184

Weliveinaworldwheremoreandmoreofthe

informationwhichweneedisbeingcreatedand

stored inelectronic form. Thesoftwarewhich

providesaccesstothis information isgetting

smarter,sothatthereisincreasingemphasison

“natural language” inputand“relevanceranked”

output. In thedevelopedworld, andmuchof

thedevelopingworldaswell,nearlyeveryhome

willhavea laptoportabletwhichhasbecome

our “windowontheworld” . Thecombination

ofthesethreedevelopments–theformofthe

information,thetechnicalsolutionstosearching

it,andtheeaseofaccesstoit–mightleadus

to think thatallourproblems in locatingand

using informationaresolved. Manypeople,

especiallytheyoungergeneration,expectthat

retrievalofinformationis–indeed,mustbe–an

“easy”process. Weallknowthateverysearch

onageneric internetsearchenginesuchas

Yahoo!® is likelytoproducemanythousands,

ifnotmillions,ofhits. Sohowhard is ittobe

agoodsearcher? Maybeweareapproaching

apoint intimewherewewillno longerneedto

trainanyonetosearch–thebestanswerswill

simply“arrive” ,throughadvancedsoftwareand

hardwareprocessingofdigitalinformation.

Myarticleseeksto investigatethequestion

ofeducation forprofessionalsearchers. Is it

anecessary factor inachievinghighquality

search results? –orwill the influenceof the

searcher diminish as search technology

improves?Inordertoanswerthisquestion,we

needtorecognisethatconductingsearchesin

scientificortechnical informationhasmuch in

commonwiththe“everyday”searcheswhichwe

doathome,butalsosomedifferences.

Forexample,agreatdealofmodernpatent

information isalreadydigitised. Consequently,

itcouldbearguedthatitisnolongernecessary

fortheeducationofapatentsearchertoinclude

aknowledgeofexhaustive listsofpaper-based

ormicrofilm-basedsources.However,eventhe

least-skilled “everyday” internetsearcherwill

soonrealisethatthemerefactthatinformation

is “on the computer” (i.e. digital) does not

guaranteethatitisofgoodqualityorreliability.

Many“everyday”searcherssoon learntofocus

their efforts on a relatively few, known and

Improving the efficiency of searching in patents－ the role of education and the human factor in an age of electronic information. －

Magister Ltd., United Kingdom　Stephen Adams

stephen.adams@magister.co.uk

Mr. Adams is the managing director of Magister Ltd., a consultancy specialising in training patent searchers and assisting in the development of high quality patent information tools. He is the author of “Information Sources in Patents” (ISBN 978-3-11-023511-1) and many articles in the field of patent information. He is currently the Vice-Chair of PIUG, Inc., the International Society for Patent Information, and also serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of the journal “World Patent Information”.

PROFILE

1 INTRODUCTION: “WE ARE ALL SEARCHERS NOW…”

2 WHAT MAKES PROFESSIONAL SEARCHING DIFFERENT?

185YEAR BOOK 2O15

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trustworthysources. Withoutrealising it,they

havegrown in their information literacyskills

– theability todiscriminatebetweensources

and tomake informeddecisionsaboutwhere

tosearch. For thesearcherwhospecialises

inhighlytechnicalsubject-matter, thistypeof

informationliteracyisneededtoamuchgreater

degree. So this is one area where we can

recognisethatsearchereducationmightneed

tobemoreformalisedandcomprehensive.

A secondaspectwhichdistinguishes the

“everyday” searcher from the professional

is in understanding the capabilities of the

technologywhichtheyhaveavailableforsearch.

Performingasearchonthe fastest,mostup-

to-datehardwaredoesnotnecessarilymake

the process any easier or the results any

better. Neitherdoesusingthemostcomplex,

semantic-based, relevance-rankingsoftware

guarantee better results than 60-year old

Boolean retrieval. Evidenceshows that few

non-specialistsearcherswill attempt touse

morethantwoorthreeobviouskeywords,and

neverexplorethemoreadvancedaspectsofthe

toolavailable. But inprofessionalsearching,

a good understanding of the hardware and

software (collectively, the “searchengine” )

maybecrucialtobeingabletoretrieveresults

whichare relevantandusable. Ofcourse, in

an ideal world, both the information source

and thesearchenginearehighquality, and

this increasesourconfidence in the results.

