Prior Art Search for Everyone
A collaborative initiative to build a common AI-based prior-art search tool.
An initiative by AT&T
Vision
PQAI stands for Patent Quality through Artificial Intelligence.
Through this project, our vision is to make the patent process more transparent for all involved, significantly grow the number of inventors, thus accelerating the pace of innovation, and simultaneously improving the overall quality of patents.
Principles
Focus on Precision
Very few researchers have time to read hundreds and thousands of results. The long-term goal of PQAI is to bring the best prior-art in the top-10 results.
Big on Privacy
PQAI never logs any of your search queries or results unless you explicitly tell it to save them for later reference after creating an account.
Open Source Algorithm
Building the next-generation prior-art search search system is no small feat. We believe that it would be much more efficient for the industry to collaboratively build a common open source tool.
Ease of Use
Prior-art search need not be limited to professional searchers. PQAI aims to provide a simple interface that allows anyone to check the novelty of their ideas.
PQAI Roadmap
The idea of PQAI was conceived
First prototype search engine covering wireless technology
Coverage expanded to all technologies covered by US patents (except Chemical and Biotech)
Released a new version of 102 (anticipatory) prior art engine
Combinational Search (103 engine) Beta version
PQAI will benefit

Inventors

Patent Examiners

Law Firms

Enterprises
Initiative Started By
PQAI Contributors
Mentors
Algorithm Contributed By
Search App Managed By
Frequently Asked Questions
At PQAI, we believe that 10 results are enough for inventors to help him determine the novelty of their inventions. We are continuously training our engine to keep increasing the relevance quotient for the results.
If you are not getting meaningful results, try rephrasing the query using simpler language, e.g., “mobile phone” instead of a “communication device”. As of now, our AI is baby AI and it does not understand abstract concepts as well as it understands concrete concepts.
Also, there is currently a limitation on technology domains that PQAI can cater to. PQAI works best on inventions related to the computers and communication technology. In other areas such as chemistry, pharmaceuticals, and mechanical structures, the result may not come out that good.
Yes, you can filter the search results based on publishing date. You need to click on the “Filters” button which is on top right corner of the invention query box.
No, it’s free to use by everyone.
PQAI is a not-for-profit initiative. The purpose is to empower the inventors especially the ones who lack budget and skill for conducting a thorough prior art search. PQAI is a project by the IP industry for the IP industry.
In order to search for combinational prior art, you need to select the radio button labelled ‘Combinations (103)’ as shown below:
There are multiple ways in which one can contribute to the project PQAI:
- NLP Practitioner – PQAI is an open source project and we believe that it needs developers from across the globe to bloom well.
- Advisor – You can help us test PQAI and share your experience with us. Your feedback shall help us train our AI engine better. In return we can list you on PQAI’s website with your company logo.
- Distributed Network Participants – PQAI aims to multifold the data in which search would be performed by collaborating with major patent offices and publishing houses across the world.
- Advocate – Help us spread a word about PQAI by:
- Financial Supporter – As we are a non-profit initiative, we need funds to support the development of PQAI. In return, we will list you as one of our supporters.
Kindly drop a line to our product lead at [email protected] if you wish to support PQAI in any of the above listed ways.
Yes, absolutely! You can check our post on “How to conduct prior art search yourself with PQAI?”
No, unfortunately that’s beyond the scope of PQAI.