Patent Information

• Part I – Patent overview & US Patents

• Part II – International & Trademarks

Intellectual Property

• Copyright (LC)

• Trademarks (USPTO)

• Patents (USPTO)

• Trade Secrets

Patents

• What is a patent?

• Why search for patents?

• How are searches performed?

What is a patent?

• Roots in Constitution of United States– -Article 1, Section 8, clause 8

• “…to promote the progress of science and the useful arts…”

Granted US Patent

• “-…grants to the person having title to this patent the right to exclude others from making, using or selling the invention throughout the United States…”

• Claims define the patent• Duration

– 20 years from date of application

• Fees

Patent Application

• Invention must be:– Useful– Novel– Unobvious

• Defined in law 35 USC and court cases

Patent Application

• Must contain:– Name of inventor– Enablement/Best Mode– Drawing– A Claim

Priority

• Date patent application is received by 1st patent office.

• For US – provisional application

Types of Patents

• Utility

• Design

• Plants

Basic Parts of a Patent

• Title

• Abstract

• Background

• Summary of invention

• Brief description of the drawing

• Detailed description

• Claims

Patenting process

• Have idea

• Reduce to practice

• Submit application to USPTO

• Wait

Why search the patent literature?

• Technical information

• Legal Status

• Competitive Intelligence

• Patent family

Technical Information

• State of the art

• Patentability

• Information

Legal Status

• Infringement

• Validity, reexamination, fees

Competitive Intelligence

• In what areas are companies researching?

• Who is inventing what?

Searching for Information

• Subject

• Bibliographic

• Cited

USPTO

• www.uspto.gov

• Classification scheme

Subject Oriented databases

• Chemical Abstracts– (STN – structure, Dialog, Questel-Orbit)

• DerWent World Patents Index– (STN, Dialog, Questel-Orbit

• USPatents Full Text (Dialog, STN)

• Claims

Searching:

• Chemical – chemical structures– Chemical Abstracts– DerWent chemical code– Markush

• Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical– Can use words, International Patent Codes

Bibliographic oriented databases

• Chemical Abstracts

• DerWent World Index

• Inpadoc

Patent citation index

• Not like Web of Science

• Database of patents cited by applicant and examiner to justify application

Patent help

• Patent tutorial

• Patent Information User Group (PIUG)

Patent information via Internet

• Micropatent

• QPAT

• Chempats plus

• USPTO

• Delphion

Class exercise

• Fluoxetine

• Method for exercising cat

• Voice interface vehicle navigation

Some Patents

• In case you think patents are dry:– USD406614 – boardgame– US5917146 – fireworks– Guardian Home Page, Feb 29, 2000 – Poet and

casino waitress – attempting to become first person to patent herself!

Assignment

• Search SciFinder and find a US patent

• Access the USPTO website and look at the patent.– Find the claims– Find the description

• To access the image, you will need to download a plugin called AlternaTIFF