AU Published Patent Data Searching

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AU Published Patent Data as of 4 March 2010

Quick Search Page
This screen enables you to access AU Published Patent data by either :
Search Field
Description
Format
Application Number Number assigned to the patent application at filing 200134567 or 2003100050
Patent Number 6 figure number assigned to the old patent application number format YYYYNNNNN at acceptance 712345
Words in the title Word or part-word occurring in application title laser

Patent Application Numbers are input in the format 200134567, ie a four digit year followed by the five digit application number, or 2003100050, ie. a four digit year followed by the six digit application number. On our mainframe and other IP Australia systems the former application number format could have been represented as 34567/01.
Patent Numbers are sequentially assigned in a continuing series of 6-figure numbers by IP Australia at acceptance of patent applications having the old patent application number format YYYYNNNNN.
Several numbers, separated by a "," can be submitted for the Patent Application or Patent Number search.
In the title search, one or more words adjacent to each other can be submitted for the search, and it will bring up occurrences, where such a string appears exactly, within a title. Title search is not case-dependent.
The "Advanced Search" button at the top may be used to switch to a more advanced option which allows searching on multiple fields, which could be further logically combined.
The Search Results list is limited to displaying a maximum of 1000 hits, latest publication of largest application number appearing first. For the same application number, the AU-B level publication, if one exists, will precede the AU-A level publication in the search results hit list.
Advanced Search
Under Advanced Search, you can search over multiple fields which can be combined logically. This screen enables you to access AU Published Patent data by either :
Search Field
Description
Format
Application Number Number assigned to the patent application at filing 200134567 or 2003100050
Patent Number 6 figure number assigned to the old patent application number format YYYYNNNNN at acceptance 712345
Words in the title Word or part-word occurring in application title laser
IPC Marks International Patent Classification in which the technical field of the invention has been classified B25C1/00 (post 1975)
B25C001/00 (prior 1975)
WIPO Number Number assigned to the PCT patent application by WIPO at International publication WO96/23456
Application Date Date of filing patent application in Australia 09/07/1997
Publication Date
For AU-filed applications the Publication Date is the advertisement date in the Australian Official Journal of Patents (AOJP)
For AU-designated PCT applications filed before 1 January 2004 the Publication Date is the Receipt date of the pamphlet;
For AU-designated PCT applications filed on or after 1 January 2004 the Publication Date is the WIPO Publication Date on the pamphlet.
09/07/1997
Publication Journal Date Open to Public Inspection advertisement date of AU-filed applications and AU-designated PCT applications in AOJP 09/07/1997
Accepted Journal Date Date, acceptance/grant of standard/petty patent application is advertised in AOJP 09/07/1997
Granted Journal Date Date, grant of innovation patent is advertised is AOJP 09/07/1997
Certified Journal Date Date, certification of innovation patent is advertised in AOJP 09/07/1997
Amended Journal Date Date, amended standard/innovation patent is advertised in AOJP 09/07/1997
Corrigenda Journal Date Date, corrected standard/innovation patent is advertised in AOJP 09/07/1997
Document Kind* Type indicator used by IP Australia for differentiating document/publication stages A1
Inventor Name Name of inventor(s) Edison
Applicant Name Name of applicant(s) BHP
Attorney Name Name of attorney / agent Madderns

* The different document kinds on APPS can be:
A1 = First publication of an unexamined standard patent application or the divisional standard/petty application of a standard patent/patent application
A2 = Amended first publication
A4 = Publication of granted innovation patent
A5 = Publication of an innovation patent application prior to grant
A6 = Publication of amended granted innovation patent
A8 = Corrigenda to the bibliographic data of an A level publication
A9 = Corrigenda to the patent specification of an A level publication
B1 = First publication of an accepted standard patent application
B2 = Publication of a patent application after acceptance
B3 = Publication of a granted petty patent
B4 = Publication of a certified innovation patent
B8 = Corrigenda to the bibliographic data of a B level publication
B9 = Corrigenda to the patent specification of a B level publication
C1 = Amended accepted or granted standard/petty patent
C4 = Amended certified innovation patent
C8 = Corrigenda to the bibliographic data of a C level publication
C9 = Corrigenda to the patent specification of a C level publication

