Intellectual Property: Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights

Patent applications require a lengthy research and submission process. Your application may necessitate the assistance of a patent attorney or agent registered with the USPTO. However, one could conduct their own patent search without the need of an attorney. This is to determine whether or not their processes, methods, or invention have been patented before. There are intricate patent classification systems which one should include in their search to effectively use the Patent Public Search database on the USPTO website. Keyword searching alone may not reveal previous patents issued which are similar. Classification searching is more comprehensive. Our Patent & Trademark Resource Center (PTRC) at Georgia Southern offers librarians who are trained by the USPTO to instruct inventors, entrepreneurs, and others how to search patent databases utilizing the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) system. PTRC librarians generally are not intellectual property attorneys, so they cannot search the patent databases for patrons. These librarians are able to provide instructions on how to use the USPTO databases and related resources for free. The EPO (European Patent Office) offers additional details with CPC Training. EPO also provides the Espacenet international patent searching database.

There is a suggested Search Strategy from the PTRC program for conducting preliminary searches of U.S. patents and applications. It utilizes the CPC scheme with the online Patent Public Search of the USPTO and its bi-lateral partner EPO (European Patent Office).

1. Brainstorm terms describing your invention.
2. Conduct a keyword search using Patent Public Search.
3. Conduct an in-depth review of the selected documents.
4. Expand the search to publications with relevant CPC classifications.
5. Review cited references.
6. Broaden your search with foreign patents, non-patent literature and/or a patent professional's search service.

Before you start your own search, see the USPTO's video tutorial posted with the Six Step Strategy to conduct a patent search. The USPTO site offers more details to Search for Patents.

• Espacenet
  The European Patent Office's database provides free access to more than 140 million patent documents from around the world. Coverage includes information about inventions and technical documents from 1782 to the present. 
• FreePatentsOnline.com
  In addition to foreign patents, this database includes technology journal articles, patent maps, and more.
• GooglePATENTS
  This easy to use Google interface includes international patents. The OCR feature allows keyword searching of the text of some US patents as far back as 1790. GooglePATENTS Advanced Search provides capability to select criteria fields for precision searching.
• The Lens
  Previously known as Patent Lens, this site is an agglomeration international patent database offering bibilometric data from other related databases and combines the data into a single, de-duplicated and unified search syntax. The site includes patent and scholarly visual analysis capabilities.
• PATENTSCOPE
  Patent searching resource from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Provides access to international Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications and patent documents of participating patent offices around the globe. The WIPO Pearl terminology database in PATENTSCOPE offers a concept map providing access to scientific and technical terms derived from patent documents across different languages.
   

How to Use the USPTO Patent Public Search Tool - IP Watchdog - November 11, 2022 (Finn et al.)
https://ipwatchdog.com/2022/11/19/how-to-use-the-uspto-patent-public-search-tool/id=153391/

How to Use the USPTO Patent Public Search Tool - Inventiv Foundation - December 5, 2022 (Mary)
https://www.inventiv.org/how-to-use-the-uspto-patent-public-search-tool/