Comparison of/between patent databases

System Data	Delphion	Orbit.com	PatBase	Thomson Innovation	TotalPatent
Owner Name	Thomson Reuters	Questel-Orbit	Minesoft Ltd; RWS Group	Thomson Reuters	Lexis-Nexis
Address	Delphion 901 Warrenville Road Suite 20 Lisle Illinois 60532 United States	Questel 1725 Duke Street - Suite 530 Alexandria Virginia 22314 United States	Minesoft Ltd. Boston House Little Green Richmond TW9 1QE Great Britain and Northern Ireland	1500 Spring Garden Street Fourth Floor Philadelphia Pennsylvania 19130 United States	LexisNexis 9443 Springboro Pike Miamisburg Ohio 45342 United States
Main Telephone	1-800-411-4811	800-456-7248	1 866 745 3621	+1 215 386 0100	937-865-6800
Main Facsimile	1-630-799-0688	+1 (703) 519-1821	+44 (0)208 404 0681
Website	Delphion	Orbit.com	PatBase	Thomson Innovation	TotalPatent
Customer Support Email		help@questel.com	support@minesoft.com
Tool Type	Patent Search Systems, Non-Patent Data Provider, Commercial/Pay Databases	Patent Analytical Tool, Patent Search Systems, Commercial/Pay Databases, New/Recently Updated	Patent Search Systems, Commercial/Pay Databases	Patent Analytical Tool, Patent Search Systems, Non-Patent Data Provider, Commercial/Pay Databases, New/Recently Updated	Patent Search Systems, Commercial/Pay Databases, New/Recently Updated
Interface Language	English, Japanese	English, French, Japanese, Chinese	English, Japanese	English, Japanese	English
Data Coverage	Delphion	Orbit.com	PatBase	Thomson Innovation	TotalPatent
Full Text: Patent Authority Coverage	US, EP, WO/PCT, DE	US, EP, WO/PCT, JP, AT, BE, BR, CA, CH, CN, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, IN, KR, RU, SE, TW	US, EP, WO/PCT, JP, BE, BR, CH, CN, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, IN, KR, SE, TW	US, EP, WO/PCT, JP, DE, GB, FR, KR	At least US, EP, WO/PCT, JP, AR, AT, AU, BE, BR, CA, CH, CN, DD, DE, DK, EA, ES, FI, FR, GB, IE, IN, IT, KR, LU, MC, MX, NL, PT, RU, SE, SU. Full text original language collections are available for JP, CN, and KR, and all three collections additionally include English machine translations.
Full Text: Patent Kind Coverage	US - Published Applications, Granted Patents; EP - Published Applications, Granted Patents; WO/PCT - Published International PCT Applications; DE - Published Applications, Granted Patents, Utility Models	US - Published Applications, Granted Patents; EP - Published Applications, Granted Patents; WO/PCT - Published Applications; JP - Published Applications, Utility Models; AT - Published Applications, Granted Patents, Utility Models; BE - Published Applications; BR - Published Applications, Utility Models; CA - Published Applications, Granted Patents; CH - Published Applications, Granted Patents; CN - Published Applications, Granted Patents, Utility Models; DE - Published Applications, Granted Patents, Utility Models, Translations; DK - Granted Patents; ES - Published Applications, Utility Models; FI - Granted Patents; FR - Published Applications, Granted Patents; GB - Published Applications; IN - Published Applications, Granted Patents; KR - Published Applications, Granted Patents, Utility Models; RU - Published Applications, Granted Patents, Utility Models, Soviet Publications; SE - Granted Patents; TW - Published Applications	US - Published Applications, Granted Patents, Designs; EP - Published Applications, Granted Patents; WO/PCT - Published International PCT Applications (some full text Japanese and Russian-language documents); JP - Published Applications, Registered Utility Models; BE - Granted Patents; BR - Published Applications, Utility Model Applications; CH - Published Applications, Granted Patents; CN - Published Applications, Utility Model Applications, Utility Models, Designs; DE - Published Applications, Granted Patents, Utility Models; DK - Published Applications, Granted Patents; ES - Published Applications, Utility Model Applications; FI - Published Applications; FR - Published Applications, Utility Model Applications; GB - Published Applications, Granted Patents; IN - Published Applications, Granted Patents; KR - Published Applications, Granted Patents, Utility Model Applications, Utility Models, Design Applications; SE - Published Applications, Granted Patents; TW - Published Applications	US - Published Applications, Granted Patents; EP - Published Applications, Granted Patents; WO/PCT - Published International PCT Applications; JP - Published Applications, Granted Patents, Utility Models (Native Language Japanese Collection also available); DE - Granted Patents, Published Applications, Utility Models; FR - Published Applications; GB - Published Applications; KR - Published Applications, Granted Patents, Utility Models	ALL above collections are assumed to have full text coverage for Applications, Patents, and Utility models (where applicable). The following collections have full text coverage in the specified document type ONLY: AR - Applications; BE - Grants; EA - Applications; IN - Grants; MC - Grants; MX - Grants; WO/PCT - Applications
