Category Archives: Patent references

Wikipedia References in US Patents Increase in 2011

Posted on January 1, 2012 by mjwhitekingston

Wikipedia continues to be a favorite source of prior art references for inventors filing patent applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The number of issued U.S. patents that cite Wikipedia articles increased by 26.3 percent in 2011, reaching … Continue reading →

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PAIR Enhancement: Display References

Posted on July 7, 2011 by mjwhitekingston

The USPTO has enhanced its PAIR system (Patent Application Information Retrieval) by adding a tab for cited references under which is listed all references cited by the examiner and application, including patents and NPL (non-patent literature) documents. Cited US and … Continue reading →

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Wikipedia References Increase 81 Percent in 2010

Posted on January 2, 2011 by mjwhitekingston

The number of US patents that cite Wikipedia increased again in 2010. Approximately 1,461 patents issued last year contain one or more references to Wikipedia articles, 81 percent more than in 2009. Although this is a tiny fraction of the … Continue reading →

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Wikipedia Citations in Patents Up 59 Percent

Posted on January 7, 2010 by mjwhitekingston

The number of U.S. patents issued last year that contain one or more references to Wikipedia articles totalled 809, a 59 percent jump from 2008. Several years ago the USPTO banned patent examiners from using Wikipedia as a source of … Continue reading →

Posted in Patent references, Wikipedia | 7 Comments

Wikipedia References Increase

Posted on February 15, 2009 by mjwhitekingston

The Jan. 29 of CNET’s Buzz Report has a funny rant about Apple’s recently issued patent on a multi-touch graphical user interface. (US 7479949) Complaining about the USPTO’s examination practices, reporter Molly Wood cites examples of existing prior art on … Continue reading →

Posted in Patent references, Wikipedia | 11 Comments

Titles Added to Cited References in FPO

Posted on February 15, 2009 by mjwhitekingston

US patent records in FreePatentsOnline now display titles of cited US patent documents. This is a nice improvement since it provides more information about the reference without forcing you to leave the current document. Titles of cited references available in … Continue reading →

Posted in FreePatentsOnline, Patent references | 1 Comment

Researchers See Patent Quality in Rising Citation Counts

Posted on July 14, 2008 by mjwhitekingston

Joff Wild, a journalist and blogger for Intellectual Asset Management Magazine, makes some interesting observations about a new study that claims that the quality of patents issued by the USPTO is rising. The research found, among other things, significant growth … Continue reading →

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Posted on July 5, 2008 by mjwhitekingston

When I teach people how to conduct a proper search of the patent literature, I always find it challenging to convince them that they need to include older patents in their searches. Most people, especially undergraduate students, are content to … Continue reading →

Posted in classification, Patent references | 1 Comment