On the left-hand side of the search results page, you will see the refine options. Using these, you can refine your search in an efficient manner.
There are various different parameters you can use to refine your results. Explanations of how you would refine your results using each of these are given below:
Advanced Search Filter
Up to 10 fields from the advanced search can be used for further refinement, you can access this menu as shown in the image below.
Assignee
To refine by assignee, select the assignee names that you want to use in your search. In the drop-down menu, you can choose from our different assignee fields, specifically standardized current assignee, current assignee, standardized original assignee (applicant) and original assignee (applicant).
Grouped Assignee
To refine using your previously created groups, select the groups that you want to use in your search. You can learn more about name grouping here: How do I group companies together?
Classification
To refine by classification, select the classification codes you want to use in your search. You can choose from the different classification codes here, those being IPC, CPC, LOC and UPC. You can also choose different levels for the various classification codes here.
Application Year
To refine by application year, select the application years you want to use in your search:
Std. Current Assignee Type
To refine by standardized current assignee type, select the standardized current assignee type that you want to use in your search. You can find an explanation of the different assignee-based search options here: How Can I Refine My Search By Assignee?
Authority
To refine by authority, select the authorities that you want to use in your search:
Patent Type
To refine by patent type, select the types of patent you want to use in your search. You can find an explanation of the different patent types here: What Are The Different Patent Types Within PatSnap?
GBC
To refine by GBC, select the GBCs that you want to use in your search:
Publication Year
As with application year, to refine by publication year, select the publication years you want to use in your search:
Issue Year
As with application and publication year, to refine by issue year, select the issue years you want to use in your search.
Simple Legal Status
To refine by simple legal status, select the simple legal statuses you want to use in your search. We currently have full simple legal statuses for patents from 20 different jurisdictions:
Legal Status
To refine by legal status, select the legal statuses you want to use in your search. We currently have full legal statuses for patents from 20 different jurisdictions where some status types are only available for specific jurisdictions, which is due to the variability in legal systems across jurisdictions:
Legal Events
To refine by legal event, select the legal events you want to use in your search:
PatSnap Family Jurisdiction
To refine results that have a PatSnap family member in a specific country, select the countries from the options:
Simple Family Jurisdiction
To refine results that have a simple family member in a specific country, select the countries from the options:
Inventor
To refine by inventor, select the inventors you want to use in your search:
First Inventor
To refine by the first inventor (where the first inventor is the first listed on the patent document), select the first inventors you want to use in your search:
Agency
To refine by agency, select the agencies you want to use in your search:
First Current Assignee
To refine by the first current assignee (where the first current assignee is the first assignee listed on the original patent document if no reassignments have been made or the first listed in the details of the most recent reassignment), select the first current assignee name:
Current Assignee Count
To refine by the Current Assignee Count, move the white circles along the green line:
Current Assignee State/Province
To refine by the Chinese state/province where an assignee is based, select the states/provinces you want to use in your search:
Cites Count and Cited By Count
To refine by the number of times patents Cited or were Cited By, move the white circles along the green line:
PatSnap Family Count
To refine by the number of family members in a PatSnap Family, move the white circles along the green line:
FI
To refine by FI, select the FIs you would like to use in your search. Please note that this classification is specific to Japanese patents.
More information about it can be found here: What Are The Different Classification Codes?
F-TERM
To refine by F-TERM, select the F-TERMs you would like to include in your search. Like FI, this classification is specific to Japanese patents.
Click here for more information: What Are The Different Classification Codes?
Main IPC
To refine by Main IPC, select the IPC from the options:
Main CPC
To refine by Main CPC, select the CPC from the options:
Patent Value
To refine by patent value, move the white circles along the green line to choose what range of values you want the patents you search for to have. You can find more about how our patent valuation works here: How Does PatSnap Valuation Work?
SEP Source
To refine by SEP source, select the SEP sources you want to use in your search. You can find out more about SEP patents in this article: What are Standard-Essential Patents (SEP)?
Original Assignee Region
To refine by original assignee region, select the original assignee regions you want to include in your search.
Current Assignee Region
To refine by current assignee region, select the current assignee regions you want to include in your search.
Standardized Original Assignee Type
To refine by standardized original assignee type, select the assignee types you would like to include in your search.
Reexam & Invalid Outcome
To refine by re-examination or invalid outcome, select the outcomes you would like to include in your search.
Most common refinements
Although all the refinements may well be used at some point, we are aware that some tend to be used more than the others.
One of the common refinements is by simple legal status. This is often used for FTO searches since if a patent is inactive it can not be used as a prevention tool which gives others freedom to operate using the technologies mentioned in the patent.
Another common refinement is by authority. Since a patent that is filed to a national patent office is only enforceable in that country, if you choose to operate in a specific country only patents from that country can be legally enforceable in preventing you from doing that. So if you refine by authority, you can see where there are white space opportunities available to you in countries that you are interested in operating within.
Another common refinement is by application year. This will enable you to get an idea of the technology fields that were particularly popular in a specific period of time. It also will give you some idea of the application trends in a given area.
Another common refinement is by IPC/CPC. This will allow you to focus your search on a particular area of technology. This will also enable you to see what is already out there in terms of innovation for this area and allow you to predict what the future progress may be in this area.
A final common refinement is by the (original) assignee. This will allow you to see who is especially active in your technology field. This will also enable you to see who would be worth getting a licensing deal with or who your main competitors are.