Lesson 3-7 - Summary: Trademark Searching Using DialogWeb

Summary

In Lesson 3, we searched a group of databases using the OneSearch category EUROTMKS, containing all European trademark databases on Dialog, to retrieve trademarks for a specific owner.

We used proximity connectors (W), (N), (#W), (#N) to search for multi-word owner names.

We learned about different categories of owners: (ON=), (OW=), (CO=).

We looked at a Dialog Bluesheet to help us identify different prefixes used to search for specific parts of a trademark record.

We also learned how to narrow the search to find marks that exhibit a certain legal status (ST=). We found that we can gain insight into a company's future products by determining marks that are pending or that a company intends to use. We can even see changes in a company's direction by looking at the marks that they have abandoned or allowed to expire.

Go on to Lesson 4 where we will look at other ways to refine a trademark search.

3-7

Learn More #3: Logical Operators:

The OR operator is used to retrieve terms that are synonyms or equivalents. For example, the retrieval of INTERNET OR WORLD(w)WIDE(w)WEB consists of all records containing one or both of these terms. OR increases the number of records retrieved-in other words, with OR you always get mORe. If more than one of the terms occurs within a given record, the retrieved set includes the record only once.

Example:

select protect? OR shield?
The AND operator retrieves records where two or more search terms or groups of search terms occur in the same record. SELECT PROFIT(W)SHARING AND PRODUCTIVITY retrieves only those records containing all of these words. AND decreases the number of records retrieved since it requires each term to be present for retrieval.

Example:

select japan AND export?

select market(5n)share AND long(w)distance(w)service
The NOT operator prevents records that include unacceptable or irrelevant search terms from being retrieved. The expression PROFIT(w)SHARING NOT DEFERRED(w)PAYOUT(w)PLAN retrieves records that contain the term PROFIT SHARING but excludes those records that also contain the term DEFERRED PAYOUT PLAN.

Example:

select eclipse? not solar

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Determining Trademark Ownership

Summary