Differences between PubEAST/PubWEST and Patent Public Search

Stopwords and reference tables

Why are my search results different?

Patent Public Search and PubEAST/PubWEST may return different results because the tools use separate databases in order to store and organize the data. More robust and complex queries can be run on Patent Public Search because its database structure has a modern software foundation. The character limit, for example, has been removed so that long strings of documents can be run. For more detail on each difference, please see the appropriate section.

Stopwords

In both Patent Public Search and PubEAST/PubWEST stopwords are not indexed for text paragraphs. When a stopword is used in a query in either tool, the term is only searched in certain metadata fields, such as assignee name, PCT data, etc. No results are returned if the stopword is only found in the text fields (such as only in the title abstract, detailed description, claims).

Patent Public Search has far fewer stopwords than PubEAST/PubWEST. If you include a word that was a stopword in PubEAST/PubWEST but not in Patent Public Search (such as “means” or “embodiment”), you may find additional documents in Patent Public Search that would not have been found in PubEAST/PubWEST.

Example key: Yellow: Words Searched; Grey: Stopword (that’s why it changes between example 1 and 2); Red: Words that get counted as being in between the yellow words; Blue: actual query the examiner ran

Example 1: Try running the query "10024979".pn. AND (gate ADJ2 detector) in PubEAST/PubWEST and in Search. In PubEAST/PubWEST you will find 1 hit but in Search you will find 0 hits.

Let’s look at the sentence in the US Patent that creates the match in PubEAST/PubWEST :

While the logic circuits 404 and 406 are described herein as an "OR" gate and an "AND" gate respectively, various embodiments of the coincidence detector 124 may be implemented using different logic circuits that produce the results described herein.

There are six actual words between “gate” and “detector”. In PubEAST/PubWEST , five of those words are “stopwords”, so they are not counted. The only word PubEAST/PubWEST recognizes as being between “gate” and “detector” is “coincidence”. As a result, PubEAST/PubWEST returns a hit for "10024979".pn. AND (gate ADJ2 detector)

While the logic circuits 404 and 406 are described herein as an "OR" gate and an "AND" gate respectively, various embodiments of the coincidence detector 124 may be implemented using different logic circuits that produce the results described herein.

However, Search has fewer stopwords, and knows that “respectively” “various” and “embodiments” are also between “gate” and “detector”. Because there are four words between “gate” and “detector”, Search will not return a hit for "10024979".pn. AND (gate ADJ2 detector)

While the logic circuits 404 and 406 are described herein as an "OR" gate and an "AND" gate respectively, various embodiments of the coincidence detector 124 may be implemented using different logic circuits that produce the results described herein.

Example 2: Try running the query (various ADJ alternative ADJ embodiments) WITH chamfered in PubEAST/PubWEST and in Search. In PubEAST/PubWEST you will find 0 hits. However, in Search you will find results. PubEAST/PubWEST is not able to match on the terms because “various” and “embodiments” are both stopwords in PubEAST/PubWEST , and therefore only searched in the metadata.

However, some stopwords can be searched when entered as uppercase or mixed case stopwords, indexed to support search and retrieval of such terms as “vitamin A”, “AND gate”, etc. The searchable stopwords are the same in both systems. They are: A, AND, As, At, Be, In, IT, OR.

Stopwords in both Patent Public Search and PubEAST/PubWEST		Stopwords in PubEAST/PubWEST only
a*	on	accordance	embodiments	now	thereby
an	or*	according	example	onto	therefore
and*	such	all	examples	other	thereof
are	that	also	but	particularly	thereto
as*	the	another	fig	preferably	those
at*	their	because	figs	preferred	thus
be*	then	been	from	present	use
by	there	being	further	provide	various
for	these	claim	generally	provided	were
if	they	comprises	had	provides	what
into	this	constitution (JPO)	has	purpose (JPO)	when
in*	to	corresponding	have	relatively	where
is	was	could	having	respectively	whereby
it*	will	described	herein	said	wherein
no		desired	however	shall	which
not		do	invention	should	while
of		does	inventions	since	who
		each	its	some	with
		embodiment	kk (JPO)	suitable	would
			means	than
			n/a