General guidelines - patents and utility models

Contents of registers   Search   Search results  View File  Publications  Oppositions  Entries  Account

Contents of registers

Search

Select the IPR category by ticking one or more boxes in the bar at the top of the search screen (the IPR category must be selected for each new search). DK an Utility model are already selected by default, and can be cancelled by removing the tick in the box.

General information on using the search fields

Support and rules for filling in each search field, with specific examples are available by clicking on ’?’ to the left of the relevant search field.

All search fields are 'case insensitive', i.e. using small or capital letters does not affect the search result.

Truncation: * is used for truncations. There must be at least 2 digits or letters preceding or following *. Both left and right truncation can be used (e.g. 1999001* entered in the application no. field searches all applications beginning 1999001: 199900100 - 199900199).

Truncation can only be used in combination with the ’=’ operator.

Masking: ? is used for masking (replaces a letter or digit – e.g. Pe?ersen searches for Petersen and Pedersen).

AND: word1 and word2 – a search result where both words/numbers occur in the same document.

OR: word1 or word2 – a search result where at least one of the words/numbers occurs in the same document (for no., date and class fields a space, in combination with the ‘=’ operator, can be used instead of ‘or’). Here, the ‘=’ operator is mandatory.

NOT: word1 not word2 – a search result in which word 1 but not word 2 occurs in the same document.

Brackets: brackets are used to select the hierarchical order in which search terms are processed (search terms inside brackets are processed first).

Search fields concerning numbers and dates: a special format must be used for these fields. For information specific to each field, click on ‘?’ next to the field. Also, to the left of these fields, any of the following relational operators can be selected:

Date search field: One of the following date categories must be selected first for searches including a date or date interval:
application date (date on which application is filed)
patent/reg. date (publication date for patents or registration date for certificates and utility models)
priority date (first filing date of an application)
publication date (date when an application is made publicly available) 

Search fields concerning names and title: there are advanced search options for these fields. Examples are available by clicking on ‘?’ next to the relevant field.

Opponent search field: This field is for searching for persons or companies who have filed an opposition, objection, requested a re-examination or appealed against a legal decision.

Combining search fields: Filling in two or more fields results in locating documents in which all of the data entered occurs (the operator ‘AND’ automatically combines the fields).

NEAR: proximity operator. Used to locate required sequence of words/names.

Stopwords: Some (Danish) words occur so frequently in titles that there is little point in using them as search words (e.g. effektiv, produkt, på, i, etc.).

Class search field: Search in IPC classes (International Patent Classification) – for more information click on ‘?’ to the left of the class search field.

Registered users can customise the screen image by removing non-required search fields. Access ‘Set up’ in the menu and remove the tick in the box next to the unwanted field (a user-friendly option, convenient when using only certain search fields on a regular basis).

Search Result

Search results carry a maximum of 500 references. Searches yielding more than 500 references will have to be fine-tuned. The user must reassess the search terms and find ways to limit the bulk of retrievals, e.g. by input of time intervals or new search terms.

Search results can be sorted by clicking on the column heading (red arrow shows ascending or descending order)

In search results of more than one page, pages can be accessed at the bottom of the screen image.

The results show 3 columns: application no., applicant/holder, and title. Registered users, via ‘Set up’ in the menu, also have the option of selecting which results are to be shown (the ‘application no.’ column is obligatory – 2 other columns are optional). Default sorting is also an option available to registered users. The number of references to a page can be selected at the top of the ‘Set up’ screen image; 10, 25, 50 or 100 references per page.

Save references

Registered users can save references by ticking the box to the left of the application no. in the search result view, finally clicking on ‘save references’ at the bottom of the search result when all required references have been selected. Note that for search results of more than one page, the ‘save references’ command must be executed for each separate page of references. If all references are to be saved, simply tick the box at the top of the search result – thus ticking all references.

Saved references can be re-accessed, via the menu, in ‘References.

Monitoring

Registered users can monitor addition of new documents to specific applications. Users can save references found by a search to be monitored by ticking the box to the left of the application no. in the search result view, finally clicking on the button 'Monitor' at the bottom of the search result when all required references have been selected. Note that for search results of more than one page, the 'Monitor' command must be executed for each separate page of references. Please notice that the monitoring service is a charged service. An email will be forwarded when a new document related to a monitored application is added to the register. If no documents are added within 30 days an email with this information will be forwarded. Monitoring is charged for each monitored application and cover 12 months.

By clicking the menu button 'Monitor' established monitoring can be displayed.

View file data

File data can be viewed by clicking on the relevant file in the search result view.

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Publications

The ‘publications’ tab accesses publication of cases in the Danish Patent Journal or The Danish Utility Model Journal. If the relevant journal is available electronically (from 2000), it can be viewed by clicking on the required publication (Acrobat Reader must be installed). To find a specific document in the journal, use the Acrobat Reader search function (binoculars icon).

Correspondence

The ‘correspondence’ tab accesses all of a case’s ingoing and outgoing correspondence. Document titles followed by file size, e.g. (35KB) can be viewed by clicking on the title (Acrobat Reader must be installed). Large files can take a while to download, depending on the type of Internet connection. Documents not found electronically can be ordered from the Copy Service department at the Danish Patent and Trademark Office.

Oppositions

The ‘oppositions’ tab accesses information on opposition, objection, request for re-examination, invalidation, and appeals in instances where the case has been subject to one or more of these actions.

Clicking on the triangle to the right of a particular ‘opposition’ accesses related correspondence (not available for appeals).

Entries

The ’Notices’ tab accesses correspondence concerning notices received, e.g. licensing agreements, securities, legal matters (a few cases only). Notices without accompanying correspondence cannot be viewed in the current version of PVSonline.

Account

The ‘Account’ tab accesses fees and payments made since April 2001, at which time the Danish Patent and Trademark Office implemented a new version of their accounting system. In a few cases there may be an entry prior to 2001, but this is an error in the transfer of data from the previous version of the accounting system. Information concerning accounts prior to April 2001 can be obtained from the Danish Patent and Trademark Office.

1 September 2006