search will be up to the number inputted on the right and if the right-hand option is left blank then the search will be from the number inputted on the left.
Patent Status/Quality
- Legal Status - PatSnap will search for patents that have a particular legal status.
- Legal Events - PatSnap will search for patents that have a particular legal event associated with them.
- Simple Legal Status - PatSnap will search for patents that have a particular simple legal status.
- Patent Value - PatSnap will search for patents that have a value between the values inputted where you can find out more about the valuation method used in this article: How Does PatSnap Valuation Work? . If the left-hand option is left blank then the search will up to the value inputted on the right and if the right-hand option is left blank then the search will be from the number inputted on the left.
- Page Count - PatSnap will search for documents that have a total number of pages within the specified range. This field does not currently cover the searching of design patents.
- Claim Count - PatSnap will search for patents that have a number of claims between the values inputted. If the left-hand option is left blank then the search will be up to the number inputted on the right and if the right-hand option is left blank then the search will be from the number inputted on the left.
- Count of Original Assignees (Applicant) - PatSnap will search for a total of original assignees within the specified range.
- Count of Current Assignees (Applicant) - PatSnap will search for a total of current assignees within the specified range.
- Count of Inventors - PatSnap will search for total number of inventors.
- Government Interest - PatSnap will search for patents that have a government interest. This is for US patents only.
- Examination Time (Unit is month) - PatSnap will search within examination times for what was inputted.
- Patent Type - PatSnap will search for patents that are of a particular type (Applications/Patents/Utilities/Design).
- Maintenance Period - The length of time between the filing date of the patent and the expiry date (for valid patents, as of the current date) in months (Supported for US, European and Chinese patents)
- Grant Period - The length of time from the patent application date to the grant date in months (supported for a limited number of jurisdictions)
- Technical Efficacy Label - PatSnap will search for patents that include a particular benefit. (Supported for Chinese invention patents and utility model searches)
Workspace
- My Workspace - Patsnap will search for patents in up to 20 personal workspace folders (Can search 1 million patents in one query).
- Company Workspace - Patsnap will search for patents in up to 20 company workspace folders (Can search 1 million patents in one query).
Custom Fields
- It will list your Company Custom Fields, and allow you to search based on their contents. All custom field formats are supported with this search field.
Not every single existing search field is found in Field Search's drop-down menus, but it is possible to search for them and add them to your query. Just click on on a field drop-down, start typing the name of the field you want to use, and click on it once it appears.
After you have successfully added the search field, a brief example will appear in the text box.
Settings
Clicking on the settings button (gear icon) will open up a pop-up screen where you will be able to choose your logic for your search. You can either stick with the default logic (NOT>AND>OR) or choose to search in order of inputted fields. This will give you a lot of flexibility with respect to how you would like the system to interpret your search query. For example, currently, AND has priority over OR, but you can choose to have it the other way around:
The settings button will also allow you to select how your search results will be displayed. You can choose to group results by family (and select criteria for choosing the family representative), tag a result if it is related to another document from a specific authority, choose the language in which the results will be displayed, and if you want to use stemming in your search.
Saving templates
The save template option on this page allows you to save the selection of fields you have used here for future searches.
Helpers
Keyword Helper
Using the Keyword Helper, you can enter up to 5 words at a time (separated by a comma), and PatSnap will scan through millions of other patent abstracts to suggest synonyms, hypernyms and hyponyms of the words entered. Click once to turn a word green and state that it is relevant to your search. Anything that you leave grey will be ignored. Once you are happy, click on "Submit".
This is done by grouping patent text into sets of keywords, ordered by relativity. We then use these sets to determine similar or related keywords to then appear in the keyword helper.
Classification Code Helpers
You can find the Classification Code Helpers next to some of the classification code search options at the end of a specific field. These are useful since they help you find the classification codes that are used for specific technology fields.
You will notice that for "Main IPC", "IPC & CPC" and "IPC" (International Patent Classification), the helper option is "IPC Helper". These are not the same since the helper next to "Main IPC" will search for MIPCs and the helper next to "International Classification" will search for IPCs. The same applies to the CPC, Main CPC and Official/Predicted CPC helpers.
To use the Classification Code Helpers, click the button of the helper for the classification code you are interested in using. From here, type into the search bar for this helper and click the "Search" button. You will then be given a list of options of, in this case, IPCs that use this input. Click on the green + icons next to these to add them as part of your search.
While we have used the IPC helpers to illustrate this example, the CPC, Main CPC, UPC, LOC, FI, F-TERM, Application domain, Technology topic and GBC helpers work in the same way.
Edit Search
If you are struggling to put a complex search together, the Edit Search will help you build it out piece by piece. This is particularly useful if you do not have much previous experience of Boolean searching and want to do a particularly specific search.
To access the Edit Search, click the "Edit search" option from the Field Search page.
This is what the "Edit Search" screen looks like:
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On the top half of the screen, you'll have a text box where you will be adding and editing your keywords and operators.
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If there is a syntax error in your query, it will be indicated in red. |
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Above the text box, on the right side, you will find the "Databases" and "Settings" buttons. |
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If you click on Databases, you will be able to indicate which databases and patent types are going to be considered for your search. |
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"Settings" will let you adjust your grouping preferences, tag results if a family member exists in a certain territory, and to display the Title and Abstract of your results in English or Japanese. Stemming can also be toggled ON/OFF from this menu. |
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| On the lower right corner of this text box, you will have access to Boolean operators, wildcards, and position connectors. It is also possible to access the Search Helper from here. |  |
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Underneath the text box, you will find a button labelled "Historic queries". |
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Clicking on "Historic queries", will allow you to import queries that are part of your search history, or queries you have saved in the past. Just select a query, and then click on "Insert" If you click on "View Results", located on the right side of each query, a new tab containing the results screen for the corresponding search string will open. |
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| At the bottom of this page, you'll find the "Common search fields" section. Here you'll find the most commonly used fields, and a search bar that will allow you to search for other fields that are not listed. |  |
Just click on the different Operators and/or search Fields to start editing the query you put together on the "Field Search" screen, or start building a new query from scratch.
Combine Searches
Similar to "Edit Search", "Combine Searches" will allow you to indicate the databases and patent types you want to consider for your search ("Databases" and "Settings" buttons), and to select from a variety of fields and operators to put together a query ("Common Search Fields"). Syntax errors are highlighted in red as well.
Additionally, in this section you will be able to preview the outcome of different queries, and to combine them.
Every time you enter a query, it will be displayed underneath the text box. It will show an approximation of the total results it would generate on the right side, and each query will be assigned a number (i.e., S1, S2, S3, etc.) on the left.
Once you have entered 2 or more queries, you will be able to easily combine them using the number they were assigned as a search term.
If you are struggling to find the right query to use you can always use the Historic queries button.
This allows you to browse through and use any queries you had previously used including semantic and bulk queries. Once you have found the query you want to use, you can just add it into the Combine Search.
If you wish to export the queries you have made, you can easily do so by clicking on the export button on the bottom left of your queries.
Using this tool, you can create up to 1000 projects to organize your searches. 10 Projects will be displayed at one time and you can edit which 10 is displayed by clicking on the Manage button.