Inventors: Do your own Patent Search Free!

In the old days, patent searches were conducted in cold, dark rooms in Washington DC, at the United States Patent & Trademark Office. The USPTO now resides in Arlington, Virginia, and things have changed. Before, inventors would have to pony up thousands of dollars to their patent attorneys to do a patent search. Their patent attorneys, in turn, would outsource that searching to a firm in Washington who would spend weeks in archives now known as the "Shoe Box". The shoe box refers to the first Commissioner of the Patent Office, former US President Thomas Jefferson. Aside from being a politician, Thomas Jefferson was also a keen scientist who was fascinated by inventions. As Commissioner of the Patent Office, Jefferson would keep prototypes or samples of inventions underneath his bed in shoe boxes.

However, with the advent of the Internet, online search portals with the USPTO, and Google Patents, inventors and other small business people can conduct their own patent searches online. Moreover, there is virtually nothing available to a search firm in Arlington that is not also available to the general public over the Internet. As such, here is some advice and tips to guide you to a decent patent and prior art search.

First, go to Google Patents. The reason I like Google Patents is that it is easy to get around. And unlike the USPTO portal, you can quickly and efficiently download whole pdf's of the patents including the drawings directly to your desktop. Alas, the USPTO does not have a free feature to do so.

Once at Google Patents, just enter in terms which are similar to your invention. Be thorough. And if there are competing products and you happen to know the name of the inventor or corporation, go ahead and enter those in too.

After you're done with Google Patents, go to the USPTO Patent Database. There, you will be met with two main options: the issued patents or the published patent applications. Choose the issued patents buttons for now. Set the time period back to 1790 to present. Then enter in your search terms. I would start off with the title, the abstract, work my way down to the specification, and claims. And if you have additional information such as the patent owner, go there as well. After you are done there, go to the published patent application section. Now, keep in mind that the USPTO will only show you results after the past 18 months. They will keep all pending patent applications under wraps for the first 18 months. Also, you should know that some inventors may choose to not publish their patent applications. So there is a blind spot there. For more information, you can see my patent search video at the L Los Angeles Patent Trademark Attorney website.

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