Go Boolean to Save Time

“Few companies that installed computers to reduce the employment of clerks have realized their expectations.... They now need more, and more expensive clerks even though they call them 'operators' or 'programmers.'” -- Peter F. Drucker (American Educator and Writer, b.1909)

 

Half the battle in keeping up with important developments in your field lies in efficient use of your time to do so.  Today we offer you a time saver tip …

Use Boolean operators when you search Google Patents.

Let’s pose a hypothetical … you are interested in seeing recent desulfurization-related patents produced by a number of catalyst companies.

So you navigate to Google Patents (http://www.google.com/patents?hl=en), click the Advanced Search link, and enter the following into the search form …

 

In case the screen shot is too small to read, the search strategy is …
Find results with: desulfurization
Assignee: UOP
Date – Return patents between 2001 and 2011

The result is about 300 hits, including the following:


SELECTIVE NAPHTHA DESULFURIZATION PROCESS AND CATALYST

patents.google.comUS Pat. App 12605730 - Filed Oct 26, 2009 - UOP LLC
... (54) SELECTIVE NAPHTHA DESULFURIZATION PROCESS AND CATALYST (75) Inventors: Lorenz J. Bauer, Schaumburg, IL (US); Suheil F. Abdo, Lincolnshire, IL (US); ...


You repeat the search strategy, substituting “BASF” for “UOP” in the assignee field.
You repeat again, this time searching for “Albemarle” in the assignee field.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could search for ALL THREE vendors at the same time?

Yes, it would.  And yes, you can.

Here’s how.  In the assignee field enter the three vendor names separated by the Boolean operator OR.

The result is a list of patents produced by EITHER UOP or BASF or ALBEMARLE during the past 10 years.  You now have only one search to perform, and one list to browse through.

Follow the Desulfurization Blog (www.desulf.blogspot.com) for a continuing stream of time-saver tips.  Even better, add it as a feed to your organization’s Web.