You have a great idea. Is patenting the best way to protect it? How much do patents cost? How do you find out if your idea is patentable?
Robert M. Hunter Registered Patent Agent Robert M. Hunter, Ph.D.

Registered Patent Agent

WebPatent.com
Home Qualifications Contact Info Site Map Other Links

PATENT AND NON-PATENT LITERATURE SEARCHING

by Robert M. Hunter, Registered Patent Agent

Table of Contents

Introduction

In order to be patentable, an invention must be novel and nonobvious to a person skilled in the art to which the invention pertains. The hypothetical "person skilled in the art" is presumed to have knowledge of all of this "prior art." Because gaining such knowledge is quite a challenge, it is possible for a patent to issue on an invention in error. A patent that is issued in error is very likely to be invalidated when the patentee attempts to enforce it, especially if a significant amount of money is involved.

When the validity of a patent is challenged in court (e.g., by an alleged patent infringer), the patent enjoys a presumption of validity. If, however, the alleged infringer can find prior art references that were not considered by the Examiner, this presumption can be significantly weakened.

Attempting to enforce a patent in court can cost hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in legal fees alone. Approximately one-fifth of patents tested in court in the U.S. and Europe are invalidated, at least in part because they were issued in error. Having a patent invalidated often means that all the investment in developing the invention and obtaining and enforcing the patent brings no benefit to the patentee. The confusion that exists after a patent is invalidated can result in no one developing the invention and its potential benefit being lost. For these reasons, it is important that thorough searches of the prior art be conducted early in the "idea to IP" process.

While it is important that the "prior art" be searched, it is equally important that no document found during a search (called a reference) be labeled as "prior art." As will be made clear below, patent office rules as to what constitutes the prior art are complex and vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. At least in proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the admission in the record that a reference is in the "prior art" makes that admission a fact, even if it is untrue. This "fact" can be used by the USPTO as the basis for denying patent protection for the invention in the U.S. For this reason, an applicant or his/her/their representative should NEVER refer to a reference as "prior art." It is good practice to use the terms "background art" or "related art" instead.

MPEP 2129 - Admissions as Prior Art [R-1]

Top

Implications of Conducting a Search

No patent office requires that an applicant conduct a search of the background art prior to the filing of a patent application or during the prosecution of a patent. If an applicant is prudent and conducts a search (for one of the reasons given above or for another reason), the USPTO imposes a "duty of disclosure" on each inventor (applicant), each attorney or agent who prepares or prosecutes the application and every other person (individual) who is substantially involved in those activities. Each of these people who becomes aware of information known by him/her to be material to the patentability of any existing claim in a U.S. patent application is required to disclose the information to the USPTO. Information is "material to patentability" if it (by itself or in combination with other information) "compels a conclusion that a claim is unpatentable." The disclosure must be in writing and may be made in the form of an Information Disclosure Statement (which must also include a legible copy of the document). Information that is "material to patentability" includes more than just documents. In the U.S., it includes information on possible prior public uses, sales, offers to sell, derived knowledge, prior invention by another, inventorship conflicts, etc. If an international application has been filed, this duty of disclosure is not imposed until the application enters the national stage (the stage when the international patent application is filed in a specific country).

MPEP 2001 - Duty of Disclosure, Candor, and Good Faith
MPEP 609 - Information Disclosure Statement [R-1]
MPEP 1893.03(g) - Information Disclosure Statement in a National Stage Application

Top

Types and Effective Dates of Background Art Documents

While patentability can be denied on a variety of bases, it is "published" background art documents that can be searched. These documents are usually divided into three types: U.S. patents, non-U.S. patents and published patent applications (called foreign patent documents by the USPTO) and non-patent publications. Two dates are important when conducting a search: the date a reference entered the "prior art" and the filing date of the application (and/or the date of invention in the U.S.). In general, to be "material to patentability," a reference must have become a part of the prior art either before the invention was made or the patent application was filed, depending on the patentability rule being applied and the patent office applying the rule. How specific patentability rules are applied is discussed in detail in the Evaluation document web.

MPEP 706.02 - Rejection on Prior Art [R-1]

While different patent offices have differing rules as to how to determine the date before which a document should be considered relevant in a particular case (i.e., the "effective filing date," "critical date" or "relevant date" of a particular invention and patent application), patent office rules are similar about when and how (in a generic sense) references enter the "prior art," (i.e., the "effective date" or "date of availability" of a reference). The rules of the USPTO regarding the effective date of each type of reference are described below. These rules must be understood before an accurate search can be conducted.

