How Do I Make A Workspace Folder That Automatically Updates?

You will often find that the technology space you are looking into is still active, and therefore any searches you do are limited in terms of how long they will be relevant. 

To that end, we can ensure that a Workspace you make stays up to date by having its folders refer to a query and update themselves based on that query. There are two ways to go about this - by ensuring a folder automatically updates when you first create it or adding an automatic update to a folder after you have created it.

1) Setting up an automatic update on a folder when creating it

Once you have conducted a search and you are happy with a list of patents you can put them into a Workspace. While doing this, one way of setting up an automatically updating Workspace folder is to turn the “Automatic update” on and add this to the folder in the Workspace you are creating.

2) Adding an automatic update to a folder after you have created it.

Search query 

Another way is to go into an already existing Workspace you want to set up an automatic update in. Select “Automatic Update & expansion” within the "Data management" tab. Enter a search query and if a new patent is published that matches this search query, it will be automatically added to the Workspace.

Folder calculation

Additionally, you can automatically update your workspace via folder calculation. This will allow you to automatically add patents from other folders. 

There are three different calculation methods:

• Intersection (AND) - This will bring you back all the patents that are in both of the comparison folders. This will allow you to determine where two company's portfolios (i.e. where they are co-assignees) or where two technology areas overlap. 
• Union (OR) - This will bring you back all the patents that are contained in at least one of the two comparison folders. This will allow you to determine what would happen if you merged two company portfolios or two technology areas together.
• Subtraction (NOT) - This will bring you back only the patents contained within the 1st folder but not in the 2nd folder that you are subtracting from it. This will allow you to remove overlapping patents between the two company portfolios or technology areas.

For example, in the screenshot above, when a patent is added to either the folder "project 1" or "electric scooters", those patents will be added to my workspace due to the union calculation method.

If intersection calculation was used, for a patent to be automatically added to my workspace folder, the patent will need to exist in both the "project 1" and "electric scooters" folder. 

If subtraction method was used, for a patent to be automatically added to my workspace folder, the patent will need to exist in one folder but not the other. 

Family expansion

Finally, you can choose to automatically update your workspace via family expansion, which will add family members from existing patents in the workspace. 

Please note that irrespective of the family grouping you may have selected for the existing Workspace folder; the family expansion will always be performed for 'ungrouped' results.