us patent office search patents

patent search is an art. A good viewfinder, the wonders of science, law and marketing people. The best way is to apply a logical approach. That is the reason why a person with an average subject knowledge, but with good analytical and logical desire, may prove to be a better searcher than efficient R & D scientists. To the burden on patent examiners, scientists and researchers under any patent with multiple codes, depending on the open technologies, processes and applications.

Some of the major classification systems are in the U.S. classification system, International Patent Classification (IPC), European Derwent classification and manual classification. Although it seems a lot of similarity between the European and international classifications - each of these classification systems above is unique in relation to the method of classification techniques they employ for the classification of technologies.
The use of classification codes (including the selection of a special classification system) requires a lot of experience in patent searching. It has been a controversial subject among the patent seekers, which is best for an effective search - keywords or classification codes. Each has its advantages and disadvantages.

The main shortcomings of the keyword search is the patent language as English is not the only language of the patent. These non-English patents can not be properly searched using English keywords, and most of the databases does not support search with foreign languages. One of the solutions is the use of data by machine translated, but the accuracy of the data is translated uncertain. Also in the area of English spelling sometimes varies from country to country. Another problem of keyword search is variable methods of determining the same technological concepts. For example, a simple toothbrush can be described as a dental cleaning devices.

Sometimes too many synonyms for a particular terminology (often in the chemical compound names) created keyword search problem. Another big disadvantage when searching chemical patents using keywords is to use generics instead of specific names. Many times the title and abstract of the patent is not properly describe the invention, which is missing important patents based on keyword searches. To overcome this problem to be overcome, customized database vendors such as Derwent create their own titles and abstracts and indexed it for a better patent searching using keywords. Another problem of keyword search is the date limits of the databases. These databases index the translated data of patents from a given date. In such cases, complete technology can not be completed.

The classification is based on categorization of patent documents according to the article, the specialists in patent offices and experts, the database provider. During the search on the basis of this classification codes helps to query a good set of records on target, sometimes the decisions of the classifiers are often biased, partial and arbitrary due to unwanted and irrelevant results. Some of the other drawbacks of this classification are poor indexing of keywords and codes, so that the total number of codes can not be found for a specific technology. Since the classification is primarily based on patent claims, the terminology can not openly sought with the classification code.

Now the challenge is where and how to use the key words and codes. Good searchers use the cross-combination of both. The ultimate goal is to no relevant patents and to avoid the chance to make tons of unwanted hits.

Neelakamal Mohapatra
IPR-Professional
E-mail: neelakamal@gmail.com
nkamal_hbti@rediffmail.com
Mobile: +91-9440456807