A patent search is one of the first things you should do after conceiving a new invention.
Yet it means either wading through the cumbersome – but free – U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Web site, or spending $250 or more for an attorney or patent-search firm.
Thankfully, the Internet continues to give us better options, such as Google’s free patent search google.com/patents.
It has all of the available U.S. patents, text-searchable, dating back to the 1790s – something not even the USPTO can boast. At the USPTO Web site, patents are searchable back to the 1970s.
Google’s search offers word-proximity weighting, so patents having search terms close in proximity to each other end up higher on your results list. And PDF files of patents download as one file – not individual pages as on the USPTO’s Web site.
Like all database-driven search tools, to use Google Patent Search, you’ll need to define a list of search terms. You should first determine the one noun that best describes your invention. Then determine synonyms for that word, and put the operator “OR” between these words. With Google, be sure to capitalize “OR” (do not use “or”).
If we’re searching for a plastic clip that holds CD jewel cases to a wall to make an artistic display for photos (www.cdsnaps.com), the noun that best describes the invention might be “clip.” Synonyms for clip would include the words “bracket,” “mount” and “support.” The resulting search strategy for the primary concept using Google, would look like this:
PRIMARY CONCEPT: clip OR bracket OR support OR holder
Thousands of patents could use these words. So we need to reduce the number of hits by adding additional concepts.
CONCEPT 2: cd OR disk OR disc OR dvd
CONCEPT 3: wall OR door OR vertical surface
CONCEPT 4: case OR box OR jewel case
Each of these concepts address a different aspect of the invention than the other concepts. Stringing these concepts together in a search should yield effective results.
Here’s what the combined search strategy looks like for Google (note the use of parenthesis):
(clip OR bracket OR support OR holder) (cd OR disk OR disc OR dvd) (wall OR door OR vertical) (surface case OR box OR jewel case)
Technically you don’t need the parentheses, but they help keep the concepts distinct.
Other search options are available on the Google Advanced Patent Search page, but space prevents us from delving into each one of these additional tools.
However, if you need to search on exact phrases, or eliminate patents from consideration that have particular words, you should familiarize yourself with the advanced search page (click on “Advanced Patent Search” next to the Search Patents button on google.com/patents).
We’re not necessarily trying to find every relevant patent. We’re just trying to see if we can find some prior art patents before we spend too much money and time working on a concept that is already patented.
Google recently added published patent applications, so you can search both databases at once. (At the USPTO Web site, you have to run your search separately in two databases.)
Published applications are not yet patents. While they may never be granted, they still can be used against your patent application by a USPTO examiner, so it’s important to search both granted patents and patent applications.
Kevin Prince is an inventor, UC Berkeley engineer and registered patent agent with Dirt Cheap Patents in San Juan Capistrano, Calif. Visit www.DirtCheapPatents.com
