Systems such as Micropatent PatentWeb and Delphion are examples of legacy systems that are no longer receiving feature updates (although they are supported with patent coverage updates). Several of these legacy systems exist because of industry mergers and acquisitions, or because another search system has been developed as a flagship (such asThomson Innovation, with regards to Micropat and Delphion).
While it’s fine to be comfortable sticking to a system you know how to use, you can miss out on a lot in the information retrieval field by clinging to outdated technology. Newer systems have more ways to create search strings, sort results, view results, and manage your workflow. Learning the new technology will pay off, if you’re willing to bite the bullet and change your search system.
