Last updated: June 2021
Table of Contents
How to View Alert Reports in the PatentSight BI
How to Receive Alert Reports by Email
Other Email Notifications Related to Alerts
Introduction
Search alerts is a function that automatically informs you about new patent families, new publications, or new hits found by a search query of your choice.
With only a few clicks, you can set up an alert that will send reports directly to your mailbox! Of course, you can also choose to receive alert reports only in the PatentSight BI.
How Your Workflows can Benefit from PatentSight Alerts
- By setting alerts, you will never miss out on relevant changes within your technology fields of interest.
- You can save time by letting PatentSight inform you promptly about new publications.
- Moreover, by adding other PatentSight users in your organization as subscribers to an alert, you can enable your colleagues to quickly act on new developments.
Use Case Examples
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Competitor monitoring
Get alerted whenever your competitor publishes a new patent document. -
Technology landscape monitoring
Obtain a list of new publications in a technology field of interest. -
Citation monitoring
Receive an email notification whenever a new publication is citing your portfolio.
How to Set Up an Alert
1) Define the search query you want to set up an alert for. You can do so either in Visual Search Mode or in Syntax Mode.
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2) Click on the bell icon 🔔 ("Alert me“) at the bottom of the search filter to start creating an alert based on your search query.
3) Review your search query and click on “Step 2 >” to move on.
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Edit your search query or switch between Visual Search Mode and Syntax Mode if necessary. |
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Refresh the search filter if you have edited your search query. |
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Click on “❷ Trigger” or on “Step 2 >” to go to the next step. |
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Click on “Cancel Alert” to cancel the alert creation at any time. |
4) Select one or more triggers and click on “Step 3 >” to move on.
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"New family" will notify you once a new publication creates of a new patent family. |
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"New publication in family" will notify you once there is a new publication within an existing patent family already covered, e.g., after a PCT nationalization. |
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"New search hit" will notify you upon data updates that are not related to new families or new publications. This includes, e.g., new hits due to IPC or CPC reclassifications, reassignments, citation data, or changes in data coverage. |
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Click on “Add…” to limit the new patent families, new publications and/or new search hits reported to specific authorities. |
5) Define the alert delivery settings and click on “Step 4 >” to move on.
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Under “Name”, enter a name for your alert. |
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Under “Frequency”, select whether to receive reports weekly, biweekly or monthly. |
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Select whether to receive alert reports by email or only in the PatentSight BI. |
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Under “Add recipients”, click on “Add…” to add other users or user groups in your PatentSight account as alert subscribers. |
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Select whether or not to receive reports even if no new data is available. |
Note: If you would like to enable “Send report email” but have not yet provided an email address in your user settings, click on “user settings” and enter your email address.
6) Review the alert settings and click on “Create Alert” to finalize the alert creation.
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Review the settings of your alert. |
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Click on “❶ Search query”, “❷ Trigger” or “❸ Delivery” to go back to any of the previous steps to make further adjustments. |
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Click on “< Step 3” to go back to the previous step. |
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Click on “Cancel Alert” to cancel the alert creation. |
How to Administrate Alerts
1) To access the Alert Manager where you can view and administrate your alerts, click on the bell icon 🔔 next to your username in the main tool bar.
2) To administrate your existing alerts, open the “My Alerts” tab.
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In the “🔔 Latest reports” tab, you can find new alert reports once any of your alerts has been triggered after a data update |
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In the “📁 My Alerts” tab, you can find an overview of all alerts you have created or have been subscribed to by another user. |
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Click on “🔔 Create Alert” to set up a new alert. |
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Click on the ✖ button to exit the Alert Manager. |
3) In the “My Alerts” tab, you can view and edit the status of the alerts you have created or have been subscribed to by other users.
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Under “Active alerts” you can see how much of your alert limit you have used. Enterprise users can have up to 10 active alerts they have created themselves. Essentials users can have up to 3 active alerts they have created themselves. |
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Under “Status”, you can view the status of all alerts you have created or have been subscribed to by other users.
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Click on the triangle icon (▼) to stop an active alert (“Stop alert”) or to set a stopped alert back to active (“Set to active”). |
4) View and edit the alert delivery settings.
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The columns “Name”, “Target” and “Trigger” show the alert name defined during the alert creation, the search query the alert refers to and the trigger(s) selected. Click on the column titles for alphabetical sorting. |
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Under “Frequency”, select whether to receive reports weekly, biweekly or monthly. Since the PatentSight BI is updated every week, “weekly” is the highest frequency possible. |
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The columns “Last report”, “Created” and “Edited” show the dates when an alert was last triggered, when it was created and when it was last edited. |
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Click on “Edit” to re-open the alert creation menu in order to edit the alert. |
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Click on “Copy” to create a copy of the alert. Per default, the status of the alert copy is set to “Stopped”. |
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Click on “Delete” to delete an alert. Note: If you delete an alert created by yourself, this alert will be deleted for all users subscribed to it. If you delete an alert that has been created by another user, this alert will be removed from “My Alerts” and you will no longer receive reports on it – however, this does not affect the alert creator or any other subscriber. |
5) Click on “Edit columns…”. Check columns you want to display and uncheck columns you want to hide. Per default, the columns “Creator”, “Portfolio Size”, “E-mail delivery” and “Subscription” are not pre-selected and can be added manually.
