Industrial Engineering

Introduction

Patents are defined as "A licence to manufacture, sell, or deal in an article or commodity, to the exclusion of other persons; in modern times, a grant from a government to a person or persons conferring for a certain definite time the exclusive privilege of making, using, or selling some new invention." (Oxford English Dictionary 2^nd edition)

Patent literature is a rich source of technical and research data much of which is never published or disclosed elsewhere. In addition, patents and patent applications are often published earlier than academic papers.

There are generally 4 types of patents:

UTILITY Patents: Utility Patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or compositions of matters, or any new useful improvement thereof. This is the primary type of U.S. Patent.

DESIGN Patents: Design patents may be granted to anyone who invents a new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture.

PLANT Patents: Plant patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of plants.

REISSUE Patents: Reissue Patents are granted if there is a substantial error or errors in the original patent.

The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) Patent Database includes full text of patents from 1790 - present and also provides TIFF images of most of them.

By Patent Number

1. Go to USPTO Database.
2. Select Patent Number Search or Publication Number Search.

By Subject

1. Go to USPTO Database and select Quick Search. Enter keywords in the search box.
2. Find a patent that is close to what you're looking for.
3. Note the U.S. Classification number/Subclass for that patent, e.g. 711/111 .
4. Do a search of that Class/Subclass in USPTO Database to find more patents on that subject.

OR ...

1. Go to Index to the U.S. Patent Classification System and search for common terms or keywords.
2. Use the Class/Subclass numbers you found to check the Manual of U.S. Patent Classification to see if they are on target.
3. Search by Class/Subclass numbers in USPTO Database.

 You can use the same method of searching in other patent databases on the web.

See this excellent tutorial from the US Patent and Trademark Office on the patent search process.

Several databases are available for searching for patent information.

Not all patents full text can be accessed freely. Some Patent material cannot be easily printed.