5.11 Syntax Search

Syntax search in INTERGATOR Patent Search allows Boolean search queries, field references, and operators to be used in a targeted way. It can be used in two different ways:

• as a syntax filter within a semantic or hybrid search,
• or as the basis of a Boolean search in the BOOL perspective.

In the semantic perspectives, syntax search generally acts as a filter. In the BOOL perspective, the same search syntax forms the actual search logic and is ranking.

Upper and lower case are not distinguished. This means that both uppercase and lowercase variants of the entered search terms will be found. Example: polymer also finds Polymer or POLYMER.

Depending on the search approach, syntax search can be used in different ways:

• In semantic perspectives

→ as a syntax filter to narrow down the result set in a targeted way

• In the BOOL perspective

→ as a complete Boolean search query with an influence on the order of the hits

This makes syntax search suitable both for targeted refinements and for controlled, fully lexical search strategies.

INTERGATOR Patent Search takes into account not only the full text of patent documents (title, abstract, claims, description), but also bibliographic metadata. Search queries can therefore also refer to the following information:

• Publication number (pn:)
• Applicant/Patent owner (pa:)
• Inventor (in:)
• IPC or CPC class (icm:, cpc:)
• Publication or application date (pub:, ad:)

Example: pa:“Siemens” polymer finds patents with Siemens as the applicant in which the term *polymer* occurs.

Further information on targeted metadata search can be found in the chapter 5.11.4 Search in Metadata.

When entering multiple search terms, INTERGATOR Patent Search displays only documents that contain all of the terms.

• OR (must be uppercase) → hits containing at least one of the terms
• NOT or - (minus) → excludes terms
• Parentheses () → allow complex combinations

Example: battery NOT “lithium ion” finds patents containing the term *battery*, but not the phrase *lithium ion*.

To find an exact phrase, place the terms in quotation marks (“ ”). By adding ~n, a maximum distance between the words can be specified.

Examples:

• “fuel cell” → searches for patents containing the exact phrase *fuel cell*
• “artificial intelligence”~5 → finds hits in which *artificial* and *intelligence* occur no more than five words apart

Unknown characters can be replaced by wildcards:

• ? → stands for a single character
• ** * ** → stands for multiple characters

Example:

• poly?er → finds *polymer* and *polyer*
• nano* → finds *nanotube*, *nanoparticle*, *nanostructure*, etc.

Note: Wildcards at the beginning of a word may slow down the search. Wildcards work only within words, not across spaces or special characters. If a wildcard is to be searched as a normal character, use the backslash \.

During indexing, patent documents are analyzed automatically:

• Word splitting – for example, Li-Ion is split into *Li*, *Ion*, and *Li-Ion*
• Stemming – reducing words to their stem form (e.g. *analyzing* → *analyze*)
• Normalization – umlauts and accents are standardized (e.g. *Müller* → *Mueller*, *résumé* → *resume*)

This ensures a consistent result list even when different spellings are used.

Search terms can be grouped with parentheses and combined using OR in order to formulate complex queries. By adding a ~ to a search term, similar spellings can also be found.

Examples:

• solar (panel OR module) → finds patents containing *solar panel* or *solar module*
• polymr~ → also finds similarly spelled variants such as *polymer*

The same search syntax can take on different roles in INTERGATOR Patent Search:

• as a restrictive filter within a semantic or hybrid search,
• or as an independent Boolean search logic in the BOOL perspective.

For controlled, fully lexical searches, the BOOL perspective is therefore recommended.