2010 Patent Information

Patent Information Workshop Eunice WONG Reference Librarian [email_address] X6751

Patents
What is a patent?
A patent for an invention is the grant of a protection right to the inventor to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention for a set period of time (usually 16-20 years).
An inventor may sell or mortgaged or transfer the right to others.
Therefore, inventor ≠ assignee/applicant

Patents
What can be patented?
New & useful invention: design, industrial or technical process/method, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or significant improvement of the existing ones .
Why is patent a useful info. source?
Patent discloses sufficient technical details of an invention so the product/process can be reproduced.
Before applying for a patent, the inventor must do a "prior art search" (all patents in the classes / subclasses) to make sure that the claimed invention is indeed " new ".

Patent Information
Databases for finding patents
WIPS (Worldwide Intellectual Property Search)
Coverage : English abstracts & full-text/images of patents/patent applications published by the US, European, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean patent offices as well as the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Browser/Software required : IE, PIView, Acrobat, Acrobat Reader 5.0 Japanese language pack JRE, PM manager

WIPS - Coverage US Granted Patent 1976 - Application 2001 - EP Granted Patent 1980 - Application 1978 - PCT (WIPO) 1978 - G-Pat DE: 1966-2003; GB: 1971-2003 FR: 1970-2003; CH: 1974-2003 JP 1976 – 2009 Dec. CN 1985 – 2006 Nov. KR Unexamined application 1983 -

WIPS – Features
Different search modes
General, Advanced, Number , Step, Integrated
Search results
Download, clustering, save to my folder
Single record
Applicant's other patents
WIPS family
View and download images (install PI View, an image viewer developed by WIPS)
Statistical analysis (i nstall ThinKlear)

WIPS – Number Search
One patent collection at a time
Sample search
US patent no.: 7465519 , 20100071760 (application)
Check "granted patent" as well
Different formats for other patent collections:
WO2009131925 -> WO09/131925
Tips on searching patent numbers

WIPS – Integrated Search
Search across different patent collections
Front page & exemplary claim contain the most important patent information: title, abstract, claims.
Keyword search
polymer nanocomposite (in title only)
polymer and nanocomposite (in title only)
polymer nanocomposite = polymer or nanocomposite (either 1 appears)
polymer and nanocomposite = both words must appear
polymer adj nanocomposite = a phrase

WIPS - Exercises
Find patents filed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology
which field to search in?
Try to find patents about III-V transistors
phrase searching?
should any words be close to each other

WIPS
Be careful with phrase search . Try assignee:
hong adj kong adj university adj of adj science adj technology
hong and kong and university and science and technology
hong adj kong adj university adj2 science adj technology
Cannot include stopwords in a search
Truncate a word to find various endings of the same root:
polymer* adj nanocomposite* will find polymer, polymers, polymeric…nanocomposite, nanocompo sites
Proximity
ADJ (order important): metal adj2 oxide*
NEAR (order not important): graphene near3 transistor*

WIPS
Keyword search
Remember to include alternative terms : lcd and tv
lcd, liquid crystal display
tv, television
(lcd or (liquid adj crystal adj display)) and (tv or television)
Keywords may be subjective
To be comprehensive, include classification search
International Patent Classification
U.S. Classification

WIPS
Possible strategy
Keyword search
(ZnO or (zinc adj oxide*)) and (thin adj film*) and (solar adj cell*)
Find a relevant patent
Identify the class/subclass number
IPC : H 01L -0 31 / 00
Electricity – > Semiconductor devices; Electric solid state devices not otherwise provided for – > Semiconductor devices sensitive to infra-red radiation, light, electromagnetic radiation of shorter wavelength , …
Search by the class/subclass number

WIPS - Exercises
Patent Title: Nanocomposite material and method of manufacturing the same
Patent number: US7611750
What are the relevant U.S. patent classification numbers?
what are the titles of these top level classes
What are the IPC numbers?
Patent Title: Boron nitride nanotubes
Publication number: EP215560
What are the relevant IPC numbers?
What the relevant class titles?

WIPS – Single Patent Record
Applicant's other application in the same technology field
Citation analysis (U.S. grant patents only):
backward & forward references -> how many levels
text or visual
WIPS (patent) family: Patent rights are country specific. Patent family refers to all the equivalent patent publications corresponding to a single invention, covering different regions.
Need to install PI VIEW to view & download patent images (different formats – PDF, TIFF, BMP, etc.)