Full Text: Number of Authorities	4	21	18	8	Full text now includes coverage from at least 32 authorities
Partial Text: Patent Authority Coverage	INPADOC plus a special collection for JP	INPADOC plus special collections for EP, PCT, and US and in-house machine translations for FR, DE, JP, CN, KR and TW	INPADOC plus the following: special collections for CA, CN, TW; additional authority TH; special original language collections for BG, EA, GR, MA, TR, WO, YU; in-house machine translated English abstracts for documents without English family members, and that were originally published in the following languages: German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Korean, Chinese, Japanese	INPADOC and DWPI plus special collections for CA and CN.	INPADOC plus additional authorities BO and VE; machine translations for the Claims and Description fields of authorities AR, AT, BE, BR, CA, CH, DD, DE, EP, ES, FR, IT, LU, MC, NL, PT, SE, WO. Some form of machine translation is available for CN, EA, JP, KR, MX, RU, SU.
Partial Text: Patent Text Covered	INPADOC - English Abstracts; JP - English Abstracts	INPADOC - English Abstracts; EP, PCT, US - key content in FamPat (object of invention, advantages of new invention and drawback of prior art, independent claims, and key concepts); FR, DE, JP, CN, KR and TW - In-house machine translations of English abstracts	INPADOC - Eng. Abst; CA - Eng. Abst and Claims; CN - Eng. Abst, 1st Claim; TH - Abst and Claims; TW - Abst and Claims; BG, EA, GR, MA, TR, WO, YU - Some Original-Language Titles/Abst; Machine-translated Eng. Abst for docs in German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Korean, Chinese, Japanese	DWPI - DWPI Abstracts; INPADOC - English Abstracts; CN - English Abstracts, English Claims; CA - Abstracts and Claims in English, with some records in French.	INPADOC - English Abstracts, Claims, and Descriptions; JP - English Abstracts, Claims, and Descriptions; Other authorities - English Machine Translated Abstracts
Bibliographic: Patent Authority Coverage	INPADOC	INPADOC plus special collections for IN and TW	INPADOC plus additional authorities TH, TT, UZ	INPADOC and DWPI	INPADOC plus additional authorities BO, PY, TT, VE.
Machine Pre-Translated Data	No	Yes, full English machine translations for EP, WO/PCT, JP, BR, CA, CN, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, KR, RU, SE, TW ; machine translations of English abstracts for FR, DE, JP, CN, KR and TW	Yes, at least AR, BR, CN, DE, EP, ES, FR, IT, JP, KR, MX, TW	Yes, JP (machine-assisted translations), CN (machine-assisted translations), KR (machine translations)	Yes, see Partial Text: Patent authority coverage
Full Document Images: Patent Authority Coverage	Equal to esp@cenet plus special collections for US, EP, WO, DE, CH. Coverage may include: AP, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CN, CS, CU, CY, CZ, DD, DE, DK, DZ, EA, EE, EG, EP, ES, FI, FR, GB, GC, GR, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IT, LT, JP, KR, LU, LV, MA, MC, MD, MX, NL, NO, NZ, OA, PL, PT, RO, RU, SE, SI, SK, SU, TR, TW, UA, US, WO/PCT, ZA, ZW	US, EP, WO/PCT, JP, BR, CA, CN, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, IN, SE	Equal to Espacenet: AP, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CN, CS, CU, CY, CZ, DD, DE, DK, DZ, EA, EC, EE, EG, EP, ES, FI, FR, GB, GC, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, LT, JP, KR, LU, LV, MA, MC, MD, MX, NL, NO, NZ, OA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RU, SE, SG, SI, SK, SU, TR, TW, UA, US, UY, WO/PCT, ZA, ZW	Equal to MicroPatent PatentWeb. Actively updated collections include: AP, AT, BE, CA, CH, DK, EP, FR, DD, DE, ES, GB, IE, IT, JP, LU, MC, NL, OA, PT, SE, US, WO/PCT. Partial (often static) collections include: AR, AU, BR, BG, CN, CZ, CS, FI, GR, HU, LV, LT, MX, MN, NO, PH, PL, RO, RU, SU, SK, SI. PDFs only available via special order for BY, CO, DO, DD, KZ, YU, TH, ZM, ZW.	Facsimile plus front page and other images are available for AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CN, CS, CZ, DD, DE, DK, EA, EE, EP, ES, FI, FR, GB, HR, HU, IN, IT, JP, KR, MX, NL, NO, PL, PT, RO, RU, SE, SL, SK, US, TR, WO.
