Selecting assignees

The Select Assignees dialog box enables you to select specific assignees from a list. The list is generated by performing a search on the Assignee database or the Assignee Abbreviation database. This helps to ensure that all the relevant patents are included in your research or analysis, taking into account any spelling variations or misspellings in the original patent documents.

After you submit an Analyze companies query, the Select Assignees window is displayed for each company that you enter in the query. Here you select the assignees or the assignee groups that you want to include in the company profile.

  1. Select the Assignee patent field. This displays the Find  Assignee/Group link at the right.
  2. Click Find Assignee/Group.
  3. In the Select Assignees dialog box, click Assignee.
  4. Under Find Assignee, type a search string to retrieve a list of assignee names.
  5. Choose the type of search:
    • Treat query as an abbreviation. Choose this option to search the Assignee Abbreviations database, which contains company names that are mapped to their popular abbreviations. Well-known abbreviations of large companies are recognized.
      Example: HP (for Hewlett-Packard).
    • Keyword search. Choose this option to match any whole word exactly to any whole word in the assignee name.
      Example: Entering motors or ford motors or ford co all retrieve Ford Motors Co. However, motor does not retrieve Ford Motors Co.
    • Select the Begins with check box to retrieve the names that begin with your search string.
      Example: fo mo retrieves Ford Motors Co.
  6. Click (Find).

A list of assignee names is generated based on your search criteria from the Assignee database. If the list spans several pages, the page numbers appear at the bottom of the list. To go to a page directly, click the corresponding page number. To scroll the pages sequentially, click the Forward and Back arrows at the right and left of the page number sequence.

  1. Select the check boxes corresponding to the assignee names that you want to target with your search:

    • To choose a specific assignee, select the check box at the left of the assignee name. We recommend that you review all pages of assignee names if there are more than one. Selections are not lost when you go to a different page.
    • To select all names, click Select All. If there are several pages of assignees, all pages are selected.
    • To clear all selections, click Clear All. If there are several pages of assignees, the selections on all pages are cleared.

Do not click Continue Analysis until you have made all your selections.

  1. (Optional) To save an assignee group that is based on the selected assignee names, click Save.

Your search string is used as a default assignee group name. Avoid using the following characters in the company group name: < > % ( ). An assignee group name cannot be longer than 35 characters.

You can only save a group that is based on the current list. If you need your group to contain additional companies that were not retrieved by a search, you can create it in the Manage Assignee Groups dialog box (see Defining an assignee group).

Make sure that you review and select assignee names from all pages before you create a assignee group.

If you choose not to save an assignee group, a temporary group is created. The name of this group is constructed from the search string that is used to generate an assignee list, followed by the tag <temp_group>, and appears on the results page.

  1. Click Continue Analysis. The Select Assignees dialog box is closed, and your selections appear in the Assignee field of the query.

If you re-open the Select Assignees dialog box for this field and make different selections, they overwrite your previous selections.

Before you can specify an assignee group, you must define it, as described in Defining an assignee group.

  1. Select the Assignee patent field. This displays the Find Assignee/Group link at the right.
  2. Click Find Assignee/Group.
  3. In the Select Assignees dialog box, click Groups. All existing assignee groups are listed alphabetically.
  4. (Optional) To filter the list of assignee groups, do the following:

    5. Under Find Group, type a search string to filter the list of assignee group names. Then choose the type of search:

    • Treat query as an abbreviation. Choose this option to search the Assignee Abbreviations database, which contains company names that are mapped to their popular abbreviations. Well-known abbreviations of large companies are recognized.
      Example: HP (for Hewlett-Packard).
    • Keyword search. Choose this option to match any whole word exactly to any whole word in the assignee name.
      Example: Entering motors or ford motors or ford co all retrieve Ford Motors Co. However, motor does not retrieve Ford Motors Co.
    • Select the Begins with check box to retrieve the names that begin with your search string.
      Example: fo mo retrieves Ford Motors Co.
  5. Click (Find).

The list of assignee groups is filtered. If the list spans several pages, the page numbers appear at the bottom of the list. To restore the full list at any time, click Reset. This does not lose your selections. To go to a page directly, click the corresponding page number. To scroll the pages sequentially, click the Forward and Back arrows at the right and left of the page number sequence.

  1. Select the check boxes corresponding to the assignee groups that you want to target with your search:

To choose a specific assignee group, select the check box at the left of the group name. Selections are not lost when you go to a different page.

  • To select all names, click Select All. If there are several pages of assignees, all pages are selected.
  • To clear all selections, click Clear All. If there are several pages of assignees, the selections on all pages are cleared.

Do not click Continue Analysis until you have made all your selections.

  1. Click Continue Analysis. The Select Assignees dialog box is closed, and your selections appear in the Assignee field of the query.

If you re-open the Select Assignees dialog box for this field and make different selections, they overwrite your previous selections.

About the Assignee databases

The Assignee database was generated by compiling all the Assignee names, spelled exactly as they appear in the patent documents. The Assignee Abbreviation database was generated by Accuris’s experts by mapping company names to their popular abbreviations. The Assignee database is updated weekly to include any new assignees appearing in the latest patents.

Unless you explicitly specify all variations of a company name in your query—and assignees are not always listed consistently in patent documents—you risk missing some of the patents from your analysis. We recommend that you check if a company name appears as an abbreviation in patent documents.

One way to check is by performing a search for an abbreviation of a company name in the Select Assignees dialog box: for example HP (without selecting Treat query as an abbreviation). Then you can define an assignee group and include any abbreviations and spelling variations.