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A perovskite solar cell (PSC) usually includes a tin halide-based material or hybrid organic-inorganic lead. PSCs are lightweight, low-cost, magnetoresistant and energy efficient. As they are more advantageous than silicon-based solar cells, PSCs are considered an exciting breakthrough in clean energy.
To get a general impression of the top companies and their patent portfolios over the years in this technology space, we carried out a patent search in PatSeer. A specific query using keywords related to PSC technology and relevant IPC & CPC classes was run. The result set revealed 5200+ patent families which were then analysed further.
Why it has become imperative to club semantic search with your keyword searches?
A semantic search tool understands the different ways a concept is conveyed and in what perspective a term is used. The input paragraph is converted into a contextual search vector that looks at not just the direct matches but also similar matches. Here are a few reasons to supplement your Boolean queries with semantic searches.
Reduce your chances of missing a prior art when constrained for time
Even a single critical prior art missed by a searcher may come to haunt the patent applicant/patentee later as it may hamper the patent prosecution or become a ground for invalidation or infringement. Patents are difficult to read, and many are intentionally written in a vague manner which is tough to understand and search. A drafter can also use novel terminology when drafting a patent application which is not easily known at the time of search. Semantic search works over contextual meaning of the input sentence or paragraph and so can help uncover missed results. You can easily NOT the results of the Semantic search with your Boolean query to see the delta results and scan them for any relevant record.
For prior art or invalidity searches with a short turnaround time, you can also directly start with a semantic search. In many cases you will find the matching set of prior art with just this approach. Both these types of searches might not need 100% precision and if you can make your case with a portion of the relevant prior art then further searches become redundant.
Inventors can perform better searches
With the increasing volumes of patent filing, having patent professionals handle all big and small patent searching needs can quickly become limiting. Even for companies having inhouse patent searchers, it is more efficient to allow inventors/researchers to quickly screen their ideas via their own searches before passing it to the patent department. A semantic search makes it easy for them to search for a concept and gain quick insights.
For mission-critical searches you can use semantic search to find more search concepts
A semantic search on its own may not be a thorough search. But is very suited to give you a quick overview of the patent landscape of a technology area or as a preliminary screening search. It can also point out any missing technology concepts which can be utilised for further refining your Boolean search, especially when there is need for a high precision search or if there is a lack of domain expertise
Save time
Time is crucial for prior art searches. On the other hand, it is also essential for prior art searches to be exhaustive to ensure that retrieved documents are relevant to the invention disclosure. Semantic searches can save time by quickly understanding the correct meaning of the search terms and locating those documents.
To sum up, semantic search is an excellent tool for professional patent searchers as well as occasional/inexperienced searchers. It provides relevant patent documents regardless of the terminologies, synonyms, abbreviations used to describe a technical concept. Semantic search is ideal for broad concept-based searching, to gain a perspective and as a complement to your Boolean queries.
