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

The engine selector to the left of the search bar shows which engine is searching; open it to switch between two:

  • EPO OPS (the default): searches the EPO's live database with the CQL syntax described above.
  • Nodes-IP (beta): searches Nodes-IP's own patent index using the same CQL field codes as EPO OPS. Results can differ from EPO OPS for the same query (matching works differently under the hood), and wildcards and proximity search are not supported here.

The Nodes-IP index is still growing, so it returns fewer results than EPO OPS. The engine you pick is remembered for your next search, and it is part of the URL, so shared links keep it.

Filtering results

The Filter button to the right of the search bar opens a row of filters under the toolbar. They narrow the search server-side, across the full result set:

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

Clear drops every filter at once. With the row closed, the button shows how many filters are active (for example Filter · 2). Filters persist while you refine the query. Sort, beside it, orders the results; EPO OPS always returns them by relevance.

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. A record with no title or no abstract leaves that line out, so its result is shorter.

  • 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. The count in the bottom-right corner shows which results you are looking at (for example 1–50 of 1,234); click it to show 10 to 100 results per page. The choice is remembered, and you can also set it under Settings → General → Results per page.

One result per family (Nodes-IP engine)

The Nodes-IP engine shows each invention once: every publication in the same simple patent family (the same invention at each stage and in each country) folds into one result. The count in the bottom-right corner is in families (for example 1–20 of 415 families); click it to see how many publications they hold. The count appears a moment after the results. For a broad search it is an estimate, shown rounded (for example 1–20 of ~27.3M families), and you can page through the first 2,000 families; add a term or a filter to reach the rest. Only publications that match your query and filters decide which families appear and which publication represents them, so a country filter shows that country's publications.

The result shows one representative publication: an EP publication where the family has one, then US, then WO, preferring one with text and a granted patent over the application. When the family was filed in more than one country, the flags stack: the representative's flag on top, up to two more behind it. Hover the stack to see every country. A granted patent has no abstract of its own, so the result shows a family member's, usually the application's. The patent's Biblio tab tells you whose it is. The Family tab on the patent page lists every member. EPO OPS results are not grouped.

Viewing a patent

The patent page shows the publication number and date, the title and the first applicant above a strip of the patent's drawing sheets, followed by tabs:

  • Biblio: the patent's bibliographic data. It opens with the published abstract. A publication without one of its own, such as a granted European patent, shows a family member's instead, usually the application's. An info icon marks it; hover the icon to see which publication the text comes from. Two groups follow:
    • Parties and dates: applicants, inventors, the earliest priority date, the filing date and the publication date. The priority date is the one prior art is judged against.
    • Classifications: the patent's CPC and IPC codes with their meanings.
  • Claims: the full claim set as published, in English when available. A pre-grant EP or PCT publication with claims filed only in German or French shows those instead, with a language label; the text is not translated. A publication without claims of its own, such as a European search report (A3) or a correction (B9), shows those of another publication of the same application, never another family member's. An info icon marks borrowed claims; hover it to see which publication they come from, and so whether they are the claims as filed or as granted.
  • Description: the full description text. A publication without one of its own shows the same application's, marked the same way.
  • 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.

To give the tabs more room, click the chevron at the right end of the tab row to fold the strip of drawing sheets away; click it again to bring the strip back. While the strip is hidden, hovering the chevron shows how many sheets the patent has. Your choice applies to every patent you open until you change it.

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.

Searching with the assistant

With a matter open, the assistant offers actions for these pages just above its input:

  • Search prior art (on the Patents page) builds a search from your draft claims. It asks which claim or features to search when that isn't clear, plus any country or date limits you want.
  • Search similar (on a patent page) searches from that patent's own features instead of your claims.
  • Compare to claims (on a patent page) charts the patent against one of your draft claims, feature by feature: which features it discloses and where, and which it doesn't. It asks which claim to use when you have more than one independent claim.

Both searches show you the query first and wait for your go-ahead before running it, because every search uses search quota. Ask for changes to the query, or reply to run it. The results come back as a short list with the features each document seems to share; the assistant can bookmark them for you as pending changes.

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 search box.

Selecting a code opens a panel beside the tree with its full title, the path back up to its section (each step is clickable) and its direct subgroups. Search patents in <code> there runs that search on the Patents page, with cpc=<code> in the query box for you to extend. Right-clicking a code offers the same search plus Copy symbol.