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“Creator” shows the name of the user who has created the alert. Click on the column name for alphabetical sorting. |
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“Portfolio Size” shows the number of patent families that are monitored by the alert. Initially, it is the number of search hits that have been returned for the search query used for setting up the alert. For alerts that have already been triggered, it is the number of patent families found upon the latest data update. |
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Under “E-mail delivery”, you can select to receive reports by email (“Yes”) or only in the PatentSight BI (“No”). |
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Under “Subscription”, you can select to stay subscribed to an alert or to unsubscribe from receiving reports for the alert. |
6) To edit or to delete multiple alerts at once, use the check boxes to select the alerts and click on the desired action.
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Click on “Change status” to set the alerts selected to active or to stop them. |
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Click on “Change email delivery” turn the email delivery for the alerts selected on or off. |
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Click on “Change subscription” to subscribe to or to unsubscribe from the alerts selected. |
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Click on “Delete” to delete the alerts selected. |
How to View Alert Reports in the PatentSight BI
Once an alert has been triggered and an alert report is available, a magenta-colored circle with a number will appear on top of the bell icon in the PatentSight BI. It refers to the number of unread alert reports.
1) Click on the bell icon 🔔 to open the list of unread alert reports.
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Browse through the list of unread alert reports. The reports are arranged in chronological order with the most recent on top. |
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Click on an alert report to open it in Quick View. |
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Click on “Show all alerts” to view the alert reports in the Alert Manager. |
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Click on “Mark all as read” to mark all unread alert reports at once as “read”. |
2) Click on “Show all alerts” to access the “Latest reports” tab in the Alert Manager.
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The magenta-colored bell icon marks unread alert reports. Once an alert report has been viewed in Quick View, opened in the Result List or tagged, it will be marked as “read” and the bell icon will disappear. |
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The columns “Name” and “Report date” show the alert name and the creation date of the alert report. Click on the column title for alphabetical sorting. |
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“Summary” shows the number of new patent families, new publications and/or new search hits included in the alert report. |
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Under “Actions”, you can view or save the complete result set of each alert report.
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3) Under “Actions”, click on “Quick View” to open an alert report in Quick View.
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If more than one trigger has contributed to the result set of the alert report, the result set shown in Quick View will be split by the triggers. Select whether to display new patent families (“New families”), new publications (“New publications”), or new search hits (“New search hits”). Note: In Quick View, it is not possible to display results from multiple triggers together. |
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Click on “Open in Result List” to view the new patent families, new publications, or new search hits in the Result List. |
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Click on “Tag” to tag the new patent families, new publications, or new search hits. The tag is automatically saved in the folder “My Alert Tags” located in your user folder. |
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Click on the number of a patent family representative to open its Patent Info Box. |
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Click on “Open Alert history” to access the Alert History of this alert. |
4) Click on “Open in Result List” to view the new patent families, new publications, or new search hits in the Result List. The alert results will be added to the search filter.
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Note: If an alert report consists of result sets from multiple triggers, opening the Result List via the Quick View and via the “Latest reports” tab can have different results. Opening the Result List via the Quick View (or via the Alert History) always applies to the result set of one trigger. For example, if you display “New publications” and click on “Open Result List”, only the publications will be added to the search filter – new patent families or the new search hits will not be added. Opening the Result List via the “Latest reports” tab, by contrast, applies to the entire result set of all triggers. Moreover, while the alert report lists new publications and new search hits on document level, the results are aggregated to patent family level in the Result List. |
5) Click on “Tag” to tag the new patent families, new publications, or new search hits. The tag is automatically saved in the folder “My Alert Tags” located in your user folder.
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Note: If an alert report consists of a result sets from multiple triggers, tagging via the Quick View and via the “Latest reports” tab can lead to different results. Tags created via the Quick View (or via the Alert History) include to the result set of one trigger. For example, if you display “New publications” and click on “Tag”, only the publications displayed will be tagged – new patent families or new search hits will not be included in the tag. Tags created via the “Latest reports” tab, by contrast, include the entire result set from all triggers. The default tag name consists of the alert name, the trigger(s) included and the date of the alert report. Example: Citation Analysis_new_search_hit_10_5_2021 |
Note: Read and unread alert reports are also marked in the “My Alerts” tab in the column “Last Report”.
