Webinar Q&A follow-up: Your questions about Smart search answered
Our recent introductory webinar sessions on Smart search were our most well-attended to date and sparked a highly engaged discussion. Thank you to everyone who joined us! While we addressed many questions during the live Q&A, we weren’t able to cover them all. In this follow-up post, we revisit the remaining questions and shares deeper insights into how to work effectively with Smart search in IPRally. Whether you attended one of the sessions or are exploring Smart search for the first time, we hope you’ll find the answers useful.
Q: What is smart search in a nutshell?
A: Patent searches rarely begin with a single, cleanly written description. More often, the starting point is a mix of materials: an invention disclosure form, a handful of images, PowerPoint slides with text, diagrams or flowcharts, and scattered notes spread across multiple files. Until now, searching with such fragmented inputs required carefully reviewing each piece, distilling the core of the invention or technology, and manually translating it all into text or Boolean queries.
With Smart search, it's the content that matters, not the format. Smart search lets you use multiple files, formats and modalities to launch a search quickly. Simply drag and drop more or less any search materials and let the AI synthesize them into a single rich AI search query. This simplifies the beginning of the search workflow significantly and creates a comprehensive, more complete search input.
Smart search is also a critical building block for the automated search workflows in the forthcoming IPRally Agent.
Q: What formats are supported in Smart search?
A: Smart search currently supports text, images (PNG, JPG, WEBP), PDFs, Word documents (DOCX), PowerPoint presentations (PPTX) and Spreadsheets (XLSX).
Q: How do I carry out a Smart search?
A: It’s straightforward, just follow these steps:
1. Add your materials
Drag and drop or select multiple files from the following formats:
- Images (PNG, JPG, WEBP)
- PDFs
- Word documents (DOCX)
- PowerPoint presentations (PPTX)
- Spreadsheets (XLSX)
Add any additional text description you want to include, or give some brief context or instructions.
2. Let AI study and process the materials
Smart search uses large language models to analyze each file individually, extracting relevant technical information. You can see exactly how the Smart search interpreted each file, giving you full transparency into the process.
3. Review (and edit) the search query
Just like with our Free text search, you'll see the AI-generated search query (mock claim) built from all your input materials. This transparency ensures you can verify the AI's interpretation and make adjustments if needed. You can review it, edit it if needed, and then re-run the search. You have full control to adjust emphasis, add specific terminology, or refine the scope before running the search.
4. Get results
Review your search results as usual, with the confidence that all your input materials have been considered comprehensively.
Watch Smart search in action:
Q: Does Smart search support hand written notes?
A: Yes. Smart search uses IPRally’s Image search engine to read images, and it is well equipped to interpret handwritten content.
Q: Can I use audio or video files?
A: Not yet, but this is something we’ve considered and it is definitely possible to implement in the future.
Q: Can I use URLs?
A: Not yet, but support for URLs is coming soon.
Q: What's the relationship between Smart search and the Graph search?
A: Smart search focuses on what happens before the Graph search. It interprets the search input and structures and optimises the query, which the Graph then uses to execute the search. Once results are returned, IPRally’s AI assistants, such as Smart filters and Ask AI, help you make sense of them by filtering the results and getting your questions about the search results answered.
Q: What about data processing and security?
A: We have full encryption on all materials. We use generative AI models that are run by Google inside the same cloud as our server, which means we are not sending data outside our cloud. We have a zero data retention agreement with Google, so no data is stored by them. All data is encrypted, so neither Google nor IPRally can see your search material. We host our graph AI model ourselves and have full control over that, and all search data is encrypted in rest and transit.
In summary:
- In-cloud LLMs
- Self-hosted search AI
- Zero data retention by LLM provider
- No model training on user data
- Full encryption on all materials
Read more on data security in our Trust center.
Q: How do I get access to Smart search?
A: Smart search requires IPRally’s AI assistants to be included in your license and enabled. If you don’t currently have access to AI assistants, please reach out to your Customer Success representative, contact our support team, or use the in-app chat in IPRally to get in touch with us directly.
Q: Is there a recording of the webinar?
A: Yes, you can find one of the sessions on-demand here.
Q: Can I try IPRally?
A: Yes, we’re happy to offer you 3 days of free access to IPRally. No costs, no commitments – just the opportunity to see how it can change the way you search, review and classify.
