Category Archives: Patent databases

How are Engineering Librarians Using Patent Information?

Posted on August 28, 2008 by mjwhitekingston

A few months ago I surveyed my fellow academic engineering librarians to find out how they were using web-based patent databases in their day-to-day work with students and faculty. Patent literature has had a role in engineering education, especially design … Continue reading →

Posted in Engineering education, Librarians, Patent databases | 3 Comments

Transparency in the US Patent System

Posted on July 20, 2008 by mjwhitekingston

An op-ed piece in the July 14th Wall Street Journal by L. Gordon Crovitz makes an interesting case about the shortcomings of the US patent system and the recent failure of Congress to enact patent reform. One of his criticisms … Continue reading →

Posted in Patent databases, patent information dissemination, Patent reform, USPTO | 2 Comments

Spark-IP: Patent Search Tool

Posted on March 16, 2008 by mjwhitekingston

High-quality patent databases are so commonplace on the web these days it’s hard to get excited about yet another offering. Sure… there’s always room for improvement, but how many patent databases does the world really need? Apparently, it does. Spark-IP … Continue reading →

Posted in Graphical Tools, Patent databases, SparkIP | 1 Comment

Google Patents Update

Posted on February 13, 2008 by mjwhitekingston

Google Patents now includes US published applications and patents through at least the end of 2007. Google engineers have added a filter to the advanced search form that allows you to retrieve only issued patents or applications. However, there are … Continue reading →

Posted in Google patents, Patent databases | 2 Comments

PatentMonkey Update

Posted on February 12, 2008 by mjwhitekingston

The patent search portal PatentMonkey.com, which I reviewed last February, has been acquired by Patents.com, a new firm headed by venture capitalist Robert Monster, PatentMonkey founder Paul Ratcliffe and Steve Pinkos, former deputy undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property and … Continue reading →

Posted in Patent databases, PatentMonkey | Leave a comment

Big News in Patent Information Land

Posted on November 30, 2007 by mjwhitekingston

Joe Ebersole, founder and chief counsel for the Coalition for Patent and Trademark Information Dissemination, died on Oct. 18 in Washington, D.C. There’s a brief obit in the December issue of Information Today (not yet available online) and the Washington … Continue reading →

Posted in Patent databases, patent information dissemination | Leave a comment

Google Patents Delivers 2007 Patents

Posted on October 30, 2007 by mjwhitekingston

Patent searchers have been wondering for months when Google would update Google Patents, its database of U.S. patents launched in mid-2006. Although the USPTO publishes up to 10,000 new patent documents per week, Google Patents hasn’t been updated since it … Continue reading →

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Chemical Structure Searching in Free Patent Databases?

Posted on October 25, 2007 by mjwhitekingston

The ability to search chemical compounds in public patent databases has always been very limited. Unlike commercial databases such as SciFinder Scholar, public patent databases have not offered tools for searching compounds by structure or formula. Nor do they include … Continue reading →

Posted in chemical structure searching, espacenet, Patent databases | Leave a comment

Downloading Foreign Patents

Posted on September 10, 2007 by mjwhitekingston

When I need to download a copy of a patent for myself or a client, I usually go right to esp@cenet. Since esp@cenet includes ~60 million patent documents from more than 70 countries, the odds of finding a patent or … Continue reading →

Posted in downloads, Patent databases | 2 Comments

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 →

Posted in Elsevier, Patent databases, Scirus | Leave a comment