However,tooofteninreal lifewemaybefaced

withacompromise. Thesearchenginemay

beveryadvancedbutthe informationquality is

poor,or(conversely)apoorsearch interfaceor

someotherdefectinthesearchenginehinders

ourabilitytoperformanoptimumsearch,even

inahighqualitydatabase. It isclear thata

professionalsearchermusthavethenecessary

skills touseeachtool to itsbesteffect,not

just relyuponasingle “data+searchengine”

combination.

So both information sources and search

enginesare importantcomponentsofagood

search. But thebestsearcheswillbe those

wherethethirdaspect, thepersonperforming

thesearch, isequallyprominent. Justaswith

a three-leggedstool,where the lossof any

one legdestroystheabilityof thestool todo

its job(actasaseat),so it iswith information

searching. Wemayworkhardto improvedata

quality,ortoimprovetheefficiencyofdatabases

andourability tonavigate largeanswersets,

butifthehumanbeingsittingatthekeyboardis

notskilled,wewillstillgetapoorresult.

If thishypothesis iscorrect, then it isstill

important, inourquestforsearchefficiency,to

payattentiontotheeducationandtrainingof

thepeoplewhoperformoursearches.

The commercial information industry has

a long history of providing training to its

customersonhowtosearchtheirdatabases

effectively. For many people starting in

patent informationwork, their firstexposure

to thewholeconceptofpatentsasasource

of technical information arises from their

attendance at a course run by a database

vendor. However,asmorefree-of-chargetools

havebeenlaunched(e.g.theEPO’ sEspacenet

ortheJPO’ sJPlatPat),thistraditionofhands-

on instructionhasbeeneroded. Newusers

are told that the interface is “intuitive” ,and

3 HOW DO WE LEARN ON THE JOB?

186

help filesoftenconsistofonlybriefexamples

ofcertain formsofsearch. Moresystematic

trainingmaybeavailable,but it canconsist

principallyofonlinewebinarsorsimilarmedium.

Although these formsof trainingarehelpful,

theyalsotendtoconcentrateon issuessuch

assearchsyntaxordisplay features,anddo

notnormallyaddressthefundamentalsofhow

patent information iscreated, andwhat you

needtoknow inordertosearch iteffectively.

At thispoint, thebeginner isoperating ina

vacuum–they“donotknowwhattheydonot

know” . Sometimes, it is possible tospend

manymonthsorevenyears inapatentsearch

job,andneverencountercertainaspects. You

may think that you knowpatent information

searching,but there isonlya limitedareaof

expertise where you truly feel comfortable.

For example, someyearsago I encountered

asearcherwhoconsideredthemselvestobe

highlyexperienced. Aswespoke, itbecame

cleartomethattherewere largegaps intheir

knowledge. Althoughthissearcherknewhow

touseallthecommandsonthesearchsystem,

theydidnotunderstandtheunderlyingdataat

all.AlltheirworkhadbeendoneinUSpatents,

andtheyhadonlyaveryvagueideaofpriorart

fromothercountries,andnoconceptatallof

apatent family! The longerapersonstays in

thatsituation,themoredangerousitis,bothfor

themandfortheircustomers. It isclearthat

learningnew ideasandpracticesgetsmore

difficultaswegetolder,andapatentsearcher

whohasspentmanyyearsworkinginaclosed,

insular environment will find it very hard to

competeinaglobalcontext.

For this reason, I believe that all patent

searcherswouldbenefit fromgoingthrougha

systematic trainingprogrammeearly in their

career.Thismayincludearecognisedacademic

course, such as a Masters-level degree in

InformationStudiesorarelatedsubjectsuchas

BusinessAdministration.Butthisisexceptional

– most new entrants to patent information

workgaintheirexpertiseonthe job. Thismay

be from internalbusinessmentors, if theyare

luckyenoughtobe inacorporate information

teamwithotherexperiencedmembers,orby

attendingexternaleventssuchasconferences

andtrainingcourses. Whicheverroute isused,

themost importantaspect isthatthestudent

hasaclearideaaboutthewholerangeofskills

needed, and does not concentrate on their

“comfortzone” ,orevenontheareaswhichtheir

management tells themare “coresubjects” .

Unfortunately, themanagementofacorporate

information teamwillnotalwaysknowwhere

theskillsgapsexistwithintheirteam,sothey

shouldnotbethesolesourceofadviceonhow

tofillthosegaps.