Representative/Front Page Images	Representative patent drawings are available for US, GB, and JP collections, and front pages are shown as thumbnails for WO/PCT and DE collections.	Representative images are available for US, EP, WO/PCT, JP, CA, CH, CN, DE, FR, KR, RU, TW on FamPat and Full Text collections. First page drawings are available for US, EP, WO/PCT, JP, BR, CA, CN, DE, FR, GB, KR, TW on PlusPat.	Representative images are available for many family records. Coverage should be equal to Espacenet.	Representative images are available for at least US, EP, WO/PCT, DE, FR, in addition to DWPI images.	Representative or "clipped" images available for over 50 authorities.
Full Patent Drawing Sets	Mosaics or full drawing sets are not available separately from the complete document images.	Full drawing sets are available for US, EP, JP, AT, BE, CA, CH, DE, FR, GB.	Links to Espacenet mosaics are available. Coverage will be equal to Espacenet.	Full drawing sets are available for at least US, EP, WO/PCT, DE, GB and JP.	Full drawing sets are available for US from 2001, and EP from 2000.
Corporate Tree Data	Yes, corporate data is from 1790 Analytics.	Yes, corporate data is from PatentRatings.	No	Yes, corporate data is from 1790 Analytics.	Yes, corporate data is from the Directory of Corporate Affiliations (DCA).
Non-Patent Coverage	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Special Indexing	No, DWPI is no longer available on Delphion.	Yes, Key Content indexing is included for FamPat records. GenomeQuest and Questel have partnered to provide biological sequence indexing from the GenomeQuest collection on the Orbit.com platform.	No	Yes, the DWPI file, Inspec file, and Web of Science file contain special indexing.	No
Update Frequency	Most collections are updated weekly.	PlusPat, Fampat, and most major full text collections (BR, CA, CN, DE, EP, FI, FR, DE, IN, JP, KR, WO, RU, ES, SE, TW, GB) update weekly. AU and BE full text collections update on a monthly basis, and CH updates on a bi-monthly basis. US applications (Ax) and granted patents (Bx/P/Cx/S/E) update every Tuesday and Thursday.	US, EP, WO/PCT and INPADOC updated weekly. No information is provided about update frequency for other full text collections; update frequency depends on authority.	Most collections are updated weekly, and corporate tree data is updated monthly. The Derwent World Patents Index is updated approximately every 3 days.	Most "major" full text collections (US, EP, WO/PCT, CA, CN, DE, FR, GB) are updated weekly. The JP and KR collections are updated monthly.
Comments on Missing Coverage	Known gaps exist in INPADOC. As with any patent collection, gaps in coverage may exist but have not been discovered or quantified. Citation data for non-US authorities is not available in the system.	Known gaps exist in INPADOC. As with any patent collection, gaps in coverage may exist but have not been discovered or quantified.	Known gaps exist in INPADOC. As with any patent collection, gaps in coverage may exist but have not been discovered or quantified.	Known gaps exist in INPADOC. As with any patent collection, gaps in coverage may exist but have not been discovered or quantified. Gaps in representative patent drawing images are well documented.	As with any patent collection, gaps in coverage may exist but have not been discovered or quantified.