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Read alert reports are followed by the number of new patent families, new publications and/or new search hits included in the most recent alert report. |
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Unread alert reports are marked with a magenta-colored bell icon. |
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The order (from left to right) of the numbers is:
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6) To view older alert reports, click on the alert name in the “Latest reports” tab or in the “My Alerts” tab to access the Alert History.
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The Alert History stores the last 14 alert reports generated in chronological order. Even if you have enabled “Avoid empty reports” and reports with no new data are not visible in the Alert History, empty alert reports continue being generated and also count towards this limit. Note, however, that no alert reports are generated when an alert is “Stopped”. |
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Click on “Quick View” to view the new patent families, new publications, or new search hits in Quick View. |
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Click on “Open in Result List” to view the new patent families, new publications, or new search hits in the Result List. |
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Click on “Tag” to tag the new patent families, new publications, or new search hits. |
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Click on “Delete” to delete the alert report from the Alert History. |
How to Receive Alert Reports by Email
To receive alert reports by email, you need to enable email notification and provide your email address in your user settings.
You can enable email notification when creating an alert ( → “How to Set Up an Alert”).
If you have not enabled email notification when creating the alert, you can set it from “No” to “Yes” in the column “Email delivery” in the “My Alerts” tab of the Alert Manager. If this column is not displayed, you can add the column via “Edit columns…” ( → “How to Administrate Alerts”).
If you have enabled email notification, you will receive alert reports by email delivered directly into your mailbox.
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Click on “Alert subscription settings” to administrate your alert subscriptions in the Online Subscription Manager outside of the PatentSight BI. |
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The first section of the email contains an overview of all alert reports that have been generated. |
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The subsequent sections each summarize one alert report. Each section includes details on the alert, a summary of the result set and an extract from the results. |
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Click on “See all … result(s)” to access the PatentSight BI. |
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Click on a patent family representative number (top) or publication number (bottom) to view the document on Espacenet. |
You can administrate your alert subscriptions outside of the PatentSight BI by clicking on “Alert subscription settings” in the alert report emailed to you.
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The Online Subscription Manager is synchronized with the “My Alerts” tab in the Alerts Manager in the PatentSight BI. |
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Under “Frequency”, you can select whether to receive reports weekly, biweekly or monthly. |
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Under “Email delivery”, you can select to receive reports by email (“Yes”) or only in the PatentSight BI (“No”). |
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Under “Subscription”, you can select to stay subscribed to an alert or to unsubscribe from receiving reports for the alert. |
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Note: Certain settings, such as the name, target or the trigger of an alert, can only be edited in the PatentSight BI. |
Other Email Notifications Related to Alerts
If you have enabled email notification, in addition to alert reports, you will receive notifications in the following cases.
Case 1) You will be notified if another user adds you as subscriber to an alert.
Case 2) You will be notified if another user removes you as subscriber from an alert.
Case 3) You will be notified if another user stops an alert you have been subscribed to.
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Note: There may be a time lag between the action being taken and the email notification being sent to the user. |
Alerts – FAQs
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How long are alert reports available under “Latest Reports”? |
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Under “Latest reports“, all alert reports from the current week remain visible until the next data update. Unread alert reports remain available until being read. |
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How long are alert reports available under “Alert History”? |
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The Alert History stores the last 14 alert reports generated for an active alert, with empty reports included. Thus, the maximum time an alert report is available depends on the frequency set for the alert and whether the alert was stopped in between. |
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Are recent data changes reflected in old alert reports? |
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No. Each alert report reflects the data as it was at the time when the report was generated. Even if data changes occur, the report will not change. However, if you access the Result List via the report, data changes (e.g., IPC reclassification) will be reflected. |
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Can I set a different delivery frequency than other subscribers of the same alert? |
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Yes, you can set the frequency independently of other subscribers of the same alert. |
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How can I add or remove subscribers to/from my existing alert? |
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To add or remove subscribers to/from an existing alert, click on “Edit” in the “My Alerts” tab of the Alert Manager and go to step “❸ Trigger”. Here, you can edit the recipients of the alert (→ How to Set Up an Alert). Then go to “❹ Summary” and click on the Save Alert button to apply the changes made. |
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Why is the number of new search hits in my alert report different from the number of patent families in my tag that was created based on this report? |
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The number of new search hits refers to publications on document level. A tag, however, refers to patent family level. E.g., if you have 4 new search hits that all belong to the same patent family, the tag will be assigned to this 1 patent family.
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What is the difference between “Status” and “Subscription”? |
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While the “Status” of an alert refers to the creation of alert reports, “Subscription” only refers to the delivery of these reports. If you unsubscribe from an active alert, alert reports will still be generated for this alert but you will not receive them. |
