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6 Information Tools Recommended by Patent Engineer Hu Hu: Google Patents, OSLAW, Buzzing, Quicker, Everything, Immersive Translate
As is well known (or not), the author team of Souxinyuan consists of partners with different professional and academic backgrounds. Based on a shared pursuit of facts, they contribute interdisciplinary skills and expertise, focusing on issues and events related to public interest.
I (@Hu Hu) am a patent engineer. My daily main job is to search patents of competitors to determine whether our company’s products infringe others’ patent rights or analyze whether a new product solution can apply for a patent. Through patent search, one can also understand innovation trends of a company, industry, or technology from one perspective.
In my daily work and study, I have accumulated many free and useful information tools. In this issue, I share 6 “magic tools” that users from different industries and professions can also use.
Information Tools
- Google Patents
- OSLAW
- Buzzing
Utility Tools
- Quicker
- Everything
- Immersive Translate
Information Tools
1. Google Patents
Screenshot of Google Patents homepage
Patent search refers to the process of querying and analyzing patent documents related to specific technical fields or topics through various patent databases or tools, to obtain valuable information such as technical information, competitor dynamics, and patent status.
Google Patents is a patent literature search service provided by Google, allowing users to search patent documents and related public technical information worldwide for free. It integrates patent databases from multiple countries and regions, with an intuitive and easy-to-use interface. It is a commonly used tool for patent engineers, R&D personnel, and technology enthusiasts.
Below, we perform a search targeting “mobile phone stand”:
(1) Enter keywords
Screenshot of Google Patents search page
Go to the Google Patents search engine, enter keywords “手机支架” or “mobile phone stand,” and you can see there are 165 search results.
(2) Use filter criteria
Screenshot of Google Patents filter box
Use filter conditions such as application country, patent type (invention patent, utility model patent, etc.), and time range to further narrow the search scope. For instance, select “CN” to see only related patents in China.
(3) View patent details
Screenshot of Google Patents patent detail page
Click the title of the patent of interest to view patent details, including abstract, claims, and drawings.
(4) Find patent application documents similar to the search purpose for technical analysis or adjust search queries for a second search.
Link: https://patents.google.com
2. OSLAW
Screenshot of OSLAW homepage
OSLAW (Open Source Law) website aggregates hundreds of entry points to information platforms and databases in legal and administrative fields, categorized into 10 main topics such as entities information, intellectual property, movables/immovables, capital markets, etc. It not only facilitates professionals to access different platforms with one click but also helps legal novices quickly find their way for searches.
For example, recently the “Royole Corporation’s bankruptcy ruling” case hit the headlines. According to media reports, as a former dark horse in the domestic flexible display field and the world’s first company launching foldable phones, on November 19th, according to Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court announcement, all three companies under Royole Corporation were ruled bankrupt.
It was reported that as early as April this year, the bankruptcy examination hearing for Royole Corp. was held at Shenzhen Intermediate Court. A hearing document obtained by Jiemian News showed Royole owed more than 4.7 billion RMB in debt and over 60 million RMB in wages for over 300 former or current employees; together with earlier promised options, total wages owed reached 160 million RMB.
At the end of 2020, Royole submitted a prospectus to the Shanghai Stock Exchange STAR Market. We can trace the traces of the company’s heavy debts from public information.
(1) From the OSLAW homepage left menu, select “Capital Markets”, then click “Shanghai Stock Exchange”.
Partial screenshot of OSLAW homepage
(2) Enter “Royole debt” in the text box; select exact search to find the earliest report (Shengjian Environment 2021 Annual Report)
Screenshot of Shanghai Stock Exchange information services
(3) In that annual report, press “CTRL+F” (the shortcut for “Find”) and enter “Royole”, locating page 136, showing “(2). Disclosure Classified by Bad Debt Provision Methods,” where “Shenzhen Royole Display Technology Co., Ltd.” has bad debts of RMB 2,921,884.91.
Screenshot of page 136 of Shengjian Environment 2021 Annual Report
Through the above steps, we can find that Royole had bad debts in 2021, which was one of the early signs of serious debt problems.
Link: https://www.oslaw.cn/site-nav
3. Buzzing
Screenshot of Buzzing homepage
Buzzing is an information aggregation platform similar to Souxinyuan’s “Source Dashboard”, mainly tracking foreign major media news headlines and social topics. It is a free and open-source application, and users can use it without registration. However, the site does not provide developer information.
Link: https://www.buzzing.cc
Utility Tools
1. Quicker
Screenshot of Quicker homepage
Let’s start with perhaps the most common and also most headache-inducing information format in daily life — PDF.
Sometimes we need to copy some content from a PDF document to a new document and also edit the new content in a specific format. But the difficulty in editing PDF files makes this process very troublesome.
In my daily work, replying to patent office action notices is such a task. The notice is usually received as a non-editable PDF file, and the patent engineer needs to copy some text content when replying while inserting large amounts of template reply content. The traditional “copy + paste” operation is very cumbersome and time-consuming. Using Quicker can automate these repetitive tasks. The specific steps are as follows:
(1) Extract PDF text content
Screenshot of Quicker actions page
Use Quicker’s integrated OCR function to quickly extract the text content from the PDF and copy it into a new document.
(2) Insert common terms and logic
Screenshot of Quicker actions page
Use Quicker’s “Quick Phrases” feature to rapidly insert preset common phrases, such as: “This technical solution has significant inventiveness,” “The applicant believes the XX issue mentioned in the office action is unfounded, the reasons are as follows ······”. By creating one-click insertion quick actions, it reduces repetitive “copy + paste” operations.
(3) Paragraph layout
Screenshot of Quicker actions page
Automatically set document format, including font (e.g. SimSun), font size (e.g. size 5), paragraph alignment, to quickly achieve typesetting.
Link: https://getquicker.net
2. Everything
Screenshot of Everything homepage
Not sure if anyone else has the same experience as me—sometimes finding a specific file or information stored locally on your computer is even more troublesome than searching information on the Internet, especially since we produce a large number of documents and materials daily.
I use an indexing software called Everything based on the NTFS file system (a proprietary file system developed by Microsoft) to solve this problem. It can build an index of the entire computer disk within seconds, with near real-time search response. Regardless of the number of files, it can quickly locate them.
The software interface is very simple—just enter a keyword to get search results. Users can also filter by file type (such as .txt, .exe) or attributes (hidden files, read-only files).
Everything also supports command-line invocation and integration into other tools or scripts, such as Quicker mentioned above. Unfortunately, this software currently supports only Windows OS.
Link: https://www.voidtools.com/zh-cn
3. Immersive Translate
Immersive Translate translation of the Nature website homepage
Whether you are a professional worker or an ordinary information browsing user, translation tools are an essential aid in information processing tasks.
Faced with countless high-quality foreign language information and materials, translation tools greatly affect readers’ understanding of documents, especially professional documents.
I use a plug-in called “Immersive Translate.” Most of its features are free, it can translate web pages and PDF documents, and there is no limit on article or document length—sufficient for my daily use.