Not too long ago, searching for a patent involved hiring a law firm and a lawyer. The services were ridiculously expensive. Now, this task has been simplified with the introduction of Google Patent. It is a wise move to make sure that there no patents already out there before venturing into a new product and investing finances and efforts on creating it. Commonly, inventors may search and find nothing; therefore there is no harm in covering all bases.
The patent search engine is similar to Google Books and allows for scrolling through numerous pages and zooming in on any object. The images can be stored as PNG files for assessment.
Introduction
The documents available on Google Patent have been collected from reliable sources. The sources of patents include the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the European Patent Office (EPO), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The patents you see are registered as far back as 1790.
How to Use Google Patents?
The task is simple: you can search for “Patents” on the Google search engine. The search box can be used to locate the required patent. This can be done using keywords or by inserting the grant or application number. The search can be conducted based on a set of criteria. To do so, you need to access the Advanced Patents search page. Hence aspects like patent number, inventor, classification and filling date can be used to narrow done the search.
Importance of Prior Art Finder
Those inventions which are new and not yet recognized are the only ones eligible for a patent. How can you verify whether a patent already exists and how to prove whether the invention is new or not? This is made possible by the prior art finder. Patents cite previous patent applications or journal articles. This was a difficult task until now. You can simply search for multiple sources for any such entries. Simply click on “Find Prior Art” from the patent’s main page or select “Related” in the patent search results.
Keywords are used in this process from the above mentioned sources and then combined for a search query. The results also provide results from Google Scholars, Google Books and the rest of the web. This makes the search much more thorough and precise.
Strengths of Google Patent
Comparatively Google Patent is a powerful search engine. Their relevancy rankings allow for a precise and good display of prior art. It should also be noted that the documents you find through this search engine can also be searched for in the main Google search engine as well. This would enable you to find out more information about the documents you had come across.
Now that Google has integrated patents from agencies all around the world, the strenuous task of searching for patents is now less complicated. Google has also linked “Google Translate” to patent pages so you can view the search results in different pages. As long as you know how to do a patent search using Google Patent, you are good to go.
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