Case sensitivity can be applied to word searches in the Advanced Search interface using the U.S. Patents and Pre-Grant Publications databases. Searches for a specific word based on capitalization can be made using case sensitivity. This is done by specifying upper, lower, or mixed case for a word.
Upper case is specified by the tag u/c. This can be combined with other index tags.
Example: doe.u/c,detx. This returns “DOE”.
Upper case could be used for searching acronyms such as “NASA” or “AC/DC”.
Example: nasa.u/c.
Lower case is specified by the tag l/c. This can be combined with other index tags.
Example: doe.l/c,drtx. This returns “doe”.
Lower case could be used for searching improper nouns that are also proper nouns such as “aspirin” or “window”.
Example: aspirin.l/c.
Mixed case is specified by the tag m/c. This can be combined with other index tags.
Example: doe.m/c,clm. This returns “Doe”.
Mixed case could be used for searching chemical compounds such as “NaCl” (table salt) or proper nouns that are also improper nouns such as “General Electric,” “Apple,” and “Windows”.
Example: nacl.m/c.