Two-phase Patent Search Process

The overall patent search process can be described as a two-phase procedure.

Phase I collects documents deemed to be related to the inventive concept being sought, using text and field queries obtained from the search requester, including keywords and keyphrases taken from the inventive description, and classification indices (i.e., subclasses in the USCS, subgroups in ECLA, or theme/facets in JPCS). This produces an initial document set.

Phase II extracts information from the initial document set to meet previously established confidence requirements for the search results. This phase includes performing verification and adequacy evaluations of the initial keywords/terms used, the initial classifications, cross-references, results of published search reports, prosecution histories, examiner search, and NPL search. This phase can result in a search of documents in newly identified classification areas. This phase results in a final document set ready for review and consideration in a search report.

The writer of the search report will provide the information and data necessary for anyone to be able repeat the search in its entirety and obtain the same or substantially equivalent results. The report should include at least these essential elements: a) an explanation in English (or the appropriate language for the search requester) describing the inventive concept as provided by the requester in sufficient detail to encompass the general technical field and all searchable features and elements; b) a list of the documents uncovered that appear to correspond to the inventive concept or parts thereof; c) an explanation of how the uncovered documents correspond to the inventive concept; and d) all search parameters and databases/engines used to obtain the uncovered documents, e.g., classifications, keywords/terms, inventor names, etc.

Francis "Fran" Lorin
siberkhem.com
siberkhem.blogspot.com