Over many years of working with patent

information, I am convinced that there are

stillnewnuancesto learneveryday. No-one,

howeverexperienced inyears,has thewhole

truth. But Iwill beboldenough tosuggest

abroadclassification for theskill setof the

patentsearcher, inthehopethateverypatent

searcher reading this articlewill be able to

identifysomeareaswheretheymightbenefit

from furtherprofessionaldevelopment. This

maybe in the formof “refresher” training, the

learningofentirelynewskills,orsimplyrealising

that their job skills could be employed in a

differentway.

4 A M O R E S Y S T E M A T I C APPROACH

187YEAR BOOK 2O15

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検索の高効率化と精度向上

Inthediagrambelow,Ihaveillustrated4major

aspectsoftheskillsetforapatentinformation

specialist.Theseareasare:

T–Technicalskills;patentdocumentsdeal

with inventions fromallareasofscienceand

technology, and the best searchers will be

thosewhoarecomfortablewith thetechnical

languageusedinthedocuments.

I–InformationScience;despitetheadvances

ineveryday informationaccess, it isnot true

that “everyone isasearchernow” ,especially

inthescientificfield.Athoroughunderstanding

of information storage and retrieval is the

backboneofgoodsearchingskills.

P – Patent law and procedure; patent

searching isan interactiveprocess,and it is

importanttobeableto interpret themeaning

ofeachdocumentwhich is revealedduringa

search.Otherwise, thesearchwilldeliveronly

“data”andnot“actionableintelligence” .

B–Businessskills;this isaverybroadarea

in itsown right, and includesunderstanding

howindustryworks,aswellasotherbusiness-

relatedskillssuchasprojectmanagement.

TI

P B

Letusconsider in turnwhateachskillarea

candeliverforthecompletepatentsearcher.

4.1�Technical�skills:Wheneveroneperson,who

needscertaininformation(e.g.hasthisinvention

beenmadeandpublishedbefore?)handsover

theprocessofsearchingforthatinformationto

anotherperson, it isvital thatthere ismutual

respectandtrustbetweenthetwopeople.The

informationrequestor(client)maybeasubject

expertbut find itdifficulttoexplaintoanyone

elsewhat the invention isabout. Theymay

knowthattheir inventiondiffersbyonlyavery

smallamountfromsimilar,earlierinventions,and

hencewhichdistinguishingfactorsneedtobe

highlighted.Theywillseektobriefthesearcher

usinghighlytechnical,detailedlanguage,andin

turnthesearchermustbesufficientlyskilled in

thetechnicalfieldtounderstandbothwhatthe

client isdescribingandwhattheyare likelyto

findinthepriorart.Thesearchermustbeable

todemonstrate to theirclient that theyhave

theappropriateprofessionalunderstandingto

takeonthejob.Forexample,ifIamapproached

byatelecommunicationsengineer, Iwouldbe

very reluctant to takeona search request,

because I am a chemist and do not really

understandelectronics. Searcherswhoare

basedinprivatepracticehaveaverydemanding

job,becauseonedaytheymayhaveasearch

onamedicaldevice, thenextday itmaybe

anew typeof trainingshoe, thenextday it

maybepartofamobilephonehandset. Their

technicalskillsneedtobesufficientlyup-to-date

tosearchthroughandinterpret(at leastinthe

broadaspects)thepriorartwhichthey locate.

Ifyouareasearcherinacorporateenvironment,

andyourcompanyhasawell-definedareaof

business, your professional credibility as a

searcherwill inpartdependuponhowwellyou

188

understand the technologywhich underlies

your company’ sproducts. For this reason,

it isverydifficult forsomeonewithanartsor

humanitieseducationtobecomeatrulyskilled

patentsearcher,becausetheydonothavethe

basicscienceskills required. Unfortunately,

there isa tendency insomepatentattorney

practicestodelegatesearchworktoparalegals

withnotechnicalbackground,andthis isnot

goodforeitherthequalityofsearchortheself-

confidenceand jobsatisfactionof theperson

doingthesearch.

To summarise, good technical skills are

necessaryforthesearcherinorderto:

1. Maintaincredibilityandgoodrelationships

withtheirclients,

2. Understandhighly technicalqueriesand

conductsearches inscientificdatabases,

and

3. Assess answers and report them in a

relevantandcompetentmanner.

