Expert search enables you to create advanced and complex queries using field abbreviations. Expert Search employs the use of boolean operators, nesting and wildcards in your expert search query. To add value to your searches, Patents.com incorporates proximity searching and search term weighting features in expert search. Word stemming, sort order and date range options are available to further enhance your search. In both quick search and expert search, the collection searched is defaulted to US patents. To change the collection searched, just select the required collection from the collection options provided.
Boolean Operators
Boolean operators are used to combine multiple field searches or to combine multiple words or phrases. Patents.com Boolean Operators include the AND, OR and NOT operators.
Boolean Operator Example Function
- AND Laser AND Diode Finds documents which have both "laser" AND "diode".
- OR Laser OR Diode Finds documents which have either "laser" OR "diode" or both.
- NOT Laser NOT Diode Finds documents which have only "laser" and will exclude all documents with word "diode".
Wildcard and Special Searches
Wildcard
To perform a single character wildcard search use the "?" symbol (i.e. te$t).
To perform a multiple character wildcard search use the "*" symbol (i.e. test*).
You can also use the wildcard searches in the middle of a term (i.e. te*t).
Note: You cannot use a * or ? symbol as the first character of a search.
Fuzzy Searches
To perform a fuzzy search use the tilde, "~", symbol at the end of a Single word Term. For example to search for a term similar in spelling to "roam" use the fuzzy search: roam~
This search will find terms like foam and roams.
Proximity Searches
To perform a proximity search use the tilde, "~", symbol at the end of a Phrase. For example to search for the words "laser" and "diode" within 10 words of each other in a document use the search: "laser diode"~10
Boosting a Term
To boost a term use the caret, "^", symbol with a boost factor (a number) at the end of the term you are searching. The higher the boost factor, the more relevant the term will be. Boosting allows you to control the relevance of a document by boosting its term. For example, if you are searching for “laser diode” and you want the term "laser" to be more relevant boost it using the ^ symbol along with the boost factor next to the term. You would type: laser^4 diode
This will make documents with the term laser appear more relevant. You can also boost Phrase Terms as in the example:
laser diode^4 "diode laser"
By default, the boost factor is 1. Although the boost factor must be positive, it can be less than 1 (e.g. 0.2).