Additional Indexes

Specific fields and field tags can vary according to the database; refer to the database Bluesheet. Some common Additional Index fields and field tags in the patent databases include the following:

Field Tags	Field Name	Example
AU=	Inventor	s au=grogg peter? Tip 1-2
PA=	Patent Assignee	s pa=northpoint?
PN=	Patent Number	s pn=us 4654419
PY=	Publication Year	s py=1999 Tip 1-3
PD=	Publication Date	s s pd=19990401 Tip 1-4
AN=	Application Number	s S an=us 400997

Tip 1-5

Go on to the Exercises to reinforce what we just discussed.

1-6

Search Tip 1-2

Use truncation (?) at the end of a search term expressing a name, for example, an inventor or a patent assignee, to retrieve all variations of the name.

Example:

s pa=northpoint?

Retrieves:

Northpoint
Northpoint Communications
Northpoint Communications, Inc.

Search Tip 1-3

A colon ( : ) is used to indicate a range of sequential entries to be retrieved.

Example:

s py=1997:1999

Retrieves:

Records with patent publication years
1997 through 1999

Search Tip 1-4

The format for the Patent Publication Date field is usually YYYYMMDD, where YYYY represents the year, MM the month, and DD the day. The date field is Year 2000 compliant.

Example:

s pd=19990401

Retrieves:

Information from April 1, 1999

Search Tip 1-5

If a prefix is not supported in a database, the result will be 0 (zero) records.

Check the Bluesheet to help you determine the correct way of entering terms.