Pitfalls of on-line patent searching

Via this month’s WIPO Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Newsletter, an article that asks:  “Are Search Statements Submitted to Patent Databases Public Disclosure of an Invention?”  See:  On-Line Patent Searching - A Cautionary Tale.  In the article, the author suggests that “ perhaps the best solution [to the risk of disclosure] is to file a Provisional Patent Application first and search later.”

It is a valid concern, one which I’m not sure how to respond to.  I suppose that such a fact pattern COULD happen, but I’ve never heard of it.

Do we need to stop sending emails to clients (or only send them encrypted) (unless I’m mistaken, the American Bar Association has commented that they don’t think attorneys need to use encryption)?  What about postal mail…isn’t there a chance that your letter could be read by a postal employee, or misdelivered and read?  Do we need to only hand deliver letters from now on?  Where does it end?

I don’t know.

I’ll leave the comments open if any of you want to post (even anonymously) your own two cents.

Related Posts:

• How to perform a patent search
• Update to the “Guide to Downloading Patent Copies (PDF, TIFF)”
• Ambrogi on Patent/Trademark searching on-line

USPTO News — automatically sent to you

Over at rethink(ip) we had a recent post on RSS feeds for USPTO news. One thing we found was that lots of people are interested in the feeds, but few of them have RSS readers.

There are ways to subscribe to blogs (including this one) via email. For instance, I have a subscription box (as do most of the patent blogs) where you can enter your email address and receive a daily email with the day’s posts (if any). See "Subscribe" in the right hand border of this blog.

Over at rethink(ip) we did the same thing…we created a subscription form for our "All USPTO News and Notices" feed.  If you want to subscribe, here’s the "Subscribe box" :

If the blog(s) you want to subscribe to doesn’t make it easy for you by giving you a subscription form…there are a number of different blog RSS to email services out there (other than FeedBlitz):  BlogFlux, Rmail and BlogLet.  To use these services, you typically need to copy the RSS feed from the blog you want to receive email from.  To do that, scan the blog for these magic words (sometimes they are a button/icon):  “XML,” “FeedBurner,” “RSS” and/or “Syndication.”  Once you find the feed (or icon that represents the feed), right click that link/image and select “copy link.”  That link (and it should look something like this:  http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheInventBlog or http://www.ernietheattorney.net/ernie_the_attorney/index.rdf) can then be plugged into one of the above sites (FeedBlitz, BlogFlux, Rmail and/or BlogLet) to allow you to subscribe.  From then onwards, rather than visiting your favorite blogs every day to read them…you can instead check your email inbox for new content.

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RSS finds the Patent Office

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The Worldwide Intellecutal Property Law and Policy Blog

Matt at Promote the Progress recently posted on his desire to drastically change the format of his blog.  I just noticed that he has officially repurposed his Promote the Progress blog, choosing to focus on “Worldwide Intellectual Property Law and Policy.”  It is a great move and really focuses his blog into what he is the expert in.  While I do admit to deleting CSPAN from my channels at home, Matt’s Promote the Progress blog is a must read in by blog aggregator.

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Idaho’s Podcasting U.S. Senator

Too funny.  I just noticed that Senator Larry Craig’s (ID) website touts him as the “first U.S. Senator to offer his own podcast,” distributing his “Washington Report,” a 3-5 minute, bi-weekly audio program featuring news from Washington.  Not only does he have a podcast, but he has an RSS news feed.  More info.

If even Idaho’s Senator is using the technology…maybe you should consider the benefits of listening to legal podcasts.  See BlawgCast.com for more info on legal podcasts.

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PDF Patents…the Guide has been updated

My guide to downloading patent copies off the Internet has been updated:

PDFpatents.com.  Free (slow) or Register and pay as you go ($1/each or cheaper).

It amazes me how I am still finding new (to me) patent downloading sites almost a year after my original post.  I initially thought that the Guide would be finished within a few weeks…that the representatives of each of the various sites would have emailed me and immediately asked to be included.  It turns out that many of these sites seem to want to pretend that they don’t have competitors (especially "free" competitors like www.pat2pdf.org).  Well…as I find them I’ll keep adding them to the list (free sites may not be free forever).

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• The Guide to Downloading Patent Copies has been updated
• Downloading PDF Patents…Guide Updated
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Plan B for inventors

New inventor reading list:  Start Protecting Your Intellectual Property in 5 Simple Steps

Summary:  you should hire an IP attorney right off the bat, but if you can’t, do these five things.

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Free Law Practice Tips!

One great blog that I’m not sure I’ve ever mentioned is Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Tips Blog.  With posts like Microsoft Releases Word Redaction Tool, Paste Special- One of the best tips ever!, and Teaching Staff about Confidentiality, how can you go wrong?

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You need a Brain Dump

One of the best things I did this past year was create a Word document out on my server called “The Brain Dump.”  Onto the Brain Dump I “dump” every idea that pops into my head about how we could run our law firm better.  Some are good, some are bad, some are ugly.  Then, I regularly remind others in my Firm that the Dump is there, encouraging them to both read it and add their own ideas.

I’ll give you a couple (of the 50+ ideas) actual examples:

About once a month I get a client who says “why a power of attorney” when they sign the POA/Declaration…I think they are worried that POA means we can sell their children or something.  Maybe we need to tweak the language in the letter that explains what it is…maybe we need a separate sheet that goes with it that says “a POA means this…”

 

I think our patent search report letter should include an indicator of whether or not the patent is expired.  [One of our staff] knows how to quickly look it up… it is easy.  We just need to train staff and incorporate this concept into our next revision of the search report letter.

Yes, I know that the two “ideas” I chose to divulge are pretty simple, but even these simple ideas are important..  If something needs to be fixed or improved…write it down, even if you don’t have the time to fix it right now.  Then later (when we have time or feel like delegating tasks) we “Get ‘R Done.”

One missing link is that my simple Word document system really needs to be converted into something with an RSS feed so that when someone in the office adds something, the changes are sent automatically to all interested parties in the Firm. 

Now comes the part where I ask for help…I need a software solution for organizing the ideas.  Here’s what I need: 

• It must have an RSS feed
• It must be secure
• It must be user friendly
• I don’t want to mess with installing software on a server

Ideas???

Related Posts:

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• Forward This Post to Your Office Manager: Magazine Subscriptions