Free tools · Examiner's search log
What the USPTO examiner actually searched for this patent.
During examination, a USPTO examiner's database sessions are printed to a search history and the classes searched are recorded on a search-notes form, both of which sit in the public file wrapper. Enter a US patent number below and the tool transcribes them: each session, its query lines, the classifications and the databases.
By patent number
One number, any format. Pick what you want to know about it, or ask for everything.
Free. Five lookups a day per visitor; fifteen with an email. The examiner's search log is read by a paid transcription, so it is limited to three new patents a day per visitor and twenty for everyone. A patent already read is always free and never counts. Resets at midnight UTC.
Every answer shown here, by email, with a link back. Also lifts your limit to fifteen lookups a day.
Deadline calculators
Dates in, dates out. The IPR one-year bar, the PTAB milestones, a contest's close in your own zone, the PCT national phase and the EP opposition window.
Date the complaint was served (35 U.S.C. §315(b)).
Date the IPR petition was filed.
The close as posted, Eastern Time.
Earliest priority date. 30 months for most offices; 31 for the EP and some others.
Date the mention of the EP grant was published. An opposition is due 9 months later (Art. 99 EPC).
Statutory and rule-based intervals, counted in calendar days; the PTAB lines are the usual milestones, and the Board's own scheduling order governs. Not legal advice. Feeds the invalidity search.
WO / PCT report reader
A WO number in; out: the international search report's citations with their X, Y and A categories and the claims each was aimed at, the earliest priority, the national-phase dates, and whether the US national phase has been entered.
International search report · EPO record
- X
- Y
- A
X: relevant alone. Y: relevant combined with another. A: background. Only the searching authority's own citations are listed, not the applicant's. National-phase limits vary by office; check the WIPO PCT time-limits table for the one you need.
Wayback date-prover
A URL in; out: the earliest archived capture of the page and its link, as a citable line for dating a manual, a datasheet or a product page. A capture proves the page existed by that date; it says nothing about when it was first published. Feeds the non-patent literature sweep.
From the Wayback Machine
About this tool
Knowing what the examiner searched tells you what the examination did not cover — the classes not opened, the terms never used, the date ranges and databases left out.
Some file wrappers carry no search history: older filings and some cases that entered from abroad. The tool says so, and that is a fact about the record, not a finding that no search happened.
Reading a search history needs a paid transcription, so this tool is limited to three new patents a day per visitor. A patent already read is free and does not count.
Questions
- Where is the examiner's search history in the file wrapper?
- In the documents titled as search history, search strategy or search notes, usually filed with the first office action and again with the notice of allowance. Patent Center lists them among the image file wrapper documents.
- Why would the search history be empty?
- The examiner may not have uploaded it, the case may predate the electronic record, or the wrapper may only carry a search-notes form listing classes. The tool reports what is there.