WIPS – Result List
Save a query -> registration needed
Clustering: max. 2000 at a time
Save in MyFolder (registration also needed ):
200 patents at a time, 1000 patents in a folder
Up to 1000 folders can be created
Max. 1000000 patents can be saved
Download full images – 1 folder at a time
Download to computer: max. 5000 at a time
Select fields, records & file format
not full-text or full-image of the patents
xls or pmd file – > import to ThinKlear for analysis

Patent Information
Free Databases: Esp@cent, USPTO, Google
Esp@cenet (Europe's Network of Patent Databases)
Patents from US, UK, Australia, Canada and patent applications published by the European Patent Office & the World Intellectual Property Office.
EP Patent applications published by the EPO over the last 24 months WIPO Patent applications published by WIPO in the last 24 months. Worldwide databases Published patent applications from over 72 different countries and regions. Details

[email_address] (Advanced Search)
http://ep.espacenet.com/
Multiple words are connected by AND (title, abstract, inventor, applicant)
Max. 10 words in each query box
* for truncation, "phrase search", "phrase truncat*"
Latest document: country code in publication no.
Max. 500 matching documents listed
Result lists: Only show one document per patent family
European classification : Y01N for nanotechnology

[email_address]
Also published as – other patent family members if full image available
Citing documents – documents that have cited the current patent you are viewing
Description & Claims – Translate this text
English  French, German, Spanish
Download:
EP and WO documents with a maximum of 500 pages can be donwloaded in one go
Other patent documents with a maximum of 250 pages can be donwloaded in one go
No statistical analysis

USPTO Web Patent Databases
http://patft.uspto.gov/
Full-text/images of US patents from 1790 to present.
Published Applications (AppFT)
Full text of US published applications since 2001.
Issued Patents (PatFT)
All US patents from the first patent issued in 1790 to the most recent issue week.
Updated every Tuesday

Quick Search
words in the same query box are treated as a phrase
intelligent and transport (title, abstract, all field) will be treated as intelligent transport (AND ignored)
$ for truncation, can't truncate a phrase
intelligent transport$ = intelligent transport (intelligent transportation will not be found)
Advanced Search
Command search: field code/keywords
CCL/977$ ; TTL/"parasitic infection"

Related U.S. Patent Documents / Parent Case Text – related prior applications
Foreign Application Priority Data – which foreign country an application claims priority
References Cited
Referenced By – find patents which contain this patent number in their full-text
Patent images are in TIFF format, print/save 1 page at a time. Use free patent fetcher to get the whole document in PDF.
No statistics analysis

Google Patent Search
http://www.google.com/patents
Issued patents and patent application made available by the USPTO— 1790s to the past few months.
Search syntax
patent:x000001
ininventor:edison
inassignee: google
uspclass:"977/742"
intlpclass:"A63B 6308"

Search results
Each search result = an individual patent
Filing date: date on which the inventor(s) applied for the patent
Issue date: the date the patent office granted the patent
Assignee: person/organization to which the patent rights are assigned
Patent snippet: a snippet of text from the patent to show where the specific search terms were

Patent page
Patent summary
Claims
Drawings
Search within this patent: search for specific keywords and phrases in a patent. Results are displayed underneath the search box.
Citations: other patents that were cited by the current patent
Referenced by: other patents that reference the patent described on the page

Patents RSS Feeds
Popular US Patent RSS Feeds
Latest updates of esp@cenet
Google Patent : Run a search, copy the RSS link ( Stay up to date on these results ... ) appear at the bottom of the search result screen.
More about RSS feeds: Current Awareness Services guide <http://library.ust.hk/guides/current.html>

Patent Information – Useful Links
中華人民共和國國家知識產權局 : 專利檢索 http://www.sipo.gov.cn/sipo2008/zljs/
International Patent Classification
http://www.wipo.int/classifications/ipc/en/
U.S. Patent Classification
http://www.uspto.gov/go/classification/
Free patent fetcher (download US patent as PDF)
http://free.patentfetcher.com/Patent-Fetcher-Form.php
Country codes
http://ep.espacenet.com/help?topic=countrycodes
Indicate the country or organization where the patent application was filed or granted.

Patent Information
Additional information
World Patent Report: A Statistical Review
http://www.wipo.int/ipstats/en/statistics/patents/
Patent Cooperation Treaty simplified the filing of patent applications different countries by providing centralized filing procedures & a standard application format.
The European Patent Convention, implemented in 1977, created a European Patent Office that can issue a European patent , which acquires the status of a national patent in each of the member nations designated by the applicant.
Most patent applications filed in US and countries under the Patent Cooperation Treaty are published 18 months after filing.

2010 Patent Information

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