Published Application Full-Text Tips on Fielded Searching

Tips on Fielded Searching

This page contains tips on the use of fields in your searches. If, after reading this page, you have any unanswered questions, please read the FAQ.

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Published Applications are divided into many fields, such as inventor name. By narrowing your search so that a document is only counted as a 'Hit' if the term you are searching for occurs in the field you specified, you can greatly decrease the likelihood of having extraneous documents returned.

This page shows a list of all the available fields (in alphabetical order) information about each, and tips on their use. (A list is also available at the bottom of the Manual Search Page).

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Abstract (ABST)

This field contains a brief summary of the published application.

TIP: The abstract contains many of the relevant words of a published application.

Application Date (APD)

This field contains the date when a complete application was received by the US Patent and Trademark Office, following receipt of all filing material requirements.

TIP: You can use one of three formats to search in any of the date fields :

<four digit year><two digit month><two digit day>. For example, use 20010103 to retrieve documents filed on January 3, 2001.
<Month>-<Day>-<Year>.

Month can be the number of the month, the full name of the month, or an abbreviation (i.e. 1, January or Jan).

Day must be a number between 1 and 31 or a $.

Year must be a four digit year (2001).

Example: Use 1-3-2001, Jan-3-2001 or January-3-2001 to retrieve documents filed on January 3, 2001.
<Month>/<Day>/<Year>.

Month can be the number of the month, the full name of the month, or an abbreviation (i.e. 1, January or Jan).

Day must be a number between 1 and 31 or a $.

Year must be a four digit year (2001).

Example: Use 1/3/2001, Jan/3/2001 or January/3/2001 to retrieve documents filed on January 3, 2001.

You can search for a range of dates using the -> operator.

Example: To search for published applications with application dates between January 1, 2001, and Feb 14, 2001, use APD/1/1/2001->2/14/2001.

If you want to search for all documents with application dates in January of 2001, it is simpler and quicker to use APD/1/$/2001 than to use APD/1/1/2001->1/31/2001, though both will return the same results.

Application Serial Number (APN)

This field contains the identification number assigned by the US Patent and Trademark Office to applications which have received a filing date.

TIP: Including commas is optional. Number must be entered as a six digit string with leading zeros, if needed. Series code is not included in this field, so more than one document may be retrieved based on a single serial number.

Example: Searching 000001 will retrieve four documents, each having been assigned serial number 1 within different series codes. Series codes are not searchable in this database, but correspond to the following time spans:

Series Codes:

2	Earlier than Jan. 1, 1948
3	Jan.1, 1948 - Dec. 31, 1959
4	Jan. 1, 1960 - Dec. 31, 1969
5	Jan. 1, 1970 - Dec. 31, 1978
6	Jan. 1, 1979 - Dec. 31, 1986
7	Jan. 1, 1987 - Dec. 31, 1992
8	Jan. 1, 1993 - Dec. 31, 1997
9	Jan. 1, 1998 - Dec. 2001
10	Dec. 2001 - Dec. 2004
11	Dec. 2004 - present
12	Dec. 2007 - present
29	Design applications (January 1993 on)

Assignee City (AC)

This field contains the city of the published application assignee at the time of publication.

TIP: If you are searching for a multiple-term city name, i.e., Los Angeles, on the Manual Search Page, you must enclose the city name in quotes. This will alert the system to search for the two terms as a phrase. It is not necessary to to use quotes on the Boolean Search Page.

Assignee Country (ACN)

This field contains the country of the published application assignee at the time of publication.

TIP: If the published application assignee was inside the US, there is no Assignee Country field. Instead, there is an Assignee State (AS) field. Currently, you must search for a country code in this field rather than the full name of the country. See the Country code table for a list of country codes.

Assignee Name (AN)

This field contains the name of the individual or entity to whom ownership of the published application was assigned at the time of publication.

TIP: If the assignee was a person, and you want to search for the full name, you should format your query as follows: last name-first name-initial. Using the Boolean Search Page to search for an assignee named John E. Doe, you should enter Doe-John-E in the Term 1 text entry box and select the Assignee Name field from the drop-down menu. Using the Manual Search Page, to search for a published application assigned to John E. Doe, enter AN/Doe-John-E in the Query box. If you are unsure of the exact name, you can truncate in the following ways: Doe-$ or Doe-John$ or Doe-J$. If the assignee was a company, and you were not sure of the exact name, you could truncate on a portion of the name.

Assignee State (AS)

This field contains the US state or territory of the published application assignee at the time of publication.

TIP: This refers to the state within the US If the assignee resides outside the US, there will be an Assignee Country (ACN) field instead of an Assignee State field. Currently, you must search for a state code in this field rather than the full name of the state. See the State code table for a list of state codes.

Claim(s) (ACLM)

This field contains the text of the published application claims. Claims point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the applicant regards as the invention and define the scope of the published application protection.

TIP: Claims from only utility published application are included.

