Using the Search Filters

Efficient use of the search filters may help you to find the essential faster

Sakari Arvela avatar
Written by Sakari Arvela
Updated over a week ago

Search filters are found on the left hand side panel in Search cases.

(In case the left side panel is hidden on your screen, it could be because of its size - increase the window width or resize it using CTRL + - or Cmd + -)

The filters offer a wide variety of data fields that support Boolean expressions for powerful filtering. The boolean syntax is explained in more detail in this article.

There are different filters which you can choose from: dates, IPC & CPC class, applicant, inventor, data sources, keywords as well as legal status and publication type.

In addition, you can also focus the AI to search in the full specification of the documents or only in the claims (more about it below).

Overview filters (Bibliographic Data & Keywords)

You can choose the relevant date filter for your search: Publication Date, Application Date or Priority date:

A fIlter is added by writing the value of the filter to the corresponding field following the YYYY-MM-DD format (including the dash -) with December 29th 2014 shown above.

When searching via Number Search, you can select via the dropdown if there are multiple Priority Dates (or selecting Publication/Application Date for easy input within their respective sections)

To use Boolean (text) filters, simply input the required text in the indicative section, and when finished click SEARCH PATENTS. For our article on Boolean Syntax, click here

The below example will run a new search, where documents prior to 2000-06-01 and will include documents explicitly stating Artificial Intelligence AND Robot within the Title; Abstract; Claims and Description:

Running a search with a filter will essentially be a new search, which combines the AI input (Graph; Number; Free-Text) with the Field Filters, giving users a powerful tool to combine both strategies into one!

Negative filters

Also, you can exclude search fields through negative filters. This is easily achieved via adding NOT before the required exclusion.

In the example below, you want to see all patents excluding the ones having Apple as an applicant, as well as those excluding the terms (Artificial Intelligence):

Keyword filters explained:

English is the native language of all documents indexed in IPRally, so all text input must be in English.

Any Text (TACD:) will search the 'Full-Text' of the patent document (Title; Abstract; Claims; Description)

Title, abstract or claims (TAC:); Title (T:); Abstract (A:); Claims (C:); Description (D:) will search these respective fields.

If you add terms to multiple sections (Such as TACD: and C:) they will be combined via an AND operator.

For more advanced query building, simply select ADVANCED FILTERS where you can build your own string using the Boolean Logic and Operators found here

Claims only search

You can also direct the AI to search through the content of claims only, instead of the full specification. The claims search will provide more relevant results for the technology defined in the query graph from risk management or FTO perspective.

Legal status and publication type

You can also filter the results based on the legal status of the documents. There are three options to choose from: ACTIVE, UNKNOWN and INACTIVE (multiple selection allowed). Please refer to our Legal status article for more information.

You can also choose the publication type of the results (APPLICATION and/or GRANT).

Note: We rely on legal status data that we obtain from out data provider (IFI Claims). IPRally takes no responsibility on the accuracy of the data. Please refer to official sources in cases of legal importance.

Zoom to favorites activates an iterative search after you have chosen Favorites and is explained in detail here. Note: You must have at least 1 favorite selected to enable the Zoom to Favorites button.

Lastly, in this panel you can choose how many results you want to receive from the search. This limite is dependant on the AI score of the results. More information can be found here

Depending on how restrictive filters you use, you may receive less hits.

When using filters, remember to press the blue button "Search patents" below them in order to apply them and get the desired results.

You can also change the defaults of the search filters through the User settings->Search settings.

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