Patents

The Patents page is where you run prior art searches against the EPO and USPTO databases and save relevant patents to your matter. Search works with or without an open matter; bookmarking requires one.

Type a query in the search bar and press Enter. Queries use CQL (Contextual Query Language), the query syntax used by the EPO: field codes combined with AND and OR, for example ti="battery storage" AND pa="Tesla". Common fields are ti (title), ab (abstract), pa (applicant), in (inventor), pn (publication number), and pd (publication date).

The query, filters, and page live in the URL, so a search can be bookmarked in your browser or shared as a link. Patent data comes from the EPO's worldwide coverage plus USPTO data, so results span far more than European publications.

Choosing a search engine

Under View → Search engine you can switch between two engines:

  • EPO OPS (the default): searches the EPO's live database with the CQL syntax described above.
  • Local (beta): searches Nodes-IP's own patent index. Use plain keywords instead of CQL: quoted phrases match exactly ("battery storage"), OR broadens, and a leading minus excludes (-solar). Field codes such as ti= are not supported.

The local engine is in beta and its index is still growing, so it returns fewer results than EPO OPS. A Local search (beta) badge next to the search bar reminds you which engine is active; the choice is part of the URL, so shared links keep it.

Filtering results

The Filter menu in the page header narrows the search server-side, across the full result set:

  • Jurisdiction: pick one or more countries or patent offices from a searchable list.
  • Publication year: a from/to year range.
  • Applicant and Inventor: free-text names, added as removable entries.

Active filters appear as chips beside the results; click a chip to edit it, or remove it with its x. Clear all drops every filter at once. Filters persist while you refine the query.

Typing in the search bar without pressing Enter narrows the currently loaded page by matching the text against publication numbers, titles, applicants, abstracts, and inventors. This is a quick scan aid; press Enter to run the text as a new search.

Reading results

Each result shows the country flag and publication number, title, applicant and publication date, the abstract, and a thumbnail of the first drawing sheet. The header shows how many results the query matched.

  • Click a result to open the full patent page.
  • Right-click for a context menu with Quick view (a floating detail panel you can keep open while browsing) and the bookmark action.
  • Page through results with Previous and Next. Set your preferred page size (10 to 100) under View → Results per page; the choice is remembered.

Viewing a patent

The patent page shows the bibliographic essentials (title, applicant, publication date, inventors) above a strip of the patent's drawing sheets, followed by tabs:

  • Abstract: the published abstract.
  • Claims: the full claim set as published.
  • Description: the full description text.
  • Citations: documents cited against the patent, including search-report relevance categories (X, Y, A) and cited passages where available.
  • Family: other publications in the same patent family across jurisdictions.
  • Classifications: the patent's CPC and IPC codes with their meanings.

The same content appears in the Quick view panel from the results list. Availability of individual tabs depends on what the patent offices publish for that document.

Downloading the published PDF

Click the download icon next to the bookmark button to save the patent's complete as-published document: front page, bibliographic data, description, claims, and drawing sheets, in one PDF named after the publication number. This is the authoritative scanned original from the patent office, not a rendering of the text shown in the tabs, so it is what you cite or attach.

The first download of a document takes up to a minute while the pages are collected from the patent office, and the icon shows a spinner until the file is ready. Later downloads of the same patent are immediate. Some publications have no full document on file; for those the button reports that no PDF is available.

Bookmarking patents

Bookmarks are how you attach prior art to your matter. Hover a result and click the bookmark icon in its top-right corner, or use the right-click menu; the action is labelled Save to followed by your matter's reference. The same button appears on the patent page. Without an open matter the button is disabled.

Your bookmarks live on the Sources page, alongside the matter's uploaded files and web links. Remove a bookmark from either the search results or the Sources page: it is the same list in both places, so removing it in one removes it from the other.

Where bookmarks are used

Bookmarked patents are part of the matter's working context:

  • Mentioning a bookmarked patent number in your text or in conversation creates a linked patent chip; see References.
  • The assistant reads your bookmarks as matter context, and you can attach one directly to a message with an @-mention.
  • The assistant can also add or remove bookmarks itself, for example after running a search for you. Those edits appear as pending changes for you to review and approve.

Browsing classifications

The Classifications page in the sidebar is a browser for the CPC scheme. Expand the tree from the nine top-level sections down to individual subgroups, or search by text to find the codes that cover a technical concept; matches are highlighted in place and you can step through them from the header. To use a code in a search, add it to your query on the Patents page.