Keywords represent the set of keywords or nomenclature that are used by an inventor to describe the various components of the invention. It is one of the most important tools used by a patent analyst to efficiently craft successful search strategies which yield the set of closest prior arts in a given time. Though a prior art search is a never-ending process, one must complete the same within a specific time period to ensure the economic viability of the prior art search.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Developing an effective\nsearch strategy is a crucial step for conducting a prior art search. One needs\nto be fully aware of the various search terms that can be a part of the search\nstrategy and their appropriate usage. Out of the various search terms, the\nkeyword is critical for any search strategy. With other search terms the\npossibility to broaden or narrow down the search string is limited while that\nis not the case with keywords-based search strings. Further, to narrow the\nclass-based search string, assignee-based search string, inventor-based search\nstring or citation analysis, the keywords are predominantly used to get the\nexpected number of patent hits. Also, if the patents are not accurately\nclassified in the respective patent classification, it can be extremely\ndifficult to extract the respective patent using only classification-based\nsearch. Therefore, it is crucial to master the art of shortlisting and using\nthe appropriate keywords as per the search logic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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