4.2� Information� science: There are many

definitions of ‘information science’ but one

whichisusefulinthiscontextisthestatement

that it isanamalgamofdifferentdisciplines

which are “brought to bear in solving the

problems with information – its generation,

organization, representation, processing,

distribution, communication and use.”[1]. For

thepatent informationspecialist, thatmeans

gainingexperienceand insight intothevariety

ofdifferentsearchsources,theirstrengthsand

weaknesses,theiraccessibility,completeness

andquality,togetherwiththevariousmethods

of searching, retrieving and analysing the

contentofasearch. At firstsight,thismight

appear to be the smallest out of the four

aspects, inthatthere isonlya limitednumber

ofdatasuppliersaroundtheworld (compared,

for example, with trying to search all the

differentnewspapersinJapan,thereisonlyone

PatentOffice),andonlyalimitednumberofkey

databasessuitable foreverydayuse. Butthe

situationrapidlybecomesmorecomplexwhen

we realise thatsomecommercialdatabases

addnewdatabaseelements (or fields)which

maketheseproductsdistinctandsearchablein

differentwaystotheoriginaldataaspublished

by the office. In addition, there is a large

differencebetween “searchingpatents” and

“searchingforpatentability” ;someonewhoisa

completeexpert inpatentdatabases,butwho

knowsnothingofnon-patentliteraturesources,

cannotreliablydeliverhighqualitysearchesfor

patentability ineveryareaof technology. We

liveinanagewhereournationalpatentlawsand

internationalpatentabilitystandardsdemanda

“universalnovelty” ,butwheresimultaneously,

mankind isgeneratingnew informationat a

higher speed thanever before. Thesizeof

thestate-of-the-art,whether it ismeasured

inTerabytes,numberofpagesorsomeother

metric, is increasingdaily,andhencethework

ofthepatentabilitysearchgetsmoredifficultby

theday.

Inadditiontoknowingsourcesofinformation,

andhowtosearchthem, theskilledsearcher

shouldalsobe familiarwithotheraspectsof

informationscience,suchasdevelopments in

searchingtoolsand interfaces,searchengine

technology,andtheapplicationofstandardor

customisedsoftwaretoolstotheanalysisand

navigationof largevolumesofhighlytechnical

information–someofwhichmaynotevenbein

character-codedform. Wearea longwayfrom

havingeffective tools fordirectsearchingof

images,diagrams,pictures,video–allofwhich

189YEAR BOOK 2O15

寄稿集２　　

検索の高効率化と精度向上

arepartofthestate-of-the-art.

4.3� Patent � law� and � procedure : Some

information specialists worry that they are

expected to know patent law in their jobs.

Theythink, “Willthismeanthat Iambecoming

a patent attorney?” , or that theymight be

expectedtodeliverlegalopinion.Butthatisnot

the intention inagoodeducationprogramme

for an informationspecialist. The lawsand

procedures surrounding patent information

andpatentdocumentation ingeneralarequite

distinct fromtheproceduralaspectswhicha

professional representative(attorneyoragent)

isexpectedtoknow. Thebusinessofpatent

searching involvesskillswhichcomplement–

notcompetewith– thoseof theattorney. In

particular, searchers need to know enough

of lawandprocedure tobeable to interpret

the relevanceof the findingsof thesearch.

Thismeans thatas frequentlyaspatent law

changes,sodoesthesetof ruleswhichevery

searcher isexpected to know inorder todo

thatanalysis. Evenanapparentlysimpletask

suchascomputingapredictedexpirydate(for

example,inthecontextofafreedom-to-operate

search) ismademorecomplicatedeverytime

anational lawor procedurechanges. So in

considering the need to understand patent

law,therearetwodistinctdifferencesbetween

theroleofthepatentattorneyandtheroleof

thesearcher.Firstly,thesearcherwillbemore

concerned about the laws, procedures and

standardssurroundingpublication,whichare

oftenneglectedbyattorneys,andsecondly,

thesearchermustbeawareofmanydifferent

versionsoflaw.Anattorneygenerallyhaslittle

useforoldlaw–theirdutyistobefamiliarwith

thenewestprocedures. Butthesearchermay

locatedocumentswhichwereprocessedand

publishedunder lawswhichwere inforceyears

ordecadesbefore–theymust, ineffect,bea

‘livingarchive’of thehistoricalproceduresas

wellasthecurrentones.

