I am not an attorney, but I will rephrase your question to read:
Q - What is the difference between intellectual property and
patents?
A - Intellectual property is a broad term which includes
copyrights, patents, tradenames, trademarks, trade
secrets, etc. Thus, patents are a type of intellectual
property, much like commercial real estate is a type of
real estate property.
A "search" is a computer program designed to help you
locate information for which you are seeking. One search
program may only work/look on a specific web site; whereas,
another search program may indirectly look at all web sites.
When a search is done on a higher category, it causes the
search program to run longer because it has to look at
all sub-categories. For example, if you do a telephone
number search by specifying only the name, the search
will look at all names in the United States; whereas,
if you do a telephone number search by specifying name,
city, and state, the search will be quicker and the number
of listings provided in the results will be much smaller.
If you are in this area because of your former employer,
good luck!