Description/Specification (SPEC)

This field contains the description, including a brief summary and background of the invention, the detailed description, and a brief description of the drawing, if applicable.

Foreign Priority (PRIR)

This field contains data indicating in which foreign country an application claims priority.

Government Interest (GOVT)

This field contains data describing the Government's Interest in the published application.

International Classification (ICL)

This field contains the International classification(s) to which the published application has been assigned.

TIP: To search for International Classification G06F 19/00, you must enter the classification with a zero ("0") in place of the space -- i.e., without any embedded spaces -- as follows: ICL/G06F019/00. Formatting your search in this field in any other way will result in an error.

Inventor City (IC)

This field contains the city of residence of the inventor at the time of publication.

TIP: If you are searching for a multiple-term city name, i.e., Los Angeles, on the Manual Search Page, you must enclose the city name in quotes. This will alert the system to search for the two terms as a phrase. It is not necessary to use quotes on the Boolean Search Page.

Inventor Country (ICN)

This field contains the country of residence of the inventor at the time of publication.

TIP: If the inventor resides in the US, there is no Inventor Country field. Instead, there is an Inventor State (IS) field. Currently, you must search for a country code in this field rather than the full name of the country. See the Country code table for a list of country codes.

Inventor Name (IN)

Definition: The inventor(s) of the published application.

Tips: As with all other name fields, if you want to search for the full name, you should format your query as follows: last name-first name-initial. Using the Boolean Search Page to search for an attorney named John E. Doe, you should enter Doe-John-E in the Term 1 text entry box and select the Inventor Name field from the drop-down menu. Using the Manual Search Page, to search for an inventor named John E. Doe, enter IN/Doe-John-E in the Query box. If you are unsure of the exact name, you can truncate in the following ways: Doe-$ or Doe-John$ or Doe-J$.

Inventor State (IS)

This field contains the US state of residence of the inventor at the time of publication.

TIP: If the inventor resides outside the US, there is no Inventor State field. Instead, there is an Inventor Country (ICN) field. Currently, you must search for a state code in this field rather than the full name of the state. See the State code table for a list of state codes.

Kind Code (KD)

Kind code is a document code describing the stage of publication. The code, A, is the 1st publication usually a published application. The code, B1, is a patent (grant) that did not have a corresponding pre grant publication. The code, B2, is a grant that does have a corresponding pre grant publication associated with it.

TIP: This field can be searched by typing KD/B1 as an example.

Publication Date (PD)

This field contains the date the application was officially published by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

TIP: You can use one of three formats to search in any of the date fields :

<four digit year><two digit month><two digit day>. For example, use 20010103 to retrieve documents published on January 3, 2001.
<Month>-<Day>-<Year>.

Month can be the number of the month, the full name of the month, or an abbreviation (i.e. 1, January or Jan).

Day must be a number between 1 and 31 or a $.

Year must be a four digit year (2001).

Example: Use 1-3-2001, Jan-3-2001 or January-3-2001 to retrieve documents published on January 3, 2001.
<Month>/<Day>/<Year>.

Month can be the number of the month, the full name of the month, or an abbreviation (i.e. 1, January or Jan).

Day must be a number between 1 and 31 or a $.

Year must be a four digit year (2001).

Example: Use 1/3/2001, Jan/3/2001 or January/3/2001 to retrieve documents published on January 3, 2001.

You can search for a range of dates using the -> operator.

Example: To search for documents with publication dates between January 1, 2001, and Feb 14, 2001, use PD/1/1/2001->2/14/2001.

If you want to search for all documents with publication dates in January of 2001, it is simpler to use PD/1/$/2001 than to use PD/1/1/2001->1/31/2001, though both will return the same results.

Published Application Number or Document Number (DN)

This field contains the unique number assigned to published applications.

TIP: There are several things to remember about document number searches:

The number without the Country and Kind code should be entered. For example 20010000001 would be entered into the query box.

Note: You must be searching the correct year to retrieve the document you are looking for. If you are unsure of what year an application was published, see the Database Status page to look up the year, or just search all the years at once by selecting the entire range of years in the Select years to search drop-down menu.

PCT Information (PCT)

This field contains PCT Information related to the published application, including PCT Number, PCT 371 Date, PCT 102(e) Date, PCT Filing Date, PCT Publication Number, PCT Publication Date. It is currently searchable, but is not displayed in the full-text of the document. We are presently working to display this information.

Related US Application Data (RLAP)

This field contains data describing prior applications related to the published application. This data appears on the front page of the published application.

Title (TTL)

This field contains the title of the published application.

Published US Classification - Class/Subclass (CCL)

This field contains the original and cross-reference US Classification(s) to which the published application was assigned at the time of publication. This field includes both primary and secondary class information.

TIP: If you are searching for a specific class and subclass, you should phrase your query as class/subclass, for example, 719/5. Some subclasses can contain decimal and alpha modifiers (for example, 427/2.31 or 427/3A).

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