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Hello, I am Laura. I will be
your guide to using AusPat. AusPat is a free online tool where you can search for Australian
patents [AusPat landing page appears on screen]. You can also view bibliographic details for
each application in your search results, as well as download the specification and other
documents of interest. This video gives an overview of how to conduct searches using
our advanced search interface. It will also demonstrate how to use the selectors, save
your searches, and download summaries of search results. To make the most of this video, please
ensure you are generally familiar with AusPat and have watched the Introductory video tutorial if necessary.
CHAPTER 1 ADVANCED SEARCH
This is the advanced search interface. Advanced search provides a free-text input box to give
you the flexibility to create complex search queries although this does mean that you need
a good understanding of patent searching to use it effectively. To input a search query,
you can simply click in the text box and begin typing [Laura clicks the text box]. Search
queries generally consist of three parts: search terms, field codes for each search
term, and an operator linking a term and its associated field with another term and its
field. [The Advanced Search interface appears on screen] Today I am going to search for
patent applications relating to caravans, and in particular the wheels of caravans.
My first search term is wheel this is entered in lower-case [Laura types in the word wheel].
I now need to link this to a field. A field is the place where the search term is located
in the data. I only want to look for patent applications which have the word wheel in
their abstract, so I type IN AB [Laura types IN AB in the search box]. IN is an operator
which tells AusPat to look in a particular field, and AB is the field code for the abstract
field, which you can see from the Available fields box below the search box [Laura scrolls
down the screen and the field "Abstract (Full Test only) AB" is highlighted in a red box].
Because the abstract field is a full text field I need to tick the "Include Full Text
Search" box [Laura scrolls the screen up and ticks the "Include Full Text Search" box].
Because I'm looking for caravan wheels [the Advance Search interface returns on screen],
I want to add the International Patent Classification or IPC mark B60P3/32 to my search. This IPC
mark is the international symbol for vehicles comprising living accommodation for people,
including caravans. As I want to look for applications which talk about both wheels
and caravans, I need to link my two search terms with the operator AND [Laura types in
the word AND]. Then I can include the IPC mark and the field code IPC. IPC marks are
entered with no spaces between the letters and numbers [Laura types B60P3/32 IN IPC in
the search box]. On second thoughts, I also want to include documents which talk about
the axle of a caravan, but might not mention the word wheel in their abstract [the Advanced
Search interface appears on screen with previous typed in text "wheel IN AB AND B60P3/32 IN
IPC" in the search box]. Because I want to look for abstracts with either the word wheel
OR the word axle, I need to use parentheses and the OR operator. Parentheses provide you
with greater control over how AusPat interprets your search query. So to do this I put an
open bracket before wheel [Laura adds an open bracket "(" before the word wheel), then I
add my operator and search term, before ending with a closed bracket [Laura types "OR axle"
after "IN AB" and adds a closed bracket ")"]. Writing it like this will ensure that I get all applications
with the IPC mark B60P3/32 and either wheel or axle or both words in their Abstract. Now
I can click "Search". Looking through my results I can
see that there is an application about boat campers [the Search Results page appears on
screen. The search for (wheel IN AB OR axle IN AB) AND B60P3/32 IN IPC has returned 7
results. The first 4 results appear on screen, and Laura hovers the mouse over the 4th result
with the application number 2007201651 titled "Boat camper", and the text colour changes
from white to blue]. I don't want this application appearing in my results. So I go back to my
search query using the "Refine your query" link [Laura clicks on the "Refine your query"
link]. So that AusPat doesn't return results with the words boat camper in the title I
need to enclose all my initial search in parentheses [Laura adds the open bracket "(" and the close
bracket ")" at the beginning and the end of the search text (wheel IN AB OR axle IN AB)
AND B60P3/32 IN IPC respectively]. I then add the operator NOT and the phrase "boat
camper" in the title field [Laura types NOT "boat camper" IN TI in the search box]. To
search for an exact phrase, the phrase needs to be enclosed in quotation marks. I also
need to ensure that the "Include Full Text Search" box is ticked [Laura ticks the "Include
Full Text Search" box]. Now when I click search [Laura clicks the "Search" button] you can
see that the Boat Camper application has been excluded from the results [the Search Results
page appears on screen. The search for ((wheel IN AB OR axle IN AB) AND B60P3/32 IN IPC)
NOT "boat camper" IN TI has returned 6 results. The first 4 results appear on screen. Laura
hovers the mouse through all the results and none includes the "boat camper" application].
What if I want to broaden my search to include all vehicles which have been adapted to carry
a load [the previous Search Results page appears on screen]. I click on Refine your query [Laura
clicks on the "Refine your query" link] which takes me back to the Advanced Search screen
[the previous Advanced Search screen appears]. I want to change my IPC mark to include all
vehicles covered by the group B60P. To do this I delete 3/32 and add a wildcard after
P [Laura deletes 3/32 and adds "*" after B60P]. This wildcard matches zero or more characters
in AusPat. If I search on this, ensuring that the Full Text Search box is ticked [Laura
clicks the "Search" button], the number of results has increased to 200 [the Search Results
page appears, and "200 results" is highlighted in the red box]. For more information about
search terms, field codes, operators and wildcards check out the AusPat User Guide.