4.4�Business�skills:This lastaspectcovers

manydifferentskills, but theycontribute to

thegeneral competenceof a skilledpatent

searcher. In someways, thebestsearcher

needstobeaspecialist(havingspecific,highly-

focussedskills)andageneralist (interested in

manydifferent fringeaspectssurroundingthe

job)simultaneously. Theyshouldhavebotha

depthandabreadthofknowledge.Inthepatent

searchingbusiness,theoldsayingistrue:“You

neverknowwhensomethingmightbeuseful” .

Inperformingmy joboveranumberof years

withinachemicalcompany,Ifoundanoutletfor

seemingly “useless” facts relatingtopolitics,

geography, history, business, regional and

international law, languagesandmuchmore.

Everysearcherneedstoknowthecontext(wider

picture)ofaspecificsearch if theyaretodo

thebest job. Thismeansthat, forasearcher

withinacompany, itwillhelpthemiftheyhave

agoodworkingknowledgeofthewhole range

ofproductswhich theiremployermakesand

wheretheyaremarketed.Theyshouldknowthe

broad researchstrategywithinthebusiness,

aswellasthespecificprojectwhichhasledto

thelatest,potentially-patentableinvention.This

partofasearcher’ seducation ispartlyself-

driven(makingawisechoiceaboutwhattoread

and retain)andpartly fromexternalsources,

suchasprofessionalnetworkingwithothers in

thesameorsimilarfieldsofwork.

O n t o p o f t h i s p a c k a g e o f “ g e n e r a l

knowledge” , it isalsoagoodpracticetogain

otherskillswhichmaycome inusefulwithin

190

the information team (or especially for the

soloprofessional). Thiscan include learning

softwarepackagestohigher-than-averagelevels

ofdetail,basicsoftwarecodingorprogramming,

projectmanagementskills, reportwritingand

presentationskills,communicationand inter-

personal relations. Ultimately, our entire

professionalbasedependsuponcommunication

– receivingandunderstanding requests from

others,interactingwiththemduringthesearch,

anddispatchingour resultstothem ina form

whichtheycanuse intheir jobs. Thatkindof

expertisecannotbe learnt fromabook–but

itcanbe learntover time;andthatbringsme

to the final twoaspectsof theprofessional

searcher’ sskillset.

Up to thispoint,wehaveassumed that if

anyonesucceeds in “filling inall theblanks”

in thediagram (above), theywill beaskilled

searcher. But in fact, even this illustration

suffersfrombeingincomplete.Amoreaccurate

picturemightbetheseconddiagrambelow:

TI

P B

E

Theletter“E”surroundingour4areasofskills

representsavital factorwhichenvelopsallof

theotherareasof learning–Experience. Up

toapoint, anywell-educatedpersonwill be

able togatherskills fromthe fourkeyareas,

andaccumulateenough “facts” tobeable to

representthemselvesasangoodsearcher.But

the factorwhichseparatesagoodsearcher

fromanexperiencedoneistheirabilitytolearn

whentheirexistingskillsbreakdown. There is

an interestingquotation, variouslyattributed

toProf.RandyPausch[2]or toDanStanford

[3]whichstatesthat “Experience iswhatyou

getwhenyoudidn'tgetwhatyouwanted…” .

Anexperiencedsearcher isabettersearcher,

becausetheyhaveencounteredat firsthand

someof thepitfallsandproblemswhentheir

‘perfect’strategygoeswrong.

To grow in experience, we all need other

people around us. Patent searching is a

specialist activity, and it is quite possible,

evenwithina very largecorporation, for the

singlepersonwhodoespatentsearchestofeel

5 GROWING IN COMPLETENESS: EXPERIENCE AND TIME.

情

経 験

報学

特許

技 術

ビｼﾞﾈｽ

（左の英語図を日本語で参考表示）

191YEAR BOOK 2O15

寄稿集２　　

検索の高効率化と精度向上

very isolated. That isnotagoodenvironment

in which to gain experience. It is vital for

every patent searcher to have some other

peoplearoundthem, tohelp themtogrowby

experience. Thesemaybecolleagues inother

companies, that youmeet professionally at

conferencesorseminars. Alternatively, ifyou

are luckyenoughtobe inateamofsearchers

inyourwork-place,youmayhavealocalmentor

available all the time. If you try togrow in

experienceonyourown,youmaynevermove

forward-infact,youmaygetworseratherthan

better. Withoutaprofessionalcolleague,you

mayfallintothetrapofthinking,"It'sallmyfault"

