Report:Orbit.com/Data Coverage/Non Patent Coverage/Designs

Designs

Coverage

Users can search through a global collection of industrial designs on the DesignFinder module for Orbit.com, which currently covers the registers of 14 authorities. The following chart from the Questel website describes the coverage of the industrial design collection on Orbit.com:^[1]

The following table is current as of October 2012. Visit this page for the most current version of the table.

According to the industrial designs user guide, English translations are currently available for Asian design collections (CN, JP, KR).^[2]

Search Forms

Two search forms are available in the DesignFinder module on Orbit.com:^[2]

• Quick Search - The quick search form consists of basic fields, including title, Locarno/national classification, owner, and numbers (application, registration, priority). The quick search form includes automatic right and left truncation, accepts basic Boolean operators, and the default operator between terms (except for numbers) and between fields is the Boolean operator AND.

• Advanced Search - The advanced search form includes all fields available in the quick search, as well as additional fields (depending on the country, some fields aren't searchable): description, new owner/previous owner/all, designer name, representative, priority country, designated countries (FR and WO only), list of countries, date restrictions. The Questel website provides a fact sheet (PDF) containing a list of all available fields on the DesignFinder module and which fields are available for which authorities.

  The advanced search form accepts Boolean operators AND/OR/NOT, as well as parentheses when combining different operators. The user guide notes that a space between two terms is equivalent to implied adjacency for Keywords. Left, right, and internal truncation and wildcard operators are available in the advanced search, although terms must be at least three characters long for truncation to work properly. Left truncation is not available for Owner, Designer or Representative searching. Avaible truncation and wildcard symbols include:

  • + or * - Truncation replacing any number of characters
  • ? - Truncation replacing zero or one character
  • # - Truncation replaces exactly one character

Advanced search form for the DesignFinder module (screenshot from Industrial Design user guide).^[2]

For the result interface, user may choose to save a search. Users may modify the query (using command language) before saving the search. The name for the saved search must begin with a letter and contain alphanumeric characters only, with no spaces.^[2]

From the left menu under the "My saved searches" option, users may view all saved searches and select to execute (rerun), edit, or delete a saved search.^[2]

Saved searches for the DesignFinder module (screenshot from Industrial Design user guide).^[2]

Users can also create an alert from the search result page, to be run weekly or monthly with new documents only or all documents. Available formats include classical (TXT, PDF, RTF), excel (XLS), XML (full or light). Users can send the alert to up to 23 emails. Choose the "My alerts" section in the left menu to view a list of all active alerts. Under the "My alerts" section, users can execute, view, edit, or delete any alert.^[2]

The menu to create an alert for the DesignFinder module (screenshot from Industrial Design user guide).^[2]

Displaying Results

Search results can be displayed in list, details, or thumbnail image view.^[2]
List View - This view lists the registration number, register, owner, title, application date, publication date, and Locarno Class for each result. Sorting is available for each column when the hitlist is less than 1000 results.
Display View - Display view lists the same bibliographic details for each result as the List View, and the details view additionally shows the first image or all images for each result. Like list view, sorting is available for each column when the hitlist is less than 1000 results.
Thumbnail View - This view displays only only the registration number and date with one or all images.

The thumbnail display for results (screenshot from Industrial Design user guide).^[2]

Additionally, the Details Pane may be enabled to view details about a selected design in a pane adjacent to the hit list.^[2] The details pane displays the title, registration number, register, owner, owner in original language (when available), application date, publication date, Locarno Class, description, and all the images for a selected design. The user can select an image to view a larger version of the image in a pop-up window. The register flag in the details pane may be selected to view the record for the design on the official authority's website.

The option to view the Design Pane (1), details and images for a specific record in the Design Pane (2), drag and drop the divider to expand the Design Pane (3), and a link to the official record on the authority website (4) (screenshot from Industrial Design user guide).^[2]

When a user select the registration number from the list, display, or thumbnail views, they access the full record view for the design.^[2] This view displays all available fields and images. Selecting an image will open a larger version of the image in a pop-up window, and PDFs are displayed for US designs. Users can select the register flag to view the record on the authority's website.

Full record view with a PDF for a US design (screenshot from Industrial Design user guide).^[2]

Individual records can be selected from the hitlist and exported in TXT, PDF, RTF, XLS, and XML formats. Users may also save a personalized export format to reuse in the future. Exports can be downloaded directly, as a zip file, or sent by email (with an optional comment).^[2]

Editor's Note:

The option to only search and view industrial designs is a unique feature of Orbit.com that isn't available on other major patent search platforms. Questel seems to focus its products on patent and intellectual property coverage, and this focus is reflected in the decision to add industrial design coverage to the Orbit.com platform.