Write a Great Search Description
The quality of your search description directly affects the quality of your results. Amplified's AI compares your entire text against the full text of every patent in the database and ranks by overall similarity — so the more clearly you describe what you're looking for, the more precisely it can find it.
What makes a good description
Write the way you'd explain the invention to a colleague. Describe the problem being solved and how the solution works. A few sentences is the sweet spot.
A good description includes:
- The problem or technical challenge
- The core mechanism or approach
- What makes the solution different from existing approaches
- Key components or materials (if relevant)
A good description does NOT need:
- Boolean operators or field codes
- Exhaustive keyword lists
- Formal patent claim language (natural language works better), if you want to search for similar claims click Add claims and the Claims field instead
Examples
Too vague — results will be broad and unfocused:
> "drone technology"
A couple of keywords isn't enough context. The AI needs to understand what about drones you're interested in. If you're just interested in an overview of all kinds of patents related to drones, then it's faster to start with a focused keyword search, save a few patents of interest, and then update results to find more like what you saved.
Too much information — you'll get broad results with lots of noise:
> "UAV are another way to refer to drones. Drones are flying devices which can be operated remotely or even autonomously. They may carry cameras or sensors and are used in a wide range of consumer and industrial applications. I'm interested in finding UAVs with four independently actuated brushless DC motors each connected to a carbon fiber propeller blade via a servo-actuated hinge mechanism."
Too much irrelevant background context will cause the AI to retrieve things generally about remote operation, sensors, cameras, etc. when what you really wanted was to focus results on a specific technical aspect.
Just right — describes the problem and solution clearly:
> "A drone with rotors that automatically fold inward before landing. The folding mechanism protects the rotors from damage during landing and allows the drone to be stored in a smaller space."
This gives the AI enough context to understand both what the invention does and why.
How to check if your description is working
After you search, skim the titles on the first page of results. If they're in the right technical field, your description is good enough — move on to adding keywords.
If results look unfocused or span too many unrelated fields, add a sentence or two describing the specific technology more concretely, then search again.
Tip: Don't worry about getting it perfect on the first try. Amplified lets you adjust your description and re-search at any time. A few rounds of refinement usually gets you to great results faster than one "perfect" input.
Quick tips
Use the Claims field for claim-specific matching. If you want to find patents that claim a particular element, enter claim language in the separate Claims field. This compares your claim text against patent claims only, which is useful for pinpointing very specific technical features.
After you search
Once you have results, use keywords to highlight and filter for specific terms, and Ask Amplified to find the best matches.
→ Your first search in 5 minutes — the complete three-step workflow
→ Highlight keywords in your results — see where specific terms appear in your results
→ Going deeper: Tips for better search results — advanced strategies for iterating on your search