Family Data	Delphion	Orbit.com	PatBase	Thomson Innovation	TotalPatent
Types of Family Definition	Extended INPADOC families	PlusPat families (document publication stages), FamPat families (every document must share exactly the same priority data with some exceptions), and extended INPADOC families	Extended INPADOC families. Simple family division display possible within INPADOC families.	Extended INPADOC families and DWPI families	Simple families (all document share same priority), extended families (all documents directly or indirectly have a priority number in common), and INPADOC families
Derwent WPI Family Coverage	No	No	No	Yes	No
Citation Data Coverage	US	US, EP, WO/PCT, JP, AP, AU, BE, BG, CH, CZ, DE, DK, EA, ES, FR, GB, GR, LU, NL, SG, TR	US, EP, WO/PCT, JP, AP, AU, BE, BG, CH, CY, CZ, DE, DK, EA, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, IT, KR, LU, NL, NO, SG, TR	INPADOC citation coverage plus US from 1971; WO/PCT from 1978; EP from 1978; DE from 1969; GB from 1978; JP from 2005; KR from 2008	Not specified, but probably equal to INPADOC citation coverage. Citation data is available for at least AU, CN, DE, EP, GB, RU, US, and WO/PCT. Forward citations are constructed on the fly.
Special Features of Citation Search	Hyperlinks are provided to forward and backward citations from the record view. Forward citation searching is available from the search interface. A new hit list comprised of the forward or backward citations on the document may be generated from the record view.	Hyperlinks are provided to forward and backward patent citations from the record view, and non-patent literature citations are also displayed in the record view (without links). A citation search form is available, which searches both forward and backward citations for a single publication, or citations can be searched from the command line. Citation searching can be performed on an entire result set or selected results from the hit list. A dynamic citation mapping feature is included.	Hyperlinks are provided to forward and backward citations from the record view. Forward and backward citation searching is available from the search interface. A citation visualization tool is also available.	Hyperlinks are provided to forward and backward citations from the Full Record View. Citation searching is available from the search interface. A dynamic citation mapping feature is included. A watch feature alerts users when new citations are added to a record.	Hyperlinks are provided to forward and backward citations from the record view. Backward citations are searchable through the system interface. Citation mapping feature shows citation relationships between up to 20 documents.
Legal Status Data	Delphion	Orbit.com	PatBase	Thomson Innovation	TotalPatent
Legal Status Data Sources	INPADOC legal status, plus US maintenance fee data	INPADOC legal status file, plus Nomura Research Institute (NRI) data for JP patent legal status, US litigation data, and links to WO, EP, US, AU, BE, BR, CA, CH, CN, DK, EA, EE, GB, GR, IL, IN, JP, KR, MA, NZ and PT national registers	INPADOC legal status, plus US reassignment data and links to national registers	INPADOC legal status file, plus US reassignment, maintenance, litigation, and post-issuance data, EP procedural status, licensee, and opposition data, and JP examination information, registration and post registration legal status, and trial and appeal data (separate subscription required)	INPADOC legal status file, LexisNexis Courtlink® shows related US federal and state court dockets related to US patents.
Classification Data	Delphion	Orbit.com	PatBase	Thomson Innovation	TotalPatent
Allowed Operators	Boolean and proximity operators are available. Proximity operators include both fixed-order and non-order specific operators which allow users to define the maximum distance between terms. Weighting operators allow users to define how important each term is.	Boolean and proximity operators are available. Proximity operators include field, sentence, paragraph, and document based operators and both fixed-order and non-order-specific operators which allow users to define the maximum distance between terms.	Boolean and proximity operators are available. Proximity operators include fixed-order and non-order-specific operators which allow users to define the maximum distance between terms.	Boolean and proximity operators are available. Proximity operators include both fixed-order and non-order-specific adjacency operators that allow users to define the maximum distance between terms, and one paragraph-based operator. Specific consonant, vowel, and numeral wildcard operators are available. Numeric operators are available for date searching. An operator for keyword weighting is also available in the patent collection.	Boolean and proximity operators are available. Proximity operators include sentence and paragraph based operators, as well as both order- and non-order-specific operators which allow users to define the maximum distance between terms. Additional operators include ALLCAPS, ATLEAST, CAPS, NOCAPS, SINGULAR, and PLURAL.
Truncation	Unlimited right truncation, and single character left and internal truncation, is supported in all files. In German files, unlimited left truncation is supported. Single character operator cannot represent 0 characters. Stemming is automatically performed.	Limited and unlimited left, right, and internal truncation and SLART are supported. At least one operator can represent 0-or-1 characters.	Unlimited right truncation is supported (no left-hand truncation is supported). At least one operator can represent 0-or-1 character truncation, and limited internal truncation is available. Stemming is also available.	Limited and unlimited left, right, and internal truncation and SLART are supported in most, but not all data collections. At least one operator can represent 0-or-1 characters. In the patent collection, truncation operators can be combined to facilitate threshold truncation.	Limited and unlimited right truncation are supported, as well as limited internal truncation. Left truncation and SLART are not supported. At least one operator can represent 0-or-more characters.
