Can askFinz search patents by what an invention does?

Yes. Filings are searchable by function and description rather than by title wording alone, so a prior-art search can start from plain language instead of guessing the exact phrasing an examiner used.

Does it cover multiple patent offices?

Yes. The index reads granted patents and published applications from patent offices directly, so a result links back to the office's own publication rather than a secondary summary.

Is this a substitute for a patent attorney or a formal freedom-to-operate opinion?

No. askFinz surfaces the prior art and the filings for you to read — it doesn't file anything or give a legal opinion on patentability or infringement.

Use case · For R&D and IP teams

AI for patent search that reads by what it does.

Search a prior-art question in plain language instead of guessing an examiner's phrasing. Pull filings from multiple offices into one notebook, read them beside the academic literature behind the same idea, and keep a documented trail for the filing decision.

ResearchTechnology

Request private access See the workspaces

In access today

Moves

Workflows

Working note · R&D and IP teamscited

Search by function, not phrasing^[1]

See the landscape^[2]

Read patents beside the papers^[3]

Keep the record of the search^[3]

[1] Research[2] Search[3] Storage

What you can do

Four moves, one workspace.

The concrete work behind "ai for patent search" — not a feature list.

Search by function, not phrasing

Describe what an invention does and find matching filings across offices, even when they use different terminology than you would.

See the landscape

Pull filings from multiple offices into one notebook, so who's filing where and how a field has moved becomes visible rather than assumed.

Read patents beside the papers

Prior art and the academic literature behind it turn up in the same search, so a prior-art pass and a lit review draw from one index.

Keep the record of the search

File the invention notes and the filings you've checked to storage, so the next filing decision starts from a documented prior-art trail.

What it reads against

Technology work is only as good as its sources.

The reference collections this job draws on. Each is a page you can open and read before you trust a single answer.

Primary reference

Public repositories, read with their documentation

Libraries findable by what they do rather than what they are called, with the docs read alongside the code.

Browse it

Questions people really asked, and what actually worked

Patents, read from the offices that grant them

The specifications the internet runs on

Collections are libraries the workspaces read from, kept as what they are rather than flattened into one pile. See the full collection breakdown.

The stack under the work

The workspaces this job runs on.

Listed in the order the work moves through them, each carrying its live status.

01ResearchAvailable

Studies that cite their sources.

Open the workspace

02SearchAvailable

A search engine for humans, agents and LLMs.

Open the workspace

03StorageAvailable

Your files, organised.

Open the workspace

Example workflows

What it looks like end to end.

Flow 01

Prior-art sweep

Before drafting a filing, describe the invention in plain language and pull every matching publication across offices into one notebook — each hit linked back to the office's own record — so the freshness call is documented, not assumed.

Flow 02

Field landscape

Track how filings in a technology area have moved over recent years, who the frequent filers are, and where the papers and the patents disagree on what's actually novel.

Questions

Frequently asked.

Can askFinz search patents by what an invention does?: Yes. Filings are searchable by function and description rather than by title wording alone, so a prior-art search can start from plain language instead of guessing the exact phrasing an examiner used.
Does it cover multiple patent offices?: Yes. The index reads granted patents and published applications from patent offices directly, so a result links back to the office's own publication rather than a secondary summary.
Is this a substitute for a patent attorney or a formal freedom-to-operate opinion?: No. askFinz surfaces the prior art and the filings for you to read — it doesn't file anything or give a legal opinion on patentability or infringement.

Different job? Browse every use case or start from your industry.

For R&D and IP teams

Put it to work.

Request private access and we will walk through the workspaces this job runs on.

Request access See the workspaces

workspaces in access: 3
worked examples: 2
reference collections: 4

Browse the rest of the catalog at /apps.

Request access