How to Do a Patent Search by Name

You can do a patent search by name online. The content material of a patent is publicly accessible data. In the US, patent purposes can also be public. Due to this fact, it is possible to find a competitor’s patent utility before it turns into a patent. Consequently, publicly accessible patent data can present you with aggressive business intelligence relating to your opponents. The default rule within the US is that patent purposes are revealed 18 months after the earliest submitting date.

How do I Find My Competitor’s Patents or Patent Applications?

There are a number of approaches that may uncover patent or patent utility details about a competitor, depending on the circumstance. Details about the patent exercise of a competitor may give you details about your competitor’s plans before it's seen in the market, giving you a jump on the competition.

How to Search for Existing Patents By name

A patentability search is carried out by analyzing revealed patents that relate to your personal invention to determine whether or not your thought has already been patented. You can also see comparable innovations, permitting you to enhance and refine your personal invention without infringing on another person's patent.

One of the best and most thorough searches are nonetheless carried out in person at the library of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in Arlington, Virginia. For the comfort of the general public, the USPTO maintains libraries in the major cities across the nation.

You can also view patent purposes online at the USPTO. Patent searches can also be completed at google.com/patents and at plenty of different free websites. Whereas web patent searches are an invaluable instrument, it could be restricted by your expertise or by the content material of some databases. As soon as your thought passes the preliminary patent search, it's possible you'll need to hire a knowledgeable patent searcher due to the complexity surrounding patents. Some are licensed to observe by the USPTO.

How to Use the USPTO as a Resource

The USPTO has a website that is invaluable for analysis. The one official website of the USPTO, www.uspto.gov, incorporates huge quantities of searchable data relating to particular patents and emblems, a list of trademark and patent legal guidelines and rules, and information relating to specific aspects of patents.

To make use of the website, navigate to the homepage and select either “Trademarks” or “Patents.” After selecting “Patents,” customers are introduced to a complete area of content that lists all the resources accessible on the site.

One of the most important aspects of the website, for research purposes, is the “Search for Patents” option. The Search Patents option results in a menu of several types of searches that may be carried out within the relevant databases. A really helpful search is solely titled “Patent Number Search.” Patent Number Search is helpful for customers who have a selected US patent number and wish to acquire a duplicate of the original.

By typing the patent number in the field on the search webpage, customers will instantly be sent to an information sheet that incorporates the following:

  • Summary
  • Bibliographic knowledge (the identity(s) of the inventors, who owns the patent, and the application submission date)
  • References that have been cited within the utility
  • A list of the entire claims of the patent.

A replica of the complete patent, with drawings, can be seen by choosing “Images” on the information sheet.

With the intention to view these records, your computer should have a browser plug-in, just like those required to view PDF records data. The flexibility to view and print full patent pictures is a good time and money saver, as the results previous to searches available on the USPTO web site, copies of patents needed to be ordered (and paid for) from libraries or industrial companies. In many instances, nonetheless, a patent number will not be accessible.

If you need help with doing a patent search by name, you can post your legal need on UpCounsel’s marketplace. UpCounsel accepts only the top 5 percent of lawyers to its site. Lawyers on UpCounsel come from law schools such as Harvard Law and Yale Law and average 14 years of legal experience, including work with or on behalf of companies like Google, Menlo Ventures, and Airbnb.