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• Three
Steps to a Patent Search
General Information
The
Boston Public Library is a United States Patents and Trademarks
Depository Library. The librarians will show you the various tools
needed to do a patent search. The librarians do not perform searches.
Only qualified patent attorney's or agents can perform a search
for you, or provide assistance with your application process.
At the library
you can do a patent search on a computer called the Classification
and Search Support Information System or CASSIS. You
can also do a similar search on the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office's (USPTO) website at http:www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html,
where you can download fulltext and images of patents (1790
- present) as well. In order to view images you have to download
a Tagged Image File Format (TIFF Plug-In). This plug-in can
be downloaded free of cost from the following website: http://www.mieweb.com/alternatiff.
It takes only a couple of minutes to download the plug-in.
Another useful
link to view images and full text is the IBM's patent server
at http://www.delphion.com/
Please click
here for a list of U.S. and International
full text patents available through the library on microfilm
and DVD's.
Order copies
of United States and Foreign patents from the USPTO office at
1-703-308-9726 or 1-800-972-6382 or visit their
website at http://ebiz1.uspto.gov/oems25p/index.html
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Three Steps to Patent Searching in the Government Documents
Department
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1. Find the
subject category that best describes your idea.
Patents are
arranged in categories called classes and subclasses. You must
find the class and subclass numbers closest to your idea. Start
with the Index
to Classification. It is an alphabetical list of subject
headings referring to specific classes and subclasses of the
classification system. The URL is http://www.uspto.gov/go/classification
and click on USPC Index. Look up words that describe your idea
and you will find hints to class and subclass numbers. Then
find the class/subclass numbers in the Manual
of Classification. The Manual (not the Index) is the
up-to-date, complete list of subclasses. The list is in outline
form with items indented under major headings. Choose the appropriate
numbers, for instance, class 128, subclass 10.1A -- no plus
2a. Use the CASSIS database to get a list of patents in a subject
area.
- Select the
icon Home or click on Cassis2 User Interface.
- Select Patents BIB [ Patent bibliographic data for
utility patents from 1969 to present; Non-utility Patents from
1977 to present; Patent Application Publications from 2001 March
to present; Patent Abstracts from 1988 September to present;
Patents expired for failure to pay maintenance fees as of 2001.]
When the patent menu appears, select the field Current Classification.
- Type your numbers
"class/subclass", for instance 128/10.1A and click
on Search.
- Click on Results
to see the list of patents.
- To print the
list, click on the print icon.
- You can do
the same search using the Command Search option.
2b. You can look for words in patent titles by typing words
on the "title" line, but you might miss items that haven't
used the words you expect! There is no substitute for the correct
class/subclass combination! eg:The word frisbee TM will
yield only 63 patents, but by looking it up under the class
Amusement Devices (446/46) you will have 155 patents!!
2c. For a list of patents owned by a company, search the
"assignee" line.
2d.To find patent numbers before 1969 (titles will not
be listed), select "Patents Class"from the menu
and enter the class/subclass.
2e.To search for an inventor,choose "Patentee-Assist"and
then choose Inventor-Assignee Index from the menu. Type
the first and last names.
3. For details of individual patents.
You may look
at abstracts in the Official Gazettes. They are arranged by
the numbers you printed out from CASSIS. Please use no more
than 6 at a time.
Apart from the USPTO's website you can also find the full-text
on microfilm and DVD's (USAPAT on Cassis).
More instructions on how to use the CASSIS database from
the USPTO's website please check:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/ptdl/step7.htm
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