Text Search Query Fields

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This page contains information regarding the various fields that are available across the varieties of data stored in the Library. Searching can be restricted to specific fields to assist in better locating publications.

Page Contents

Fields Overview
List of Available Fields
Regarding Searching Date Fields

Fields Overview

Publications which are loaded into the library often arrive divided into sections of related information. When the Library indexes publications, it takes these sections into account by associating information which arrives in a section into a "field." The simplied search pages as well as the query search syntax provide facilities for restricting portions of searches to particular fields.

Different sources of information come divided up into different fields. Generally, patents come divided into the same fields. Other sources, particularly Non-Patent Literature, often come divided up differently. Wherever possible, field names are shared between all sources. However, all sources do not contain all possible fields.

Keys for the Available In column:

P - All Patent and Patent Application sources
IP - The IP.com Prior Art Database NPL source
RB - The IBM Redbooks NPL source

List of Available Fields

Bibliographic data fields

Syntax Code	Field Name / Description	Available In ...
PN	Publication number ...	P IP RB
This field allows you to search for a document's unique identifying number. For patents and applications, you may optionally preceeding the patent number with the two letter country code. Examples: US7174332, 2003/078707, 7607179, SG24-7565-00, or IPCOM000192886D Publications issued by patent offices receive a unique identifying number, usually called the "Publication Number." For granted patents, this number is often used as the "Patent Number." For example, in the U.S., a patent application publication number might be US 2003/078707 A1 and a granted patent might be US 7607179 B2. This field searches for a particular patent number; use a "comfortable" format, such as US7607179 or US 7607179 or 7607179. Publications provided by the Prior Art Database uniquely identifies documentsusing a Publication Number (such as IPCOM000192886D). Publications provided by the Redbooks unique identifies documents using a Form Number. The trailing two digits on the form number represent the version; generally the library only includes the most recent version. Remove the version number to locate the most recent publication. Example form numbers are SG24-7785-00, SG24-7785, or SG247785.
PD	Publication date ...	P IP RB
This field allows you to limit your search to a range of dates. For patents: the grant date; for applications, the publication date; for Prior Art Database documents, the earliest known publication date; for Redbooks, the first published date.
AN	Application number ...	P
This field searches for the number assigned to the patent publication's application. Application numbers are generally assigned when the patent office initially receives the patent application and do not change over the life of the patenting process. An example in the U.S. is 11/325452.
AD	Application date ...	P
This field allows you to limit your results by the filing date of the patent publication's application.
TI	Title	P IP RB
REL	Related publications	P IP
REF	References ...	P
Patent publications usually contain references to other granted patents as well as citations to non-granted patents (applications or otherwise) as well as other non-patent literature. This field allows searching for patent references by publication numbers or for non-patent citations using text.
NCL	National classification ...	P
Patent publications usually contain some kind of classification based on a standardized schema. Some patent offices, such as in the U.S., have "private" or "national" schemas which are used exclusively by that particular patent office. This field allows searching for patent classifications assigned by a patent office which uses a private system (that is, which are not the WIPO standard IPC or Locarno codes). An example of a U.S. patent classification is 2/411
ICL	International classification ...	P
Patent publications usually contain one or more classifications based on the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) standard codes. This field allows searching for patent classifications which utilize the WIPO standard International Patent Classification (IPC) codes as well as the WIPO standard Locarno codes. An example of a WIPO IPC code is A42B 3/00
INV	Inventors ...	P
Patent publications refer to a variety of people/companies which are associated with the application or grant. Generally, these people/companies fall into the categories "Inventor," "Applicant," "Assignee," or "Agent." Various patent offices include differing information and formats regarding these people or companies,. Generally a person/company's legal name and often the city, state/region, and country is available. Use this field to search for people, companies, and their locations using free text. For example, search for Smith Chicago in the Inventor field to locate a publication where the name Smith and the city Chicago are found together.
APPL	Applicants	P
AGNT	Agents	P
ASGN	Assignees	P
EXAM	Examiners	P
RP	Related people	IP RB
UD	Last update date ...	RB
This field may be used to limit by the most recently updated date (or the original date if the document has not been updated).
ISBN	ISBN	RB

Additional text fields

Syntax Code	Field Name / Description	Available In ...
AB	Abstract	P IP RB
KW	Keywords	RB
TOC	Table of contents	RB
CT	Claims	P
DT	Description text	P IP RB

Convenience fields

Syntax Code	Field Name / Description	Available In ...
FP	Front page ...	P IP RB
This convenience field allows you to searches a combination of fields including the bibliographic data, abstract, and keywords.
ALL	All fields	P IP RB

Regarding Searching Date Fields

Date fields (such as PD, AD, or UD) are often searched using the inclusive [ ... TO ... ] range indicator. This is because date fields are often useful for restricting the result of a search to a particular date range.

When searching date fields, the boundary terms in the range indicators are expressed in the form YYYY-MM-DD (where YYYY is the year number, MM is the month number, and DD is the day number). As a convenience, the day number is optional and may be omitted (so YYYY-MM is also valid); in addition, if the day number is omitted, the month number may also be omitted (so YYYY is also valid). To indicate the earliest date, a * may be used for the first boundary in the range; to indicate the latest date, a * may be used for the second boundary in the range. The * may not be used for both the first and last boundary term.

Date fields do not allow the use of wildcard (outside of the specialized use of * as a range boundary), fuzzy, or proximity operators or indicators. It is highly recommended the date fields be searched using range indicators.

Sample Date Queries:

PD:[1998-07-22 TO 1999-06-13]
AD:[2001-05 to 2001-07]
UD:[* TO 1995]
PD:[2004 to *]