Unique Features of the Search Interface	Multiple search forms cater to users with various levels of experience; special "US only" data fields are marked.	Search form translates queries into command language which can be viewed and edited in the command line below the search form. Numerous help wizards are available for a variety of fields, including a corporate tree, index look ups, option to find similar keywords, and a multilingual dictionary. Restrict searches by legal status, legal events, or expiration date. Number search includes option to search similar patents.	Quick and easy to refine and/or combine search queries via the command line interface; chemical name thesaurus available; non-Express version offers non-Latin text search capability.	Ability to collapse by application number, INPADOC or DWPI families is unusual and useful; interface offers advanced searching capability in both the search form design and command language. Command language query preview available with syntax checking; record update search available (family changes, legal status change, new publication, citation change, assignment change).	Syntax converter tool allows the user to convert search queries from MicroPatent or Delphion syntax into TotalPatent syntax; queries can be saved into a search history at the same time as they are run. A semantic search feature is available to suggest additional search terms (free for new subscriptions).
On-the-Fly Machine Translations	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Keyword Term Highlighting	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
User-Defined Highlighting	No	Yes, up to 6 different colors are available.	Yes, up to 5 different colors are available.	Yes, up to 20 different colors are available.	No
Unique Features of The Record View	Record view contains collapsible/expandable full text data, and representative drawing or front page image which may be enlarged; there is no way to navigate to the next record without returning to hit list.	Various display options for hit list, including a preview pane for selected results; link from hit list to view related Google Scholar results; bibliographic details, key content, full text, citations, and images are divided under a number of tabs in the full record view; users can generate a timeline of legal events for the entire family in the full record view; mosaic images are viewable directly in the full record for some authorities; links to file history, PDF, and mosaic ordering, national register website, and option to graph citations for family members listed in full record view.	Records are shown as patent families; all bibliographic data points are aggregated into the family record; thumbnail images and full family member data is available from the hit list; full text viewing window allows any full text family member to be opened and viewed.	Quick View or Full View options for Record View; DWPI information displayed alongside original patent text information; legal status, family and citation information displayed alongside text in collapsible fields; patent drawings load in panel to the right of text; hit count statistics displayed; feature to jump back and forth between hits; option to save current record to Marked List and move to next record in one click.	Various tabs allow access to full electronic text, claims only, drawing images, KWIC view, family data, legal status, Courtlink® data, PDF versions of the document, and annotations for the record; for machine translated data, users can toggle between original language and English translation; documents are hyperlinked for quick searching.
Pricing	Delphion	Orbit.com	PatBase	Thomson Innovation	TotalPatent
Pricing Policy	Delphion is available in three subscription models: Basic, Premiere, and Unlimited. The service is priced by the number of "seats," or individual user log-ins, purchased. Pricing for individual document downloads is determined by subscription package.	Orbit.com offers pricing based on the number of individual "seats" necessary. Questel also offers site licenses and global licenses (for company-wide access) for Orbit.com. The service's sales representative can customize subscription options to meet individual company needs.	The system offers yearly, per-seat or site license options. The service's sales representative can customize subscription options to meet individual company needs.	Pricing will vary based on content packages as well as number of users. Subscription packages can include seats for Analyst, Professional and Express versions of the package. The service's sales representatives can customize subscription options to meet individual company needs.	Both yearly subscriptions and transactional (pay-per-use) pricing options are available. The service's sales representative can customize subscription options to meet individual company needs. Semantic search is automatically included in subscription price.
Assessment	Delphion	Orbit.com	PatBase	Thomson Innovation	TotalPatent
Primary System Strengths	Detailed hit list view (makes skimming the hit list more efficient); ability to search unusual bibliographic data fields like maintenance fee data or US government interest information.	Option to search based on family records (FamPat) or records organized around all stages of a document from a single authority (PlusPat/FullText); sophisticated citation search and visualization options, including the option to create a family citation graph; option to view both FamPat and INPADOC families; key content and concepts indexing for FamPat records; unlimited left and SLART truncation; flexible display options for hit list, including a preview pane; option to search and filter results based on legal status; view images and full text simultaneously in full record view; litigation timeline view; search queries automatically saved for a year; optional access to industrial design collection, US patent litigation data, and powerful analysis module.	Unique family based data structure; non-Latin language text content for JP, CN, KR, TH, TW, and WO documents; non-Latin text search options; machine-translated English abstracts; versatile command line; excellent interface; heavy linking to free external data sources.	Availability of DWPI value-added content on flat-fee basis; machine-assisted translation of JP, CN, and KR documents (machine translation only for KR); a native Japanese patent collection and Japanese search interface; unlimited left-truncation; user-friendly, customize-able interface; Ability to rapidly browse through and mark individual records using Quick View; single-platform searching of patent, literature, and business content; very detailed help materials and training available.	Large number of countries covered in full text; availability of semantic keyword generation technology; user-friendly results viewing features; interesting analysis features; solid document delivery options.
