Title page
Contents
Introduction 4
How does the patent system work? 5
Protection 5
Disclosure 8
Why use patent information? 9
What information does a patent document contain? 10
Where can patent information be found? 13
What strategies can be used to search patent information? 15
Search by keyword 17
Search by patent classification 20
Search by number/date ranges 23
Search by applicant/assignee name or by inventor name 25
Search in specific data fields 26
Using citations and reference information 27
Good practices in searching patent documentation 28
How can patent information be used? 32
Prior art searches 32
Practical case 34
Gathering business intelligence 37
Practical case 38
Avoiding patent infringement 41
Patent valuation 42
Identifying key trends in technology development 43
Practical case 44
Where can non-patent literature be located? 48
Fig. 1. Patent granting procedure 8
Fig. 2. Sample patent application front page 12
Fig. 3. IPC classification dot-levels 22
Fig. 4. PATENTSCOPE field combination search 26
Fig. 5. Sample international search report (ISR) 29
Fig. 6. Search precision vs. recall 31
Fig. 7. PATENTSCOPE search results 36
Fig. 8. PATENTSCOPE search results 37
Fig. 9a. Statistical analysis of search results 40
Fig. 9b. Graphical analysis of search results 40
Fig. 10. Relative specialization index showing concentration of patenting activity in a specific country 44
Fig. 11. PATENTSCOPE search results 45
Fig. 12. Visualization of search results by office of filing 46
Fig. 13. Visualization of search results by publication date 47