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STN Viewpoint: Using the highlighting feature to speed the patent evaluation process

With the introduction of STN Viewer^TM, we are also introducing the STN Viewpoint column.  This regular column will focus on tools available in STN Viewer as well as applications for managing and evaluating patents.

In this article, we show how you can speed the process of evaluating patents by highlighting significant terms or word segments in a patent document.

Customers who have tried STN Viewer have said that the highlighting features are "absolutely super" and that STN Viewer "offers unsurpassed truncation capabilities."

With STN Viewer, you can:

• Easily highlight any significant terms in the full text of patents, even internal segments of words with variable characters 
• Quickly navigate to the patent sections with the highest densities of relevant terms
• Save your personal notes along with a specific patent document

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Highlighting terms in patent documents

1. Within the Patent Queue or a project, click the title of a patent of interest to view the full text.
   
   
   
   The record opens with the bib tab displaying bibliographic information and the abstract, if available in the database.  Notice that the description, claims, and all tabs allow you to view additional sections of the patent document.
   
   
   
   
2. Use the Highlighting tab at the right to enter terms of interest.

The STN Viewer highlighting feature lets you:

• Highlight multiple terms in the same color by separating the terms with commas or semicolons
• Use truncation or character masking:

                   

     3.   Click Apply when you are finished entering the terms. 

           Your terms become highlighted in the patent document. 

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Navigating through a patent document

The Highlighting Map, located along the right side of the display area, shows the relative density and position of the highlighted terms in the displayed section of the patent document.

In this example, the top of the Highlighting Map represents the beginning of the bib display and the bottom of the Highlighting Map represents the end of the bib display.

You can use the Highlighting Map to navigate within the displayed section of the patent document.  Click on the portion of the Highlighting Map where you would like to reposition the scroll bar, or drag the scroll bar to reposition it. 

 

Click another tab, e.g., claims, to view additional sections of the full text. 

The terms are also highlighted in this section of the patent document, and the Highlighting Map shows the relative density and position of the highlighted terms in this section.

 

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Saving notes with a patent record

While you are exploring and evaluating, you can save comments along with a specific patent document.  This feature is helpful for making notes for yourself or those with whom you might share a project.

To save notes about a patent:

1. Click the Notes tab (located next to the Highlighting tab).
   
2. Enter and format your text.
   
   
3. Click Save.

 

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Additional resources

This article discusses just a few ways that STN Viewer can assist you with managing and evaluating patents.

For more information, visit the STN Viewer Products & Services and Support pages.  To learn more about how to use STN Viewer, refer to STNews feature and technical articles:

• Feature: STN Viewer - A powerful workflow productivity tool for patent information users
• STN Expressway: Creating full-text patent answer sets for evaluation with STN Viewer