English-language support tools for the use of Japanese F-term patent subject searching online

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the help tools available to the English-language patent searcher, to assist in the systematic and informed selection and use of the F-term system. In order to show the effectiveness of these tools, some information on the official documentation, structure of the F-terms system and usefulness in searching is given. Information on both free-of-charge and commercial loads of the F-term data is reviewed. Some instances are highlighted where at present, support material is only available in Japanese, together with recommendations for expansion of English-language support. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.