How to use truncation in search criteriaHow to use truncation in search criteria
'Truncation' is a way of shortening the information that you type into the search fields, so that you can enter your search criteria more quickly. You do this by using 'wild-card' characters, i.e. characters that stand for one or more letters or numbers. For example, suppose that you want to find documents relating to applicants Smith, Smithe, and Smicer. Instead of typing each name into the Applicant field, you could type Smi* instead.
Note the following rules:
You can use truncations only for the following fields: Applicant, Inventor, Representative and Opponent.
Only right-hand truncation is possible (smi*). No left-hand truncation is allowed (*mith will not work).
Valid truncation tokens are *, # and ?. + is not supported.
* stands for 0 or more characters but at least three characters must be typed before * (for example smi*).
? stands for 0 or 1 characters, but at least one character must be typed before ?.
# stands for exactly one character, but at least one character must be typed before #.