Other search fields
The search filed „date“ can be used to limit research results to a specific time period. The optional buttons “between”, “earlier than”, “later than” and “equal” determine the search’s time region starting from the date entered. The date is displayed in the following manner: Day, Month, Year. The year has to be entered using four characters. You can search for different dates: publication, filing date, first published, priority. The optional buttons “between”, “earlier than”, “later than” and “equal” determine the search’s time region starting from the date entered.
Search for countries or organisations
Simply click on the official symbol chose which countries will be searched.
These are shown separated by a semicolon. The search then corresponds to EN OR EP OR...
The button | Select |opens a list of other countries / offices which
can be selected there.
Searching for kind of document (Kind Code)
The kind of document states the publication stage of a publication (e.g. patent, patent application, utility model)
Using the button |Select| a list is displayed in which the types of documents can be selected on which the research should be limited.
The lists can be sorted by clicking on the list title. You can also search in the document type description text.
Searching for “granted” displays all kinds of documents which define a granted patent and also contain the term granted. This has to be performed with great care, as, for example, a German C1 text is classified after the WIPO standards as a Patent Specification (first publication).
You should rather sort the list by country selecting the appropriate document types. Using the SHIFT or Ctrl key you can select multiple document types and pull them in the right list using drag-and-drop. Alternatively you can use the arrows. By double-clicking individual entries can be moved to the right column or get deleted there.
If you only search for granted patents the restriction on issue date is certainly useful.
If you select the item “Text” you can also enter known document types into the text field. Important! You must enter the country, e.g. DE and the document type with space between country and document type (Kind Code). You can also use the Asterisk as a truncation character.
Example: EP A* will find documents with the document type: A1, A2, A3, A8.
You can search for multiple document types by separating the entries with a semicolon
Example: DE A*; EP A2, EP A1signifies: DE A* OR EP A2 OR EP A1.
If you want to exclude a document type, for example finding all EP A* except EP A3, open the search field “Kind of Document” a second time and combine the search fields with “NOT”.