U.S. Patents. With one exception, a U.S. patent becomes a part of the prior art on the issue date of the patent, not on its filing date. However, if the reference is a U.S. patent application that is pending when patentability is being investigated and the "copending" application has at least one common inventor or is an application with common ownership (assignment), then the reference enters the "prior art" for the purposes of rejection under 35 U.S.C. 102(e) on the date it meets that criterion.

MPEP 706.02(f) - Provisional Rejections Under 35 U.S.C. 102(e); Reference is a Copending U.S. Patent Application
MPEP 2127 - Domestic and Foreign Patent Applications as Prior Art
MPEP 2136.01 - Status of U.S. Application as a Reference
MPEP 2136.02 - Content of the Prior Art Available Against the Claims
MPEP 2136.03 - Critical Reference Date
MPEP 2136.04 - Different Inventive Entity; Meaning of "By Another"

Non-U.S. Patents and Patent Applications. In general, a non-U.S. patent becomes part of the prior art on the date patent rights are formally awarded. The date a non-U.S. patent application becomes a part of the prior art is the date is it published.

MPEP 2126 - Availability of a Document as a "Patent" for Purposes of Rejection Under 35 U.S.C. 102(a), (b), and (d) [R-1]
MPEP 2126.01 - Date of Availability of a Patent as a Reference [R-1]
MPEP 2127 - Domestic and Foreign Patent Applications as Prior Art [R-1]

Non-Patent Publications. A printed publication becomes part of the prior art on the date it is accessible to the public. For example, a journal article becomes available to the public on the date the published journal is received by a member of the public, not on the date that the publisher received a copy of the manuscript.

MPEP 2128, MPEP 2128.01, MPEP 2128.02

Top

How to Conduct a Search

Searching a type of background art follows certain common, established protocols regardless of whether the search is conducted manually or electronically. These common protocols are described in the following sections. Protocols specific to selected on-line search technologies are described later.

In general two kinds of searches are conducted: (1) an exploratory search and (2) a patentability or novelty search. An exploratory search is often conducted by the inventor immediately after conception (formulation of an idea of the invention in the mind of the inventor) of part or "all" of the invention has occurred, i.e., immediately after the "light bulb has switched on" in his/her head. The purpose of an exploratory search is to gain a preliminary appreciation of the nature and scope of the background art to guide the process of invention. The result of such a search can show that further work on the invention would be futile (it would be "reinventing the wheel") or that serious technical problems do still exist in the field that appear to be solved by the invention. An exploratory search can indicate that the invention should take a different form than that envisioned by the inventor before he/she began the search. Also, often during an exploratory search, the inventor will run across information about the need (market potential) for the invention that will assist in assessing its commercial potential.

The second kind of search is a patentability or novelty search. In this case, the "complete" invention has been conceived and the only question to be addressed is "Are there any references in the prior art that anticipate the invention or render it obvious?" A reference anticipates an invention if it teaches every element of the claimed invention (i.e., every feature of a product or every step of a process). An invention is rendered obvious by a combination of references if the differences between the claimed invention and the teachings of the combination of references are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the invention pertains. Obviousness is tested either as of the date of invention (in the U.S.) or as of the effective filing date of the patent application claiming the invention (in other jurisdictions).

MPEP 2131, MPEP 2141, MPEP 2141.01, MPEP 2141.01(a)

Searching U.S. Patents. There are two approaches to searching U.S. patents: bibliographic searching and classification searching. Bibliographic searching involves searching the text of all or parts of issued patents in order to find those that disclose background art for a particular invention. Classification searching involves determining the class(es) and subclass(es) of technology within which the invention would likely be classified by the USPTO or WIPO in order to find relevant patents.

Before the advent of electronic patent search technology, patents were searched by finding the relevant class(es) and subclass(es), obtaining a list of patents in each appropriate class and subclass, reviewing the abstract of each patent on the list published in the Official Gazette (Patents) and then reviewing paper copies of each relevant patent. Relevant classes and subclasses were found by reference to three paper documents: the Index to the U.S. Patent Classification, the Manual of Classification and the Classification Definitions. This technique is still used by those who do not have access to an electronic search capability. All of the documents necessary to conduct this type of search are available in the Public Search Room located at the USPTO offices in Crystal City (Arlington), Virginia, and in Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries (PTDLs) located across the U.S. Information on locations and services provided by these libraries is available on the World Wide Web (http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/cpti/ptdlhm3.htm).

