IPA patent 6.1.11.6-useful-techniques--piggy-back-forward--searching — IP Australia Patent Manual of Practice and Procedure – 6.1.11.6 Useful Techniques ('piggy back/forward' searching)

Also in this Chapter: 6.1.11.1 Overview - Novelty / Inventive Step 6.1.11.2 Inventive Step 6.1.11.3 Searching Product by Process Claims 6.1.11.4 Dates Searched 6.1.11.5 Conducting the Search ​​​​​​​ 6.1.11.7 Obtaining Full Copies 6.1.11.8 Considering and Culling the Documents 6.1.11.9 Ending the Search 6.1.11.10 Categorising the Citations 6.1.11.11 Grouping the Claims ​​​ Related Chapters: Annex VA – Internet searching 1 At the abstract search stage, it is sometimes useful to peruse the related art for an identified abstract that is clearly highly relevant and thereby locate other relevant documents. This is called piggy-backing/forwarding or threading or streaming. Piggy back or forward searching involves looking at the cited art (piggy back) or citing art (piggy forward) of a small number of highly relevant patent documents. This practice is especially useful for US, WO, EP and (some) GB abstracts. However, it should not be continued endlessly and should cease when less relevant documents are persistently located. This technique can also be used when only a few abstracts of relevance are identified. See Annex VA – Internet searching 1 .