The Automated Patent System What is the Automated Patent System? The Automated Patents System (APS) is a full-text database consisting of U.S. patents from 1971 to the present. This is the system developed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for use in-house by examiners and other USPTO staff. The USPTO has established a pilot project project to test the use of this database from remote sites. The NCSU Libraries were one of fourteen Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries from across the country selected to participate in this program. How to Search APS The complete text of each patent issued from January 1971 to the present is accessible online. (The database is updated once a week on Monday evenings.) All of the text is searchable by key word, inventor, assignee, various dates, references cited and much more. Drawings are not available on APS, only text. Drawings and diagrams are available at the D.H. Hill Library. Patent announcements, containing brief information and one diagram, can be found in the Official Gazette (C21.5:vol./no.). Complete patents contain all available drawings and are on microfilm and CD-ROM in the Microforms Room. A summary of basic APS search commands follows. If you would like information on more advanced commands, please consult the APS Desktop Reference Guide located at the APS workstation. Class/Subclass To retrieve all patents in a specific Class/Subclass, type s, followed by a space and the Class and Subclass you wish to retrieve separated by a slash (/), and then type /ccls. (Your entry will appear in the Input area at the bottom of the screen.) Format: => [command] [class]/[subclass]/[code] Example: => s 346/77E/ccls Inventor Before you execute a search for an Inventor, you should check the database for name variations using the Expand command. Type e, followed by as much of the name as you are certain of followed by a slash (/) and IN. (Your entry will appear in the Input area at the bottom of the screen.) Format: => [command] [name]/[code] Example: => e brown/in The system responds with an alphabetical list of E-numbers and the total number of patents containing each name. E-numbers can be used in search statements to ensure that all the patent documents for an inventor are retrieved. Search E-numbers by typing s, followed by a space and the E-numbers you wish to search separated by a hyphen. The system will respond with the number of patents containing each variation of the name in a set that can be displayed. Format: => [command] [range of E-numbers] Example: => s e4-5 Assignee To search by Assignee - the name of the company or individual who owned the rights to the patent at the time it was issued - first check the database for name variations using the Expand command. Type e, followed by as much of the name as you are certain of followed by a slash (/) and AS. (Your entry will appear in the Input area at the bottom of the screen.) Format: => [command] [name]/[code] Example: => e moore bus/as The system responds with an alphabetical list of E-numbers and the total number of patents containing the name. E-numbers can be used in search statements to ensure that all the patent documents for the Assignee are retrieved. Search E-numbers by typing s, followed by a space and the E-numbers you wish to search separated by a hyphen. The system will respond with the number of patents containing each variation of the name in a set that can be displayed. Format: => [command] [range of E-numbers] Example: => s e4-5 Keyword Because the APS database is so large, searching by keyword only can produce large, imprecise sets of records. However, adding keywords to class/subclass, inventor and assignee searches can prove useful. To search by Keyword, use operators such as AND, OR, and NOT. Format: => [command] [previous search set] [operator] [keyword] Example: => s L3 and boat How to Display the Search History Each time you execute the search command, APS creates a set of records. These sets are assigned an L-number (L1, L2, L3 etc.) by the system. These sets may be used again with either the search or display command. To display a list of sets, type d followed by the history abbreviation. Example: => d his How to Display Search Results To display basic data for any patent(s) retrieved, type d, followed by the L-number assigned to the search you wish to display and the range of records you wish to view. Format: => [command] [L-number] [range of records] Example: => d L2 1-5 To display the citation (CIT), abstract (AB), the entire front page of the patent (FRO), or the full-text of the patent (ALL), use the Display command, followed by the desired format, the range of records and the L-number. Format: =>[command] [format] [range of records] [L-number] Example: => d FRO 1-3 L3 How to Print Search Results To print the contents of a screen, press F10. To print all or part of a session, you must activate the continuous print feature. Press Scroll Lock (to activate scroll mode) and then F5 (to activate continuous print). To turn off continuous print, press F5 and then Scroll Lock. How to Download Search Results To save search results to a diskette, insert a DOS-formatted 3.5" diskette into the floppy drive and press F7. You may press ENTER to accept the default filename, or you may type another filename in the space provided. Should there be insufficient disk space, the system will pause and prompt you to insert another diskette. Remove the full diskette and insert another. Press ENTER to continue writing the file to the diskette. Contributed by Mary Ellen Spencer, North Carolina State Univ