Once class(es) and subclass(es) are identified, U.S. and selected non-U.S. patents, published patent applications and non-patent publications in those subclasses can be found organized in small drawers (called "shoes") located in the Examiners' search room at the USPTO offices in Crystal City (Arlington), Virginia. Searchers can obtain permission from an Examiner or the Group Receptionist to view these patents. If only U.S. patents are being sought, they can be found in the Public Search Room. The USPTO also maintains a library of technical literature and foreign patent documents in its Scientific and Technical Information Center (STIC).

MPEP 901.06(a)

With the widespread availability of electronic searching capabilities, both bibliographic and classification searches have been facilitated. Some electronic patent searching capabilities are available at the PTDLs, other capabilities are available as desktop software products, some are available on the Web, and some are available on-line. The various "search engines" that support bibliographic searches take different approaches to find relevant patents. In general, the user enters a key word or term (which can occur in any searchable field in the database searched) and the search engine presents the user with a list of the patent titles, abstracts or full text that contain the words or terms. Some of them display all and some of these display only portions of the selected patents. The specific capabilities of selected electronic products are described below.

Once relevant patents are found, they can be reviewed. If the reference is "material to patentability" a copy is ordered, if necessary. Because the U.S. and international class(es) and subclass(es) in which the patent was classified as well as the patents and other publications considered by the Examiner are cited on the face of most issued patents (including U.S. patents), a searcher can work backward from citations on the references found during the "first sweep" to discover other potentially relevant references. Copies of patents and other documents can be obtained via interlibrary loan departments or from a variety of commercial sources at a nominal cost.

Sources of Copies of Patents,

Searching Non-U.S. Patents and Patent Applications. In the past, access by searchers in the U.S. to non-U.S. patents and patent applications was limited. As was noted above, selected non-U.S. patents and patent applications and non-patent publications were and still are available in "shoes" the Examiners' Search Room. These limitations are eliminated by the availability of the electronic search technologies described below.

Searching Non-Patent Publications. In many rapidly-moving, "high-tech" fields it is important to conduct a thorough search of the non-patent literature before a patent application is filed. Often, the non-patent literature is very well known by researchers in a particular field. Generally, these searches focus on periodicals that chronicle the progress of applied research, engineering and technology. Sometimes, these periodicals even have the word "applied" or "engineering" in their names, like Applied and Environmental Microbiology or Engineering and Mining Journal. Reference and research librarians employed by research university libraries are good sources of information concerning which periodicals to search. A typical research university web site is http://www.lib.montana.edu. Scientific indexes like Chemical Abstracts can be used to find articles in specific subject areas. An variety of Internet-based search engines that search documents from magazines, journals, databases and books exist as described below. Searching of nucleotide and/or amino acid sequences can also be conducted on the Web as indicated below.

Sources of Copies of Articles

Using a Search Firm. A number of firms (many of which are located in the Washington D.C. area) specialize in conducting patent and/or non-patent literature searches. In order to obtain the best results from this approach, it is necessary that the inventor communicate his/her invention with a great degree of specificity to the person who will be conducting the search. For this reason, it is recommended that the inventor(s) prepare a draft Provisional U.S. Patent Application on the invention prior to retaining the firm's services. Such firms are required by law to maintain the confidentiality of the invention. Some such firms advertise such services in periodicals, like the Journal of the Patent and Trademark Office Society, Intellectual Property Today or Dream Merchant, that they perform such services.

Patent Search Firms, Research Firms and Librarians

Using a Patent Agent or Patent Attorney. Patent agents and patent attorneys are patent professionals who are registered to practice before the USPTO. Both can conduct patent searches and offer opinions as to the patentability of an invention. A roster of registered U.S. patent agents and patent attorneys is available at http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/dcom/olia/oed/roster/. A roster of registered European patent attorneys is available at http://www.epo.co.at/epo/reps/search.html. Some have a presence on the Web.

Top

Electronic Search Technologies and Services

Electronic search technologies and services can be divided into three categories: desktop search software products, Web search engines and on-line services. Examples in each category are described below.

Desktop Search Software Products. A variety of desktop search software products are available. Selected products are described below.

