Viewing search results on the Patent Classes tab
The Patent Classes tab displays patent information by invention categories, standardized by the U.S. or the International Patent Offices to classify types of technology.
The total number of patents found for this analysis is displayed above the results.
The Patent Classes table includes the following columns:
- Code: Lists the patent class codes for all inventions by the profiled company.
- Class Name: Lists the name of each U.S. or International Patent Class.
- No. of Patents: Lists the total number of patents within each patent class for the selected date range.
- Activity Trend: Classifies the innovation activity within each patent class as Accelerating, Constant, Declining, or Low (based on the frequency with which a particular type of technology is patented by this company).
Working with the Patent Classes table
- To sort information by Code, Class Name, No. of Patents, or Activity Trend, click the corresponding column header.
- To view the patent class data using either the International Patent Class (IPC) system codes (in 4-digit and full format), or the U.S. system codes (in 3-digit or full format), select the appropriate option from the Class Code Format list above the table.
The U.S. Patent Class (US) and the International Patent Class (IPC) systems are not equivalent. Although all U.S. patents are assigned a corresponding IPC code, international patents do not have a corresponding U.S. code. If your search targeted international Patent Collections, you cannot view your results using U.S. class codes (these options are unavailable in the Class Code Format list).
- To filter the list by patenting activity, select the type of activity trend from the list in the Activity Trend column header.
- To view an activity trend chart for a specific patent class, click
(Activity Trend) for that patent class. This displays a chart of the number of patents issued to the profiled company each year within the selected patent class (during the date range specified in your query). You can change the type of chart by clicking 
or 
. - To view information for a particular patent class, click Tools at the left of the assignee name, and then select View patent list for this class, View assignees for this class, or View inventors list for this class.
- To go to a different page, click the desired page number. To navigate the pages sequentially, click the Back arrow or the Forward arrow located before and after the page numbers.
Saving results
You can save your search results to the following:
- My Data. You save items to a named collection of data in My Data. (A collection is like a folder that contains your saved items.)
- A file on your hard drive, in any of the following formats:
- CSV
- Excel (.xlsx extension)
- Microsoft Word (.docx extension)
To save search results to My Data
Click for details on My Data.
- With the desired search results displayed, select the check box to the left of the desired main snippet(s) to select them, and then click Save > Save to My Data in the top-right of the results pane.
- The More results item(s), which appear when you click More below a search result item, can also be saved to My Data. Click the radio button to the left of the desired item, and then click Save > Save to My Data in the top-right of the results pane.
- The Save to My Data dialog box appears prompting you to select an existing collection or create a new collection in which to save the selected items.
- Where you selected multiple check boxes to the left of more than one main snippet query result item, when you click Save > Save to My Data in the top-right above the query results pane, the Save to My Data dialog box includes the following options below the Collections pane:
- All results on this page
- All results
- Only selected results
- Click Add Annotation to type a comment that can be searched when you query My Data collections, and then click Save. If multiple items are selected above, the annotation is applied to each of them.
Exporting results
Your query is exported along with all the data that is displayed in your results.
To export search results to a file
Output a single query result item or multiple query result items to a file on your hard drive in one of the following formats:
- Excel (.xlsx extension)
- Microsoft Word (.docx extension)
- CSV
- With the desired search results displayed, select the check box to the left of the desired main snippet(s) to select them, and then click Save > Export in the top-right of the results pane.
The More results item(s), which appear when you click More below a search result item, cannot be exported, only saved to your My Data collection.
- The Export Results dialog box, which prompts you to select a file format, and whether to include the document summary appears.
- Where you selected the check box to the left of more than one main snippet query result item and then clicked Save > Export in the top-right above the query results pane, the Export Results dialog box includes the following options below the Export to pane:
- All results on this page
- All results
- Only selected results.
- Click Export, and then follow the directions that your browser gives you for downloading data to a file.