us patent office search

patent search is an art and a science. Consequently search improves with practice. But the best practice requires a solid foundation for those who needed to conduct the search efficiently and accurately. Identification of factors for determining when a search is needed and What types and sources of information should be sought in this process is the crucial role.

For a Patent Searcher knowledge of the various patent databases is extremely important. He should know the various advantages and disadvantages of these databases, with database behavior in relation to the search with the use of the operator. For example, the USPTO Patent Search website allows the full text and drawings of the entire patent system since 1975. The full page images of patents since 1790 are also available. Also we can patent applications published since 15 March 2001. Other databases, such as EPO, JPO, Depatisnet, SIP, etc. offers free search engine. Paid databases such as MicroPat, STN, QPAT offers several practical techniques and even have multiple operators. These databases and the extraction of the search results in Excel format for further analysis, together with a certain level of data clustering or mapping.
The following points are very important to note, during the patent search:

# How true scope of the search.
# How to search for classification, progressive query text and citations.
# The differences in the approach to one of the patentability, validity or infringement, patent searching.
# Problems on the search within a specific technical disciplines.
# Approaches to search for foreign patents and published applications.
# Considerations in seeking non-patent literature.
# Approaches to reporting results.
# How to select a suitable tool.
# Awareness of new developments in the patent search and tools.

A searcher should know all of the above points to a good strategy for the search and ultimately a good report. Visual thinking is an important parameter for a good patent search report. That is the reason, patent intelligence profession in a combination of science and art. Particularly, the patent mapping is only an art, and that classification and presentation of data record varies from person to person.

Vinod Kumar Singh, Asst. Manager - IP information vinod.patent @ gmail.com +919392387277 http://www.patentanalyst.com