Everybody is doing the patent search for their own approach. What is the best way to conduct a patent search? Is it keyword search or sort code search? People mainly prefer keywords for effective search. Some people use classification codes along with keywords for a more precise patent search. For a keyword-based patent search, keyword selection is a difficult task. Patents are techno-legal documents and good patent attorneys write patents using technical jargon to fool competitors.

The first thing for the patent search is to define the invention that is sought. It gives a clear view of the patents to the searcher who is searching. After understanding the invention, the next step is the selection of the search term. Selecting the correct search term is the most critical part of the search strategy. The key points should remember what term the search results must contain to define the invention. These terms should not be very common terms for patents. Selecting common patent search terms throws up a lot of garbage in search results, making it difficult to identify relevant patents. Being very specific also gives only limited search results; resulting in losing many relevant patents.

It is advisable to break down the invention into elements and identify synonyms, acronyms and related terms. The better word would be identification of analogous terms for this. Technical jargons are also a must when doing keyword research. The selection of analogous terms should be based on their relevance to the invention appearing in the patents. Sometimes an analogous term gives very vague search results. Therefore, it would be better to quickly check the relevance of the patents that appear using that analogous term. American and British spelling variations should also be taken into account during keyword selection. Abbreviations and plural forms should also be taken into account for better keyword research. Using a broader class is also important for effective keyword research.

Therefore, it is useful to start a web search that provides a basic idea of ​​the invention and a clue for the selection of the correct keywords to search for the relevant keywords. You can start a very preliminary patent search by typing as many words as you can think of that describe your invention that you can refine to formulate the final search string based on high recall to high precision.