This page provides an overview of searching and downloading publications from IP.com’s Prior Art Database (PAD). PAD is a unique and valuable source of non-patent literature for IP professionals, patent examiners, attorneys, corporate researchers and development staff, libraries, and universities. Corporations have been defensively publishing with IP.com since 2000 as an alternative to patenting. To learn more about the features and benefits of defensive publishing, click here.
| Defensive Publishing | Prior Art Database (PAD) |
Content and Coverage
The Prior Art Database includes disclosures from the following collections:
- The IP.com Journal
- Internet Society RFC
- IBM TDB Archive
- Legacy Journals
- Software Patent Institute
For additional information regarding our data sources and coverage for the available publications, click on the link Coverage.
Access PAD
To switch between InnovationQ publishing and PAD searching while signed-in, click on Launch App in the top navigational toolbar. Alternatively, you can access your available applications by selecting My Account from your Account menu in the upper-right corner.Search PAD
Search History is available once you sign in with your IP.com account. If you would like access to this feature, you may need to create an IP.com account. For further guidance, feel free to Contact Us.
To run a new search, select New Search from the sidebar. There are several features to help you find the publications you need by searching PAD:
- Keyword and Concept Search: Easily search the Prior Art Database by entering keywords or concepts. In addition, you can apply a filter to search documents by publication date or by publication source.
- Advanced Search: Search documents by publication date or source by leaving the search box empty. You can filter by either IP.com Publication Date or Original Publication Date.
- Publication Number: Access a publication directly by entering its number in the search box.
- Publication Preview: Find similar publications to the one currently displayed.
- Archive: View previously published publications by year and month.
- Recent Searches: Run a previous search or access your full Search History from the home page.
Keyword or Concept Search
1 You can select either Keyword Search or Concept Search from the drop-down.
- For a Keyword Search, you can enter a publication number, word, or phrase with optional Boolean syntax and the title, abstract, and primary document are searched. For further details, click on the link Searching PAD Using Keywords.
- For a Concept Search, you can enter a publication number, phrases, sentences, or full paragraphs in English. For further details, click on the link Searching PAD Using Concepts.
Advanced Filters
2 The Advanced Search is available to limit the documents by date or publishing source. The available filters can be used stand-alone or in combination with the Keyword or Concept Search. The Dates drop-down also includes the option for you to search using IP.com Publication Date or Original Publication Date. To limit your results to documents which report including chemical structures, check the Required field below Chemical Structures.
Display Results
3 Once you enter the search criteria and click Search, the results display, and the total number of documents found will be shown on top.
4 To preview a publication, click on the document area in the results list. The selected document will be highlighted and display its title, abstract, source, publication number, country, and date. You can navigate to the previous or next document in the results list.
Publication Preview
The preview displays header information including IP.com Publication Date, Country, Publishing Source, Language, File Size, and may also include information such as Original Publication Date, Authors, Document Object Identifier (DOI), Copyright, and clickable links to patent publications. To expand the front-page image, click the thumbnail. The Abstract and Text Overview occupy the lower half of the preview panel.
5 The publication preview displays once a document is selected from the results list.
Note: If your Keyword Search matches too many words, an error message displays. You will need to narrow your wildcard search to get results, or you can run a Concept Search.
Download Publication
6 To download a publication from the publication preview, click the download button
. To learn about downloading a publication, click on the link Downloading Publications from the Prior Art Database (PAD).
Find Similar Disclosures
7 To start a new search and find more documents like the one on display, click Find Similar Disclosures.
Archive of Online Publications
8 To view previously published publications, go to the Browse Archive located in the top ribbon or you can select archive from the sidebar. Additionally, you can open Browse Archive from the home page under the Recently Downloaded section.
You can display the results by either IP.com Publication Date or Original Publication Date for a selected year and month, with your selections highlighted in blue.
Publish Disclosure
While searching PAD, you can easily access the IP.com publishing service dashboard. For more details, click on the link Publishing Disclosures to the Prior Art Database (PAD).
Related Articles
Introduction to Defensive Publishing and the Prior Art Database (PAD)Prior Art Database Features and Benefits
Navigate Using the Sidebar
Searching the Prior Art Database (PAD)
Searching PAD Using Keywords
Searching PAD Using Concepts
Downloading Publications from the Prior Art Database (PAD)
Using Search History in PAD
Publishing Disclosures to the Prior Art Database (PAD)
The IP.com Journal – Contents, Availability, and Distribution
Purchasing Defensive Publishing Vouchers
How to Publish a Disclosure
Registering an IP.com Account and Accessing Solutions
Updating your Account Information
FAQs