Weaknesses and Annoyances	Designed for casual or quick searches; lacks in-depth reading features (e.g. user defined highlighting); DWPI no longer available on the system.	All coverage and help materials are not consistently updated and sometimes give conflicting or outdated information; Menu layouts may be confusing and non-intuitive, with a wide variety of options presented simultaneously that can easily be overlooked due to small text and too many tabs and icons; user-defined highlighting only includes six color options and does not support proximity operators; text in full record view is divided under multiple tabs, which can slow down reviewing speed; no non-patent literature is available through the platform, with the exception of optional access to US litigation data and a link to Google Scholar from the hit list.	Possible although unlikely to lose current search history by accident (unchecking a box prior to log-in); aggregated family data can cause some false hits (same-publication field qualifiers may help with this problem) and long record display length.	System lacks a Keywords In Context (KWIC) feature in record view; system does not support highlighting groups of keyword synonyms in the same color; system does not offer Espacenet drawing mosaics particularly (though it does show drawing pages in thumbnail view in the image panel).	3000 result limit for returned search results; cannot search English machine translations separately from original text; cannot use multiple terms under one highlighting color; cannot combine Work Folders using Boolean operators.
Overall Assessment	A decent tool for quick or occasional patent searchers; probably not ideal for full time patent searchers compared to other systems.	The system provides users access to the unique FamPat family file, with its exclusive definition of patent families and Key Content indexing. Questel is consistently adding new features and content to the system, including a powerful analysis platform and a module that searches US patent litigation data. Optional access to a global collection of industrial designs is another unique feature on the system. Downsides to the system include the confusing interface menus, occasionally outdated help material, and lack of non-patent literature coverage.	This unique tool takes advantage of many free on-line data sources such as links to legal status registers. The use of aggregated families promotes more efficient searching, and the user interface enables in-depth scrutiny of patent full text and drawings.	Overall, the system is a worthy all-in-one patent and literature search tool. Frequent product updates add new coverage, search tools, and fixes for minor system problems.	This system offers impressive coverage and a friendly user interface; however, some impediments to workflow efficiency remain. The semantic search option is a unique offering.
Company Strength	Thomson Reuters is a global leader in information services. It offers data collections and search products spanning multiple industries, including financial, business, healthcare, pharmaceutical, legal, scientific, intellectual property, and tax & accounting fields. In addition, the company has multiple offices around the globe. It is one of the most influential providers of patent search tools, as it has offered multiple well-known products in this area.	Questel-Orbit has a long history as an intellectual property information and service provider. Their products include Orbit.com, QWeb, Questel on Imagination, Merged Markush Service (MMS), DesignFinder, and trademark, law and docketing products. Questel has acquired a number of companies in recent years, including DigiPat, Edital, DesignFinder, The Patent People, Specialized Patent Services and Research Disclosures, thereby expanding its own array of services.	PatBase (and the related PatBase Express) is the only search tool offered by partners Minesoft and RWS. Since its introduction in 2003, the tool has continued to add new data and features. The addition of full text Asian data in 2008 and a visual explorer option in 2011 shows that the company is forward-thinking.	Thomson Reuters is a global leader in information services. It offers data collections and search products spanning multiple industries, including financial, business, healthcare, media, legal, scientific, intellectual property, and tax & accounting fields. In addition, the company has multiple offices around the globe. It is one of the most influential providers of patent search tools, as it has offered multiple well-known products in this area.	LexisNexis claims to be the "world's largest collection of public records, unpublished opinions, forms, legal, news, and business information." As a subsidiary of Reed Elsevier, LexisNexis is a major competitor to the Scientific Business of Thomson Reuters. The company has access to an array of technical literature, legal and financial data products, and owns Univentio, a major producer of OCRed patent data.