whensomethingunexpectedhappens inyour

search.Ifthesame"mistake"happensmultiple

times,youmayeventuallygiveupexperimenting

andretreat intoyourcomfortzone. But if the

reasonbehindyour "mistake" isexplained to

you,bysomeonemoreexperienced, thenyou

will learnandbegintomove forward. That is

why Ibelievethateverynovicesearchermust

developtheirownprofessionalnetwork-agroup

ofcolleagueswhomyoutrustandrespect,and

canhelpyoutomovefrom"Imadeamistake"to

"Iunderstandwhathappened"to"Iknowhowto

avoidthatinthefuture".

Finally,agoodqualitysearcher ismadeover

time. Themoreoftensomeonedoessearch

work,themorelikelytheyaretocomeacrossan

unforeseensituation,andhavetoworktheirway

outof itonthewaytothefinalsolution. This

means thatexperiencedsearchersarenever

madeovernight,byintensiveeducation,butover

a longperiodof time,makingmanymistakes,

recovering fromthem, learning fromthemand

gettingbetterandmoreconfidentatbeingable

tohandlethenexttask.Happysearching!

References:[1] Williams, M. E. (1987/1988). ‘Defining

informationscienceand the role ofASIS.’

BulletinoftheAmericanSocietyforInformation

Science,14(2),17-19.

[2]Pausch,R. (2008).TheLastLecture.New

York:HyperionBooks.ISBN978-1401323257.

[3] www.wor ldofquotes .com [Accessed

2015.08.03]

