With STN Express, Version 8.2 or higher, you can take advantage of STN Viewer^TM, the newest addition to the STN family. 

STN Viewer is a web-based workflow productivity tool for patent information users.  It is designed for simple management and evaluation of full-text patent documents.  Because your answer sets are created with STN Express, you can take advantage of all the power and convenience of STN.

You can use STN Express to:

1. Conduct your search in STN databases that contain patents.
   
   Full-text patent databases (i.e., EPFULL, FRFULL, GBFULL, PATDPAFULL, PCTFULL, RDISCLOSURE, USPATFULL/USPAT2/USPATOLD) and indexed databases with patent content (i.e., CAplus^SM, Derwent World Patents Index) can be used.
   
   
2. Use any of STNs powerful features, such as duplicate removal. 
   
   
3. Export the answer set or a single record for evaluation with STN Viewer. 

---

Exporting an answer set

For optimal performance, using answer sets with less than 200 records is recommended.

To export your answer set from STN Express, select the Evaluate with STN Viewer option in one of the following ways:

• Click on the L-number answer set containing patent records.
• Click the Discover! button and highlight the L-number containing patent records.
• Use the Select Discover! Wizard window to select the L-number containing patent records.

---

Exporting a single record

To export a single patent record from STN Express into STN Viewer:

1. Click on its patent, application, or priority application number in a displayed record.
   
   
2. Select the Evaluate with STN Viewer option.

---

Preparing answer sets for STN Viewer

When you select Evaluate with STN Viewer, the following time-saving steps are performed automatically:

• All patent numbers are extracted from the Patent Information (PI) field of the answer(s) from STN Express. 
• The extracted patent numbers are searched in all of the STN full-text patent databases.
• The full-text patent records are sent to STN Viewer.

For example, we conducted a search in WPINDEX and CAplus, resulting in 23 patents.  The software extracted all the patent family members and searched them for availability in eight STN full-text databases:

• EPFULL - European Patents Full Text
• FRFULL - French Patents Full Text
• GBFULL - Great Britain Patents Full Text
• PATDPAFULL - German Patents Full Text
• PCTFULL - WIPO/PCT Patents Full Text
• RDISCLOSURE - Research Disclosure
• USPATFULL - U.S. Patents Original Publications
• USPAT2 - U.S. Patents Latest Publications
• USPATOLD - U.S. Patents Pre-1976 

As a result, 33 full-text records were retrieved and sent to STN Viewer.

---

Viewing answers in STN Viewer

Once records are sent, STN Viewer launches in a web browser and you are asked to enter your STN login ID and password. 

The Patent Queue within STN Viewer automatically populates with the full-text patent records.  If your answer set is relatively large, the Patent Queue will populate in batches. 

Although our initial search in WPINDEX and CAplus retrieved only patents issued or applied for in Japan and the U.S., all patent family equivalents were searched.  Therefore, the results include documents from additional patent offices, such as the European Patent Office (EPFULL).

---

Additional resources

For more information, visit:

• STN Express Products & Services and Support pages
• STN Viewer Products & Services and Support pages

To learn more about how to use STN Viewer, refer to STNews feature and technical articles:

• Feature: STN Viewer - A powerful workflow productivity tool for patent information users
• STN Viewpoint: Using the highlighting feature to speed the patent evaluation process