Derwent North America
1725 Duke Street, Suite 250
Alexandria, VA 22314
Tel: 1.800.451.3551
Fax: 703.519.5829
E-mail: info@derwent.com
Web: http://www.derwent.co.uk, http://www.derwent.com

Commercial software products (all on CD-ROM): DEPAROM contains German patents and patent applications; ESPACE contains European, PCT and UK patent applications; OG+ contains the USPTO Official Gazette; PatentScan Index contains 20 years of front-page U.S. patent information; PatentScan Plus contains 20 years of U.S. patent abstracts and exemplary claims; PatentScan Update contains front-page information, abstracts and exemplary claims from current year U.S. patents; PatentView contains full U.S. patent documents and Patents of Russia contains Russian patent information in English.

Electronic Data Systems Corporation (EDS)
EDS Shadow Patent Office
E-mail: feedback@spo.eds.com
Web: http://spo.eds.com/patent.html

Commercial software product:  CD-ROM allows browsing the full text of selected U.S. patents

MicroPatent USA
250 Dodge Avenue
East Haven, CT 06512
Tel: 203.466.5055
Fax: 203.466.5054
E-mail: info@micropat.com
Web: http://www.micropat.com

Commercial software products (on CD-ROM): World PatentSearch (WPS) allows searching of bibliographic data from U.S. patents since 1975 and EPO and WIPO patent applications since 1978; Patent Abstracts of Japan (PAJ) allows searching bibliographic data and main drawings of English translation of published, unexamined Japanese patent applications since 1995; US PatentSearch allow front-page text searching of 20 fileds in U.S. patents since 1975; PCT PatentSearch allows front-page searching of 13 fields in PCT patent applications since 1992 and ESPACE Access allows searching of 14 fields in European and PCT patent applications since 1978.

Optipat, Inc.
2001 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 405
Arlington,VA 22202
Tel: 1.800.445.9760
Fax: 1.800.445.9781
E-mail: information@optipat.com
Web: http://www.optipat.com

Commercial software product: OptiSearch/Net (OS/Net) package allows browser-based indexing and searching of full text of U.S. patents on intranet web server. Patents delivered in html format on CD-ROM.

SmartPatents, Inc.
1975 Landings Drive
Mountain View, CA 94043
Tel: 650.237.0900
Fax: 650.237.0910
E-mail: info@smartpatents.com
Web: http://www.smartpatents.com

Commercial software products: SmartPatent Business Decision System is a intranet-based tool that can search and analyze patents in the SmartPatents Electronic Patents database of U.S. patents since 1972; SmartPatents Workbench 4.1 provides desktop searching and analysis of patents in that database.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Office of Electronic Information Products
Crystal Park 3, Suite 441
Washington, DC 20231
Tel: 703.306.2600

Commercial software products: Cassis/BIB CD-ROM allows keyword searching of last 3 years of U.S. patent abstracts, utility patent titles back since 1969, plant and design titles since 1977: Cassis/CLASS CD-ROM retrieves complete subclass listings for individual and merged subclasses and displays classification of all U.S. patents ever issued; Cassis/ASSIGN contains assignment data of U.S. patents since 1980. Access to these products is free at Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries.

Web Search Engines. Web search engines use a variety of approaches to search patent and non-patent literature. Selected Web search engines are described below.

American Type Culture Collection (ATCC)
12301 Parklawn Drive
Rockville, MD 20852
E-mail: help@atcc.org
Web: http://www.atcc.org

Free services: Search the ATCC collections of recombinant materials, bacteria, cell cultures, fungi and viruses.

CNET, Inc.
E-mail: support@search.com
Web: http://www.search.com

Free services: meta search engine allows searching World Wide Web with top seven Web search engines.

Derwent North America
1725 Duke Street, Suite 250
Alexandria, VA 22314
Tel: 1.800.451.3551
Fax: 703.519.5829
E-mail: info@derwent.com
Web: http://www.derwent.co.uk, http://www.derwent.com

Free services: Patent Discovery allows searching of bibliographic information from over 40 issuing authorities processed by Derwent over the last 3 weeks.

Electronic Data Systems Corporation (EDS)
EDS Shadow Patent Office
E-mail: feedback@spo.eds.com
Web: http://spo.eds.com/patent.html

Free services (U.S. patents since 1995): subject (find patents containing a key word or phrase) search; infringement search (find patents similar to a known patent).

Commercial services (U.S. patents since 1972): subject search; infringement search; classification search (find patents in a class/subclass); full text retrieval; forward/backward citation search (forward and backward citations associated with a known patent); embedded concept retrieval (categorization of a list of patents or classes and subclasses).

