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Decisions of the Commissioner of Patents

Help: Search Language

The following is a brief description of the search language used by the text search engine. This language is valid in all text fields except for the Decision of the Commissioner of Patents number, the application number and the patent number fields. 

Word SearchContents

Do not put commas or periods in with your search words.

Non-alphanumeric characters: "/ " and "-" are kept in the text index. All other non-alphabetic and non-numeric characters are ignored. 

Phrases: To search for a phrase of several words, use double quotes, for example, "electric transformer". 

Proximity OperatorsContents

<NEAR> 
search for two or more words within n number of words of each other. n is an integer between 1 and 1024. <NEAR> defaults to <NEAR/256> 
<PARAGRAPH> 
same as <NEAR/100> 


<SENTENCE> 

same as <NEAR/15> 


<ORDER> 

specifies the order of words when using <PARAGRAPH>, <SENTENCE> or <NEAR/n> 


Syntax:

word1 <operator> word2 

word1 <ORDER> <operator> word2 

word1 <operator> word2 <operator> word3 ... 

For multi-word searches, <operator> must be identical and the search is for all words to be within n words of each other. 

Examples:

robot <near> arm 

wrist <sentence> hollow 

wrist <near/5> pin <near/5> hollow 

fiberglass <near> covering 

rotating <order> <sentence> armature 

Logical Operators Contents

<AND> 

search for documents with all words.
<OR> 
search for documents with at least one of the words.
<ACCRUE> 
search for documents with any word. The more words found the better the score.
<NOT> 
exclude documents with specified word. Used only with <AND> and <OR>
Syntax:
word1 <operator> word2 

word1 <operator> word2 <operator> word3 ... 


Examples:

cpu <or> processor 

market <and> survey 

(CD <or> cd) <and> platter 

computer <and> <not> mainframe 

WildcardsContents

"*" specifies zero or more alphanumeric characters 

"?" specifies one alphanumeric character 

Examples:
"fire*" will match fire, fires, fireman, firefighter, etc. 

"?am" will match cam, ram, jam, etc. 

"Wickr*" <near> Kumar 


Note: Wildcards will lengthen the time of your search.


Top of Page Important Notices