If you work in IP, you can probably picture this situation well: you’re searching for the needle in the technical literature haystack. Of course, search objectives vary; you may be assessing your company’s portfolio, determining if your innovation is worth pursuing, looking for collaborators, or researching technology transfer opportunities. Using concepts to search patent literature can help you find the literature, people, and organizations relevant to your intellectual property strategy.
The Scenario
To demonstrate the power of InnovationQ® Plus in this exact situation, we’re going to use a specific example. In this scenario, our user is a research scientist for a large pharmaceutical company. Their research is focused on advancing chimeric antigen receptor-T (CAR-T) cell therapy to treat cancer.
Current approaches for CAR-T cell therapy target a single molecule. However, this molecule is sometimes shed as the cancer cell mutates, rendering the treatment ineffective for some patients. Our user is researching a therapy method that targets multiple molecules to provide a more effective treatment. This research includes both internal and external resources. Our user turns to InnovationQ® Plus to discover scientists and organizations with recent work in this field and identify potential collaborators.
The Query
To find the information they’re looking for, our researcher creates a concept search. InnovationQ® Plus applies artificial intelligence and natural language search capabilities to identify key concepts, despite tricky vocabulary and intentionally vague terminology.
In our example, our search may be, “Methods for improving the efficacy of CAR-T cell therapy by targeting multiple molecules on the surface of a cancerous tumor, especially in treating lymphoma.”
The Filters
This researcher wants to identify active work, so they select both patent and non-patent literature from the content option dropdown menu.
An advanced query can deliver more specific search results. From InnovationQ® Plus’ Advanced Query Editor window, you can add concept modifiers and Boolean filters. Because the user is looking for recent work, they also narrow the search to include only publications from the last five years.
In a matter of seconds, InnovationQ® Plus returns over three million results, ordered by relevancy. Now, the researcher must review this relevant work and determine who is doing it.
The Results
Our user reviews the most relevant search results with keyword highlighting turned on to identify terms the search engine finds most significant. The researcher can quickly scan for highlighted keywords, or further narrow the search query to target relevant terminology.
The researcher can also click into other pages of the patent to view:
- Citations: Review the patent citations or IEEE Xplore references to find other relevant work quickly.
- Legal Status: Discover a patent’s legal status and enforceability to determine if research is ongoing, protected, or available.
- Figures: Review figures, graphs, and charts included in patent documents.
Lastly, the researcher can utilize InnovationQ® Plus’ visualization capabilities to further filter search results. Current assignees by relevance demonstrates which companies, organizations, and universities are working on CAR-T cell therapy. Inventor count highlights the most active researchers in this space.
