USPTO Patent 8,700,594 — structured data is "searchable by data type"; unstructured data (bitmaps, audio, text docs) is not

Claim: "Structured data is data that is organized in a structure that is identifiable... Accordingly, structured data is searchable by data type. By comparison, unstructured data is data that has no identifiable structure... Accordingly, unstructured data is not searchable by data type. Exemplary forms of unstructured data include bitmap objects (such as images, or video, or audio...) and text objects (such as text documents...)."

Source: USPTO Patent 8,700,594, "Enabling multidimensional search on non-PC devices."

Confidence: Verified — primary source (issued US patent).

Why this matters for Candid: This is the exact boundary between a queryable catalogue and a PDF, image, or "call us" page. Primary-source language for the proposition that prose/PDF/image content is not just less convenient — it is categorically un-queryable by attribute. The strongest single citation for the "records-not-prose" recommendation that runs through Candid client work. Cross-link Structured vs unstructured data — Integrate.io / MongoDB definition: predefined schema, every record consistent, sorting/filtering/querying straightforward and Mechanism summary — structured catalogues expose attributes as data; prose/PDF/images lock them in a format no filter can reach.