The Advanced Search page comes up with two rows of search criteria input boxes. The Search Field box is a drop down list, and clicking on the arrow beside this box brings up a list with available search fields.
The logical combination of search fields can be performed by selecting any one of the radio buttons. "Match any of the following" is equivalent to a Boolean ORing of search fields. "Match all of the following" is equivalent to a Boolean ANDing of search fields ie. if one of the search fields returns a zero result, the final hit list will contain zero results. The default is an AND condition ie. "Match all of the following".
The Operator input box is also a drop down list from which you can make a selection. The operators can be one of:
EQUALS / NOT EQUAL TO / CONTAINS / GREATER THAN / LESS THAN
The EQUALS / NOT EQUAL TO operators are useable with all search fields. When using EQUALS / NOT EQUAL TO operators, the value field should be formatted correctly. Dates should be entered with a four-digit year; the separator could be either "/" or ".", and leading zeroes are not necessary. IPC Marks have to be entered in the format ANNANNN/NNNNN ie. G06F17/60, without any intervening spaces or preceding zeros at the subgroup level.
The EQUALS operator is not recommended for use with string searching. When used with strings, EQUALS will report only those patent documents where the queried value is in the correct format, and is the sole value recorded eg. with IPC marks, the only hits will be those documents where the queried, correctly formatted mark, is the sole classification mark. When querying on Inventor Name, for example, the full name of the inventor needs to be entered in the same format as recorded on IP Australia's database, and the only hits that will be generated are those documents where that person was the only inventor.
The CONTAINS operator is ideal for searching string values like Inventor name, Applicant name, Title, IPC Marks, etc. as partial value searches are possible. The CONTAINS operator when used with IPC Marks will report all patent documents where the queried IPC mark is a classification mark. Similarly, with Applicant Name and Inventor Name searches, only partial bits of the name need be provided, and the hits generated will be those documents where the name would be present, singly or with several others. Please note that the CONTAINS operator is not useable with date fields, and on the Application Number and Patent Number fields.
The CONTAINS operator search can be enhanced using the '?' wildcard which is used for a single character match. For example, a search for an IPC Mark that contains "E05B3/0?" returns patents that have IPC Marks E05B3/00 and E05B3/01 and so on. It is not necessary to use the multi character wildcard '*' with the CONTAINS operator as this character will automatically be appended to each of your search criterion eg. Entering E05B will be translated into *E05B*.
The GREATER THAN / LESS THAN operators can be used for searching date fields, and the Application Number and Patent Number fields.
Alphabetical terms are not case-dependent.
Buttons:
Once you have entered one or more Patent Application Numbers and/or Patent Numbers and/or words in the title you should click on the "Search" button to execute the search. Pressing the "Enter" button on the keyboard is equivalent to clicking the "Search" button.
Clicking on the "Add Criteria" button each time results in bringing up additional search criteria input box rows.
The "Clear Page" button clears all the entry fields and serves a fresh new page with two rows of search criteria input boxes again.
Hit List Page
This page lists 10 hits per page that satisfy the search criterion. The search results list is limited to displaying a maximum of 1000 hits, latest publication of largest application number appearing first. Results of searches are given in descending Application year/Number order, with the accepted AU-B version of the patent publication preceding the first-published AU-A version. Please note, however, that the corresponding abstract is the same for both AU-A and AU-B versions.
You can use the "Page" buttons at the top of the page to scroll through the hit list pages, or go directly to the first/last hit list page. Clicking on the Application Number/Patent Number link will take you to the abstract display page. The "Refine Search" button at the bottom takes you back to your original search - either Quick or Advanced - from which you have obtained the current Hit List, with the search terms retained. The "New Search" button at the top takes you back to your original search - either Quick or Advanced - from which you have obtained the current Hit List, with entry fields cleared, ready to accept new search terms.
NOTE:
It is likely that older patents could still be flagged as an A1 document kind, even though they have a 6-digit Patent Number. In general, from publication year 1998 onwards, publication document kind would be properly identified as being one of A1, B1, B2 or B3 and from 7 August 2003, one of A1, A2, A4, A5, A6, A8, A9, B1, B2, B4, B8, B9, C1, C4, C8 and C9.
As IPC marks will be reclassified with each revision of IPC8, you will need to search using current IPC marks. Note: If you choose to view / access any images (abstracts / full documentation) from documents published prior to the effective revision of IPC8, the images will display the original marks (ie. the marks applied at time of publication); which may be different to the reclassified marks used to search and locate the application.
Applications published prior to 1975 have not been reclassified in line with the IPC8 reform and you will still need to enter the preceding zeros to the subclass when searching for these applications.
Abstract Image Display Page
The Abstract Image Display page displays some bibliographic information at the top - application number, title and WO number, where applicable - and a GIF image of the abstract. Most Applications from 1975 to 1991 will generally have an abstract prepared by Derwent Information Ltd., while applications earlier than 1975 do not have an abstract in electronic form. The abstract for Australian applications filed via the PCT route, will usually be the front page pamphlet of the equivalent WO publication. One can use the Doc scroll button to either go to the image of the next document on the hit list, or the first/last document on the hit list. You can use the Page scroll button to either go to the next page of the current document, or the first/last page of the current document, respectively.
There is also a printer-friendly PDF link on this page which takes you to a PDF version of the abstract which is optimised for printing to your designated local printer. You will need Adobe Acrobat reader (available for free download from http://www.adobe.com/) installed to view them. The dimensions of the images in the PDF versions of the abstracts may vary considerably. When printing, use the 'Fit to Page' option under the Adobe Acrobat's Print Setup dialog to scale them as required to fit the paper.
The full specification link, where present, will take you to the website where the full specification is available in PDF format:
For AU complete specifications, the full specification link will take you directly to the PDF image of the corresponding full specification, at IP Australia's AU-A/B/C full specifications website.
For WO specifications, this is essentially the Espacenet home page http://ep.espacenet.com. At this site, you are required to enter the WO publication number in the format WOYYNNNNN (this number is displayed as part of the bibliographic information at the top of the Abstract Image Display page).
Going Back:
The "Results List" bar at the top of the page will take you back to the Hit List page, and "New Search" will take you back to the last Search - Quick/Advanced - to start a fresh search. To refine your existing search, go back to the hit list page and click on "Refine Search" which is at the bottom of the page.
Wherever possible, it is recommended that you use navigation buttons provided within APPS, rather than the 'Back' and 'Forward' buttons available within your browser.
Help If you need any further assistance, please contact the IP Australia Customer Service Centre on 1300 65 1010, or email assist@ipaustralia.gov.au or fax (02) 6283 7999.