CHAPTER 2 SELECTORS In the Advanced Search interface I also have the ability to use the selector
tools to find Inventors, Applicants and to select a publication action [the Advanced
Search interface appears on screen]. The links to these selectors can be found here in the
Available fields box [the "Inventor name" and "Applicant name" selectors are highlighted
in a red box, and the "Publication Action" selector highlighted in another red box].
I am going to open the Applicant Name selector by clicking on the link [Laura clicks on the
"Applicant name" link]. You can use this selector to help locate all variations in an applicant
name [the Name Selector box appears on screen]. If I type the applicant's name, csiro [Laura
types the word csiro in the box next to "Applicant Name"], the selector gives me a list of all
variations of this name [search results of names all containing CSIRO appear on screen].
To add names to the search, you can click on each name then click the "Add selection
to your search" button [Laura selects "CSIRO AUSTRALIA" and "CSIRO ICT CENTRE", and clicks
the "Add selection to your search" button. ("csiro Australia" IN AP) OR ("csiro ict centre"
IN AP) appears in the Advanced Search text box]. You can now search on these names or add other search terms to your search.
CHAPTER 3 SAVING SEARCHES
Using AusPat s MySearches feature allows you to save a search string that you will use often
I am going to save this search by clicking on the plus symbol
found next to my search summary [Laura clicks on the + symbol]. This opens a pop-up box
which asks you to enter a name for the search [the "Explorer User Prompt" box pops up on
screen]. I'm going to call this one caravan wheels [Laura types in "Caravan wheels" in
the pop-up box]. When you click OK the search is saved into the MySearches list [Laura clicks
the OK button]. You can see that the MySearches box now has the number one in brackets [Laura
hovers the mouse over the MySearches (1) box]. To access the search, click on the MySearches
box [Laura clicks the MySearches (1) box]. To execute a search, you need to click on
the name of the search [the search "Caravan wheels" is highlighted in a red box]. From
here you can also load a search you have saved on your computer ["Load List" is highlighted
in a red box], save searches as a text file to your computer ["Save list" is highlighted
in a red box] and combine two selected searches together ["Combine" is highlighted in a red
box]. You can also clear the entire list ["Clear list" is highlighted in a red box], delete
individual searches [the x symbol next to the search "Caravan wheels" is highlighted
in a red box], or view the search string of a search [the magnifier symbol is highlighted
in a red box]. AusPat allows you to save a maximum of 10 searches to MySearches.
CHAPTER 4 SAVING SEARCH RESULTS
AusPat gives you a couple of options for saving or downloading the results of your search [the Search Results page appears on screen]. At the bottom of
the search results page there is a "Download Application Numbers" link [Laura scrolls down
the screen and hovers the mouse over the "Download Application Numbers" link]. If you click this
link [Laura clicks on the "Download Application Numbers" link] AusPat will give you the option
to open or save a text file of all the application numbers from your search [the "File Download"
pop-up box appears on screen]. I will open this file [Laura clicks the Open button and
a list of application numbers flashes on screen]. For greater functionality and flexibility
it is recommended you use the MyList function [the Search Results page for (wheel IN AB
OR axle IN AB) AND B60P3/32 IN IPC appears on screen]. MyList enables you to download
bibliographic details for up to 300 applications [Laura hovers the mouse over the "MyList (0)"
button]. To add an application to MyList, you tick the box found at the end of the row
[Laura ticks the box at the end of the row of application 2011101313]. If you want to
add all the applications on the page you are viewing, tick the box in the heading row [Laura
ticks the box in the heading row]. You can now see that the MyList box has the number
of applications I added in brackets [Laura hovers the mouse over the "MyList (7)" link].
To access this you click on the MyList box [Laura clicks on the "MyList (7)" link, and
a drop down list appears with the 7 search results]. From here you can go to an application
by clicking on the number [Application 2000020852 is highlighted in a red box] and you can also
delete individual applications by clicking the cross [the x symbol next to 2000020852
is highlighted in a red box], or clear the entire list by clicking on the link ["Clear
list" is highlighted in a red box]. Most importantly, you can download and save a bibliographic
summary of all the applications as either a PDF or CSV report ["PDF report" and "CSV
report" are highlighted in a red box]. I want to create a PDF report, so I click on the
button [Laura clicks on the "PDF report" button, and the "File Download" pop-up box appears].
And I just want to view the report, so I click Open [Laura clicks on the Open button]. You
can see that AusPat has created a summary of those applications for me [AusPat Summary
Report page appears on screen]. Thank you for watching this presentation. To find out
more information about AusPat, check out the User Guide found on our website and at the
bottom of each page in AusPat. We would also love to hear from you. You can provide feedback
using the form located at the bottom of each page in AusPat,
emailing us at assist@ipaustralia.gov.au
or by calling 1300 65 1010