PatSeer-Fi-Logo-Large.png
Share:

Boolean searching has been the stronghold of patent searches and information retrieval in general. For a trained search professional, Boolean search is an extremely versatile and powerful tool to narrow down into documents containing topics of interest. However, with the advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) based search, the overall patent searching process can be greatly enhanced, providing more accurate and relevant results in less time. 

Let’s explore how AI complements Boolean searching and how combining the two can result in a faster and more thorough patent search report. 

Limitations of Boolean Search

Information retrieval has traditionally relied heavily on Boolean searches. The user prepares complex search string by combining Boolean operators like AND, OR, and NOT, proximity operators such as within N number of words, within sentence/paragraph and finally, wildcards or stemming, to create the final search query and retrieve specified data. One advantage of such searches is the ability to narrow down into fine topics and the explainability of the search result against the query. However, constructing search strings using Boolean operators can be tedious, time-consuming, and prone to mistakes such as missing out on relevant synonyms. Search professionals need training on the available patent search fields, how to construct search strings, how to combine them in steps and so on. Also, different databases use varying syntax for operators and different indexing rules for different patent fields due to which the same query rarely yields similar results and therefore must be converted to suit each patent database. This further increases the chances of errors when a user relies on multiple patent databases.  

AI Patent Search and its Benefits

AI patent search takes in an invention’s description as a “free text” and can give highly relevant patents that match or are closest to the description given. By leveraging the latest AI technologies, the search engine can interpret the “meaning” and “intent” behind user queries and uses that in the selection and ranking of results. This approach yields contextually aware search results while reducing irrelevant hits. Furthermore, AI search enables researchers to conduct faster searches, reveal hidden linkages and can bring up relevant references that traditional methods may miss out on. The search process is also simplified and can be used by a wider audience. 

Using AI and Boolean Together for a Thorough Search

  • Timesaving 

AI and Boolean search help save time, especially in case of novelty and invalidity searches in patent databases. For such searches AI can be used as a first option and if the desired prior-art is found then one doesn’t have to go for Boolean searches at all. For more complex search projects such as FTO, a user can combine Boolean and AI results to be more thorough. AL based re-ranking over the combined search results can also help in faster identification of necessary prior art save time in result-review 

  • Reduced risk of losing relevant records (Better recall) 

More complicated searches like Freedom to Operate or infringement require assessing whether a particular product, process, or technology infringes on existing intellectual property rights. In such cases AI + Boolean search mitigates the risk of overlooking relevant records. AI augments Boolean searches by detecting elusive matches, ensuring a thorough patent landscape study and more robust assessments. 

  • Increased precision 

Boolean searches typically rely on the BM25 ranking algorithm to decide the order of display of matching results. Leveraging AI-based reranking over Boolean results allows the user to leverage a more powerful LLM-model the leverages contextual understanding of the patent text to give more relevant results on the first page itself. This increased precision helps you save time and thereby leads to faster decision-making. 

  • Makes patents more accessible to R&D (via self-serve)

AI + Boolean search promotes accessible patent information, empowering R&D teams with a self-service approach. This collaborative approach makes it easier to eliminate me-too ideas early in the innovation process and thereby saves both the R&D and IP team’s time and money. The R&D team can forward only those invention disclosures that have passed this self-check, and this reduces the burden on the IP team. 

AI + Complex Boolean patent searching in a single platform

Using AI and Expert searches in a single platform such as PatSeer helps you leverage capabilities that individual platforms cannot provide. For instance, you can leverage AI to get suggestions (or recommendations) on your Boolean searches and use it to make your search queries more robust. Sometimes the relevant record does not show up in the first couple of pages against your Boolean search. In such a scenario, you can rerank your Boolean search results using AI and leverage its contextual understanding of the input query to get highly relevant results on the first page. Using a single platform also helps you save time in combining results from multiple individual tools and also reduces the chances of errors that may happen with such an approach. Finally, a unified platform such as PatSeer also helps you save money since subscribing to two databases – an AI–only patent database and an Expert patent search database can be expensive.

Conclusion

Combining AI and Boolean search in any patent search project is clearly the future given its clear value proposition over either approach.

PatSeer, offers several AI-powered features that can greatly enhance the patent search process discussed in this article. By custom training an LLM-model to understand patent semantics, PatSeer new AI search brings a huge leap in result accuracy and precision based on tests run across various fields of science. Users can input their search queries using everyday language, making the search process easy and efficient. Additionally, PatSeer’s AI refine and rerank helps narrow down search results by eliminating false positives and identifying the most relevant patentsOverall, PatSeer offers the benefits of AI search and Expert Boolean search in a single platform to improve search efficiency, accuracy, and user experience.

Upgrade to a single AI+ Export Search Platform today!

Similar Blogs

Scroll to Top
PatSeer
Play Video