Author Archives: mjwhitekingston

Peer-to-Patent Program

Posted on August 17, 2007 by mjwhitekingston

Nice article explaining the goals and expectations of the new pilot patent peer review program sponsored by the USPTO and New York Law School. Peer-to-patent pilot steers toward change

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U.S. Patent Coverage in Scirus

Posted on August 16, 2007 by mjwhitekingston

Yesterday I posted some detailed information about patent coverage in Scirus. Here is a more detailed breakdown for U.S. patent coverage: Utility patents, 1790s-Reissue patents, 1870s-Design patents, 1976-Plant patents, 1976-Defensive publications, not includedStatutory invention registrations, 1985-Additional improvement patents, not included … Continue reading →

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Patent Reform – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Posted on August 15, 2007 by mjwhitekingston

There has been a lot of hot air this summer regarding patent reform legislation. Depending on what you read, the proposed Patent Act of 2007 will either 1) Save the U.S. Patent System or 2) Destroy the U.S. Patent System. … Continue reading →

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Scirus Patent Coverage Details

Posted on August 15, 2007 by mjwhitekingston

Scirus, the free scientific information search engine provided by Elsevier, includes millions of sci-tech documents, including data for some 21 million patents obtained from LexisNexis. Here’s an exact breakdown of Scirus’ patent coverage: EPO from 1978 (grants and pregrants)JPO from … Continue reading →

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esp@cenet Survey

Posted on August 14, 2007 by mjwhitekingston

The EPO is running an online survey to gather feedback on what users find most and least useful about esp@cenet, and access to free patent information in general. The EPO has an excellent track record of listening to users, so … Continue reading →

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Perpetual Motion Patents

Posted on July 15, 2007 by mjwhitekingston

The Economist tackles perpetual motion machines in an article appropriately titled “Perptual Nonesense“. It should be noted that inventors have been pursuing this dream since the beginning of our patent system. Here’s what one patent attorney thought about it a … Continue reading →

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Patent Lens Update

Posted on July 15, 2007 by mjwhitekingston

Some exciting news about Patent Lens, one of my favourite patent databases… Patent Lens now includes bibliographic data and full-text images for Australian A and B docs from 1998 to the present. As far as I can tell, this is … Continue reading →

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Hawaiian Patents

Posted on July 8, 2007 by mjwhitekingston

During a recent vacation in Hawaii, my wife and I had the pleasure of visiting the beautiful ‘Iolani Palace, the official residence of Hawaiian monarchs in the late 1800s and the only royal residence on U.S. territory. The building was … Continue reading →

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Inventions on the Silver Screen

Posted on July 6, 2007 by mjwhitekingston

I enjoy movies about inventors and the process of invention. Many are fun family movies, such as The Absent Minded Professor and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Others lionize inventors, such as Young Thomas Edison and Edison, the Man, both released … Continue reading →

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Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread

Posted on July 6, 2007 by mjwhitekingston

The Globe and Mail’s popular “Social Studies” column often reports interesting facts about famous inventors and inventions. Today’s column include a few lines about the inventor of sliced bread, Otto Frederick Rohwedder of Davenport, Iowa. Until the late 1920s, virtually … Continue reading →

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