Patents

Creating a patent search

Perhaps the hardest part of patent searching is the fact that it is NOT keyword searching. It instead focuses on:

• the function of the item
• the materials used to make the product
• how the item is intended to be used

Answer these questions:

1. Essential function
   1. What does it do?
   2. Who will this be used by?
2. Physical structure
   1. What is it made of?
   2. What are the additional components?
3. Intended use
   1. What is it used for?
   2. What is the expected result of its use? 

Other Ideas for Finding Patents

• If you're looking for the patent of a well-known product, search Google for the creator or distributor name. Either or both of these could be on the patent.
• Use Patent Lens and a search using a the known product name in quotes.
• Gather CPC Classifications from relevant patents in your search and use those to find related patents.
• Use the cited and cited by lists in Patent Lens to look for related patents.
• If you are looking for a patent on a known item with a trademarked name or tagline, find the possible patent owner by searching for the trademark. You can then use the name of the trademark owner in Lens.org to narrow your search.

There are three main search engines for US patents: the USPTO (most difficult), Patent Lens (not difficult, best filtering), and Google Patents (not difficult, familiar interface). Patent Lens has patents issued from 1976-present and also indexes patent applications from 2001-present. If you are looking for older patents however, you will need to check USPTO as well.