In order to browse any of the indexes, click on the links in the left panel. In order to set the initial position in an index, enter the initial term in the 'Simple Trade Mark Scan' text box before clicking on the link for the particular index.
Commands are made up of statements which may optionally be grouped together using parasenthesis. A statement is a combination of search words and operators, operators define an action. Search words are case sensitive. The database is in uppercase, but disclaimed elements and device descriptions are in lowercase. A list of operators and their actions are as follows:
Operator | Description | ||||
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* | The uniary operator '*' stands for 'any characters may preceed' or 'any characters may follow' depending on whether it is prefixed or is a suffix to a search string. Example:
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~ | The uniary operator '~' will match the phonetic equivelent of the word it is prefixed or sufixed to. If prefixed, the soundex algorithm is used, and when suffixed, the metaphone algorithm is applied. See note on phonetic searching below.
Example:
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& | The binary operator '&' means AND. Example:
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| | The binary operator '|' means OR. Example:
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! | The binary operator '!' means NOT. Example:
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() | Brackets '()' may be used to group statements, dictate precedence or improve readability Example:
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The default operation, if no operator is specified, is to assume an OR. Example:
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Note on phonetic matching:
SoundEx or Metaphone act as a bridge between the fuzzy and inexact process of human vocal interaction, and the concise true/false processes at the foundation of computer communication. As such, these algorithms are inherently unreliable interfaces.
For this reason, these algorithms, produce high false positives (when words that don't match the sound of the inquiry are returned) and high false negatives (when words that match the sound of the inquiry are NOT returned).
This limitation is true even when using two algorithms although, it is possible to reduce the false positives or false negatives by using appropriate search strategies.
Example:
Entering (~FOX & FOX~) in a querry will reduce the number of false positives, because we do not expect both the algorithms to have the same set of false positives. But at the same time there will be an increase in the false negatives.
Entering (~FOX | FOX~) in a querry will remove some false negatives, but will increase the false positives.