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Patent searchers focus their research on information about existing patents. Their research process involves two stages: capture and cull. During capture the searcher finds information, usually during an online search. At the cull stage, the searcher decides whether to report or reject the specific information by reading the patents' claims. Patents that survive the cull are reported to the attorney client, often with some analysis to explain patterns identified. Patents can be searched in many types of on line databases. Some databases simply comprise the full text of millions of individual patents. Other databases are bibliographic (title, abstract, inventors, etc.) and organized into patent families.
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