Engineering Information Inc. (Ei)
1 Castle Point Terrace
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5996
Tel: 201.216.8500
Fax: 201.216.8532
E-mail: ei@ei.org
Web: http://www.ei.org

Commercial services: Ei CompendexWeb provides access to the Compendex database of summaries of technical reports, journal articles and conference papers and proceedings. Ei Connexion provides access to over 150 DIALOG databases; ILI Standards Web provides access to military and industrial standards and specifications.

International Business Machines (IBM)
Delphion Patent Server
E-mail: support@delphion.com
Web: http://www.delphion.com

Free services: Key word, phrase and number search of U.S. patents since 1974 (plus some in 1971-1973) by patent number, title, abstract, claims, assignee, inventors and attorney agent; complete scanned images of U.S. patents since 1974.

Ixquick
Ixquick Metasearch
E-mail: jessica@ixquick.com
Web: http://ixquick.com/eng

Ixquick is a metasearch engine that was given the highest ratings by both Search Engine Watch and ZDNet's SearchIQ. Ixquick.com has a number of powerful features including outstanding search relevancy (find what you're looking for immediately), comprehensive results (searches 12 engines simultaneously), fast response, advanced syntax support (beyond the capabilities of any other metasearch engine), Web, Picture, News and MP3 category searches and one dozen languages are supported.

Japan Science and Technology Corp. (JST)
Washington Office
1550 M Street, N.W., Suite 1050
Washington, D.C. 20005
Tel: 202.872.6370
Fax: 202.872.6372
E-mail: www-admin@tokyo.jst.go.jp
Web: http://www.jst.go.jp/EN, http://jois.jst.go.jp

Commercial services: Enjoy JOIS provides access to the JOIS databases; JOIS is a Japanese and English language on-line system that provides access to scientific and technical information

Knight-Ridder Information, Inc.
2440 El Camino Real
Mountain View, CA 94040
Tel: 1.800.334.2564
Fax: 415.254.7070
E-mail: customer@krinfo.com
Web: http://www.krinfo.com, http://dialog.krinfo.com, http://dialogselect.krinfo.com, http://dsweb.krinfo.ch, http://krscience.dialog.com, http://krsourceone.krinfo.com

Commercial services: DIALOG WEB provides access to DIALOG databases; DIALOG SELECT provides access to a selection of DIALOG databases with guided searching of business, legal, scientific and technical information; DATASTAR WEB provides access to DataStar; SCIENCEBASE provides access to science and technology databases; SOURCEONE provides access to digital and library-based document collections with worldwide document delivery.

LEXIS-NEXIS, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
P.O. Box 933
Dayton, OH 45401
Tel: 937.865.1214
Fax: 937.865.1211
Web: http://www.lexis-nexis.com, http://www.lexis.com

Commercial services: Produces the Patent and Trademark Office Library (LEXPAT) which contains the full text of U.S. patents since 1976 as well as other patent-status related materials.

MicroPatent USA
250 Dodge Avenue
East Haven, CT 06512
Tel: 203.466.5055
Fax: 203.466.5054
E-mail: info@micropat.com
Web: http://www.micropat.com

Free services: Full text search most recent 4 weeks of U.S. patents by U.S. class; full text search most recent week of U.S. patents by key word and class.

National Library of Medicine
National Center for Biotechnology Information
8600 Rockville Pike
Building 38A, Room 8N-803
Bethesda, MD 20894
Tel: 1.888.346.3656 or 301.594.5983 or 301.496.2475
Fax: 301.480.9241
E-mail: info@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov or ref@nlm.nih.gov
Web: http://www.nlm.nih.gov, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Free services: PubMed provides access to the MEDLINE database of over 8.8 million references to articles published in 3,800 biomedical journals; Internet Grateful Med provides access to MEDLINE, AIDSLINE, HealthStar, AIDSDRUGS, AIDSTRIALS, DIRLINE, HISTLINE, HSRPROJ, OLDMEDLINE and SDILINE databases; Loansome Doc Document Delivery service; Entrez presents an integrated view of DNA and protein sequence data, 3D structure data and associated MEDLINE entries; Genbank is an annotated collection of all publicly available DNA sequences.

