Bird-Doggin' the Internet

Patents & Trademarks II

By Dr. Steve O'Neil, Micro Mo Electronics, Inc.

One of the first activities in a product development and improvement process is to scan the field to see what other designers are doing. One of the best ways to do this is to investigate prior art and intellectual property protection, especially if you intend to commercialize a product in industrialized countries. When we first visited this subject in February of 1996, this was an emerging area. Options were few, archives slim, access irregular, and in some cases special software had to be installed to access patent artwork and trademark designs. We've come a long way since that time. Although most of the citations from the prior article are still up and running, we now have additional resources which you can add to your research arsenal.

To put patent information use in perspective, the September 1999 issue of the British design trade book DPA noted that in the UK 55% of engineering respondents use patent information for competitive intelligence, 31% use this information to protect their intellectual property, and 24% think it is important in R&D. Interestingly, more than 80% said they would not base their decisions entirely on this type of information. With that in mind, we offer some good tutorial and linking information to help you hit the road running.

Patents--General Information and Internet Searching from the University of Florida offers a good and structured overview. Located at http://nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu/~mslwww/ patent.html, this site provides information about patents, the registration process, fee schedules, forms, patent repositories, and attorneys who specialize in this field. There is a section on trademarks, trade names, trade secrets, and copyrights. Patents and Inventions, courtesy of the Cincinnati Network, has a nice collection of resources at http://www.exxnet.com/wsp.htm where you can research patents, inventions, and inventors. It is oriented primarily toward individuals and small companies and includes a file of experts who can be contacted for additional information. Over 80 links are included.

The Spire Project also has some new tutorial information on patents at http://cn.net.au/patents.htm. Included are links to free patent databases, patent libraries (Australia, USA, UK, and other countries), commercial patent databases, and patent searching strategies and classification schemes. They also have a nice trademark tutorial at http://cn.net.au/t_mark.htm. Here you can find links to registered trademark databases in Australia, the USA, and Canada. There are also links to trademark and intellectual property libraries, resource links for common law searching, commercial databases for trademark research, sections on trademark use and protection, and trademark classification systems. Supplement this with Internet discussions which can be accessed through the Scout Report Signpost at http://scout7.cs.wisc.edu/pages/00000138.html. This link will allow you to directly access or subscribe to the Trademarks-L Mailing List on trademark law moderated by the Washburn University Law School Library. Another good source for U.S. patent databases, full access sources, and world patent databases is Patent Databases on the Internet at http://www- sul.stanford.edu/depts/swain/patent/patdbases.html. An added feature on this site is a special section, with hot links, to specialized patent technology areas such as agriculture and biotechnology, AIDS, Chemical Abstracts, and Fullerines. All of these specialized databases are available free of charge.

And of course, we should always take advantage of the FAQs in this area. In this respect, Patent Research FAQ at http://cn.net.au/patfaq.txt and Trademark Research FAQ at http://cn.net.au/tmfaq. txt are very helpful. Both contain some of the information in the Spire Project plus new and broader updates.

For direct patent searching, one of the biggest additions since the previous article on this topic is the IBM Patent Server at http:// patent.womplex.ibm.com/. This database spans 1971 to the present and allows you to search and access numerous patents based on your input parameters. You can then directly link to the patent search results and scan the claims, art, and prior art. There are hot links to the prior art as well. The database is focused on U.S. patents and includes a "what's new" section, FAQs, and a patent resource section. Searching can be done by patent number, Boolean operators, or advanced text.

For free searches of patent issues in the USA, Europe, and Japan, try the Trilateral Web Site at http://www.european-patent-office.org/tws/sh.htm. A database focusing on U.K. patents can also be accessed through the Patent Information Search System at http://dips.patent.gov.uk/. This site offers patent bibliographic data with abstracts, patent descriptions, data with abstracts, and claims. It also provides images and drawings. Japanese patents can be accessed at the Japanese Patent Office at http://www2.jpo-miti.go.jp. Go here to find a searchable database of English abstracts, patent reference numbers, inventor, and assigned company.

And for our Silly Site of the Month, most patent experts claim that the Gallery of Obscure Patents at http://www.patents.ibm.com/gallery/ can't be beat. Link from here to Wacky Patent of the Month if you're still not sated.

Dr. Steve O'Neil can be reached on the Internet at Steveo@micromo.com

URL Alert! We recognize the URLs printed in these articles may change by the time you try them out on the Internet. Most of the past Bird-Doggin' articles we've printed, with updated URLs and links, can be found at http://www.micromo.com/related.html