192

　必要な情報が電子媒体で創りだされ蓄積される時

代である。「自然言語」で入力すれば「適切用語」でラ

ンキングされる賢いソフトに注目されがちである。（a）

情報の形、（b）調査の技術解決法、（c）アクセス容易

性の三つに対して開発すれば、情報の所在を見つけ、そ

の情報を活用することも解決できるだろうと思われてい

る。Yahoo のような検索エンジンが何千件もの回答を

ヒットさせるため、良きサーチャーであることがなんと

難しいことか。

この論文の狙いはプロサーチャーの教育法を述べるこ

とにある。プロサーチャーの減少要因は調査結果の高品

質が足りなかったためだろうか、それとも、調査技術が

改善された影響のためだろうか。家庭で行う「日常」調

査と共通することも多いが、プロサーチャーの違いもあ

ることに気付くべきである。

　例えば、殆どスキルが要らない「日常」インターネッ

トサーチャーは、インターネット情報はその情報品質が

保証されていないことに気づく。しかし、それを無意識

のまま、情報リタラシースキルを会得したと錯覚してし

まう。だが、プロサーチャーなら、情報源が信頼に値す

るかどうかを最初に確認する。

第二の違いは、プロサーチャーは調査対象分野の専門

技術への理解にまず努力する点である。調査を迅速にす

るための最新ハードウエアが、複雑な概念検索が、ラン

キング手法が、60 年前からある Boolean 検索より優

れているとは限らない。私たちは完全な理想的な情報源

とシステムで検索しているのではない。妥協の産物で検

索していることを知るべきである。プロサーチャーは、

これらの欠点を補完するために、複数を工夫しながら組

み合わせて利用している。

プロサーチャーの第３の違いは、キーボードで操作し

ている側の人間（能力）の違いではないだろうか（仮説）。

三本足の椅子は、その１本がなければ役に立たない。だ

からこそ、このキーボードを操るプロサーチャーの教育

と訓練こそが重要なのである。

商用 DB の教育は歴史的にみてもプロバイダーが適

切に行ってきた。しかし、無料のToolが提供される従い、

この歴史的な教育訓練が手抜き化されつつある。「知ら

ない点が何であるかも知らない」という「真空状態」で

検索をしている。例えば、US 特許に対する「自称熟練

サーチャー」と話をしてみて、検索コマンドのことは熟

知しているが各国の法制度とファミリー特許のことを曖

昧に漠然とか知らないことに驚かされた。頻繁に使う機

能は知っているが稀に利用すべき重要なことを知らない

という危険な状態に陥っていた。サ－チャー経験が長く

なればなるほど、新しいことを学ぼうとしなくなり、「居

心地の良いところ」に留まる危険性がある。系統的な教

育訓練こそ定期的に必要である。

筆者の経験から、特許情報スペシャリストとして４つ

の観点の技能を備えているべきと考えている。

技術スキル：最良のサーチャーは検索領域分野の科学と

特許調査の効率性改善─電子情報時代における教育の役割と人間性要因（抄録）

　Stephen�Adams

1 はじめに：「今日では全員がサーチャーだ」

2 プロサーチャーの違う点は何か

3 JOB トレーニングはどうようにやるべきか

4 より系統的な教育訓練法とは

193YEAR BOOK 2O15

寄稿集２　　

検索の高効率化と精度向上

技術の専門用語に精通していること。

情報（科）学：「全ての人が今日ではサーチャーである」

ということは科学分野においては真実ではない。情報蓄

積と検索の正確な理解がなければ、まともな良い検索は

とてもできるはずがないという信念（背景）が必要であ

る。

特許法と手続き：「実践可能なインテリジェンス」を報

告するためには、各特許書類の意味を正確に理解してい

ることが特許調査の際に必要である。

ビジネス・スキル：プロジェクト管理のような広い分野

での正しいスキルが必要である。

【４つの要素の詳説】極めて重要な筆者の解説なので、

意訳抄録化をしない。一部メモに留める。スチーブン・

アダムス氏のオリジナル英語解説文を直に精読すること

をすすめる。

4.1　技術スキルサ－チャーは自分が良く知っている分野では詳しく正

確に検索できるが、知らない分野は幼稚な簡単な技術用

語で検索しがちである。また、知らない分野では特に分

野の最新情報に疎くなりがちである。依頼者が示唆した

深い技術の専門用語の広がりが理解できなく見落としが

ちである。

一言でいうと下記の３つが実践できる必要がある。

１．顧客との信頼と良好関係が維持できる、

２．専門科学ＤＢにて高度な技術検索式を理解し正確

な検索ができる、

３．適切かつ競合に負けない検索回答を自分で評価で

き、かつ報告できること。

4.2　情報（科）学情報（科）学の定義には色々あるが、役に立つのはウ

イリアム氏の定義である。　情報の生成・組織化・表現

化・加工・配信・通信および、その活用の各段階にて発

生する諸問題を解決することに耐えられるものでなけれ

ばならない。

4.3　特許法と手続き弁理士と同レベルの知見が求められているのではな

い。しかし、「特許性」調査と「特許調査」は別ものである。

特許の「新規性」と「進歩性」は、少なくとも正確に理

解すべきものである。特許法は頻繁に改正されるので、

それに沿った調査が必要である。例えば、法的な日付で

ある出願日、公開日、登録日は極めて重要である。特許

権が生きているかどうかの判断にこれらは特に重要な日

付である。引用と被引用特許、ファミリー関係もまとも

に正確に理解が必要である。どの特許が生きており、ど

の特許が直に関係するかを調べる権利化調査では「特許

満了日」の計算予測ができなければならない。

4.4　ビジネス・スキル特許調査に直接関係がなさそうなことでも、実際には

大変役に立ちそうなことが、このビジネス・スキルなの

である。例えば、政治、地政学、歴史、ビジネス、地域

情勢、国際法、言語など諸々の事項が、実際には重要に

なることもある。これらの能力に対するサ－チャー自身

の教育は自己研鑽に帰するところが大である。それにも

増して、これらの一般知見を習得する以上に重要なこと

は、「情報チームに役立つことを自ら他者から学び取る

実践力」なのである。

前述の４つの観点の能力を備えたとしても、まだ不完

全である。４つの観点を包含する「経験」こそが　熟練

プロサーチャーを育てている真実要因である。ダン・ス

タンフォード氏が述べているが、「想定外のことが起き

た際に会得するのが経験である。完全と思っていた検索

戦略が間違っていることが判った時にこそ、経験のある

サーチャーは、より良きサーチャーに脱皮して生まれ変

わるのである。」

最後に、良い品質の結果を出せるサーチャーは長い年

月を掛けて養成される。検索する回数が多い程、予想外

の状態に遭遇する機会が多くなり、最終の解決策に至る

過程にて、良き経験が養成・蓄積されるからである。何

度も失敗して、何度も再起して次なる仕事を達成できる

ようになる。これこそが「幸福な検索」なのである。

5 完全実施化：経験と時間