National Technical Information Service
Technology Administration
U.S. Department of Commerce
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, VA 22161
Tel: 703.487.4650
Fax: 703.321.8547
E-mail: orders@ntis.fedworld.gov
Web: http://www.ntis.gov

Free services: Key word or product number searching of products in 375 subject areas from more than 200 U.S. government agencies; Products include technical reports, datafiles, CD-ROMS

Northern Light Technologies LLC
222 Third Street, Suite 1320
Cambridge, MA 02142
Tel: 1.800.419.4222
Fax: 617.621.3459
E-mail: cs@northernlight.com
Web: http://www.nlsearch.com

Free services: World Wide Web search; Special Collection search.; WWW articles; abstracts of Special Collection articles.

Commercial services: Sale of copies of articles from 1,800 journals, books, magazines, databases, and newswires.

Optipat, Inc.
2001 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 405
Arlington,VA 22202
Tel: 1.800.445.9760
Fax: 1.800.445.9781
E-mail: information@optipat.com
Web: http://www.optipat.com

Commercial services: OptiSearch/Online allows secure (encrypted) searching of the full text of over 2 million U.S. patents by patent number, key word, assignee, inventor, current classification, cross-reference classification and international classification.

Questal.Orbit, Inc.
France Telecom Group
8000 Westpark Group
McLean, VA 22101
Tel: 1.800.456.7248
Fax: 703.893.4532
E-mail: help@questal.orbit.com
Web: http://www.questal.orbit.com/patents, http://www.qpat.com

Free services: QPAT-US allows search front page information of U.S. patents since 1974.

Commercial services: Access to a variety of databases including Biotechnology Abstracts, Chemical Abstracts, Chinapats, Claims, Derwent World Patents Index, Drug Patents International, European Patents, Japanese Patents, PCT Patent Applications, Pharmaceutical Patents, U.S. Classification, U.S. Patents and World Patents Index; QPAT-US allows full text of all U.S. patents since 1974.

Software Patent Institute
2901 Hubbard Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48105-2467
Tel: 313.769.4606
Fax: 313.769.4054
E-mail: spi@spi.org
Web: http://www.spi.org

Free services: search of Database of Software Technologies

Commercial services: Customizable Search Interface for searching Database of Software Technologies

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Office of Electronic Information Products
Crystal Park 3, Suite 441
Washington, DC 20231
Tel: 703.306.2600
E-mail: patenthelp@cnidr.org
Web: http://patents.uspto.gov

Free services: Key word and patent number searches of the front-page of U.S. patents (utility, design, reissue, plant and statutory invention registration patents) since 1976. Searchable fields include patent number, inventor's name, city, state and country; title; assignee's name, state, country and country; application filing date; application number; current U.S. classification; international classification; primary Examiner; assistant Examiner; government interest and abstract.

Commercial services: Copies of U.S. patents

On-Line Services. On-line services generally provide more powerfull search capabilities at a higher cost. Selected on-line services are described below.

Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS)
2540 Olentagy River Road
P.O. Box 3012
Columbus, OH 43210
Tel: 1.800.753.4227
Fax: 614.447.3751
E-mail: help@cas.org
Web: http:/www.cas.org, http://stneasy.cas.org

Commercial services: CHEMICAL ABSTRACTS (CA) and REGISTRY databases include 13 million abstracts of chemistry-related and patent literature and 17 million substance records; SNT International provides access to over 200 scientific databases.

Corporate Intelligence
10 Caledonia Summit
Browns Point, WA 98422
Tel: 252.925.1000
E-mail: service@1790.com
Web: http://www.trademarks.com

Commercial services: Patent and Trademark Office Library (LEXPAT) provides access to the full text of U.S. patents since 1976; PatIntelligence allows full text searches of U.S. patents since 1790; X-1 Superior Printed Patents provides copies of U.S. patents since 1790.

Derwent North America
1725 Duke Street, Suite 250
Alexandria, VA 22314
Tel: 1.800.451.3551
Fax: 703.519.5829
E-mail: info@derwent.com
Web: http://www.derwent.co.uk, http://www.derwent.com

Commercial services: Produces a variety of on-line databases concerning chemistry, engineering, patents, and pharmaceutical/biotechnology; Patent databases include Derwent United States Patents and Derwent World Patents.

Engineering Information Inc. (EI)
1 Castle Point Terrace
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5996
Tel: 201.216.8500
Fax: 201.216.8532
E-mail: ei@ei.org
Web: http://www.ei.org

Commercial services: Produces a variety of interdisciplinary engineering databases; the Compendex database provides summaries of technical reports, journal articles and conference papers and proceedings.

