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
|
|
|
|
|
|
Customer
Support Email
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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Overall
Assessment
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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.
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Company
Strength
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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.
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