Fachinformationszentrum (FIZ) Karlsruhe
Gesellschaft für wissenschaftlich-technische Information mbH
P.O. Box 2465
76012 Karlsruhe
Germany
Tel: 49.7247.808.555
Fax: 49.7247.808.259
E-mail: hlpdeskk@fiz-karlruhe.de
Web: http://www.fiz-karlsruhe.de, http://stneasy.fiz-karlsruhe.de

Commercial services: Hosts STN International databases in science and technology.

IFI/Plenum Data Corporation
3202 Kirkwood Highway, Suite 203
Wilmington, DE 19808
Tel: 1.800.4955 or 302.998.0478
Fax: 302.998.073
E-mail: claims@ifiplenum.com
Web: http://ifiplenum.com

Commercial services (via DIALOG, Questel/Orbit and STN as on-line hosts, unless otherwise indicated): CLAIMS/U.S. Patents database provides access to all chemical and chemically-related patents since 1950, mechanical and electrical patents since 1963, design and plant patents since December 1976 with records for patent number, title, inventor, assignee, U.S. classification, IPC classification, broadest claim for chemical, mechanical and electrical patents, and since 1971, abstract, all front page information and non-exemplary claims; CLAIMS/Uniterm database contains all information in the CLAIMS/U.S. Patents database plus subject indexing of chemical and chemically-related patents by general terms, compound terms and fragment terms; CLAIMS/Comprehensive database contains all the information in the Claims/U.S. patents and CLAIMS/Uniterm databases plus special indexing with enhance retrieval capabilities for chemical and chemically-related patents, a standardized polymer retrieval system, a comprehensive substructure fragmentation system and the ability to search roles in a reactions; CLAIMS/Reference data base contains class codes and titles for the U.S. classification system; CLAIMS/Compound Registry database is a dictionary-type, non-bibliographic file containing records for over 17,000 chemical compounds in the IFI compound term vocabulary; CLAIMS/Citation database (via DIALOG only) contains references to patents issued prior to 1947 cited in each U.S. patent during the examination process (backward citations) and references to patents since 1946 in which the patent has subsequently been cited (forward citations); CLAIMS/Reassignment and Reexamination database provides information about U.S. patents that have been affected by post-issuance events.

Japan Science and Technology Corp. (JST)
Washington Office
1550 M Street, N.W., Suite 1050
Washington, D.C. 20005
Tel: 202.872.6370
Fax: 202.872.6372
E-mail: www-admin@tokyo.jst.go.jp
Web: http://www.jst.go.jp/EN, http://jois.jst.go.jp

Commercial services: JOIS is a Japanese language on-line system that provides access to scientific and technical information; JOIS databases include the JICST File on Science and Technology (Japanese), JICST-E File of documents on science, technology and medicine published in Japan (English), and JMEDICINE File of medical information published in Japan (Japanese).

Knight-Ridder Information, Inc.
2440 El Camino Real
Mountain View, CA 94040
Tel: 1.800.334.2564
Fax: 415.254.7070
E-mail: customer@krinfo.com
Web: http://www.krinfo.com, http://dialog.krinfo.com, http://dialogselect.krinfo.com, http://dsweb.krinfo.ch, http://krscience.dialog.com, http://krsourceone.krinfo.com

Commercial services: DIALOG and DataStar systems provide access to over 900 on-line databases.

Knowledge Express Data Systems
One Westlakes
1235 Westlakes Drive, Suite 210
Berwyn, PA 19312
Tel: 1.800.529.5337
Fax: 610.251.8001
E-mail: info@KnowledgeExpress.com
Web: http://www.thevine.com/knowledgeE

Commercial services: Access to a variety of databases including Bioscan, Company Technologies, CorpTech, Federal Research in Progress, Federal Laboratory Technologies, MicroPatent Alert, Small Business Innovation Research Awards, and University Technologies.

Manning & Napier Information Services
1100 Chase Square
Rochester, NY 14604
Tel: 1.800.278.5356 or 716.454.0050
E-mail: info@mnis.net
Web: http://www.mnis.net

Commercial services: DR-LINK provides natural language searching and retrieval of patent information in computer and software technology since 1952; MAPIT is a patent mining tool that facilitates discovery of relationships among patents or patent sets.

Top

Return to Home

© 1998-2003 Robert M. Hunter PLLC