Zimmerman’s Research Guide — Patents

Nice summary!

This entry is divided into three sections -
(1) Getting U.S. Patent Materials;
(2) Researching U.S. Patents
(3) Other U.S. Patent-Related Issues
“Other U.S. Patent-Related Issues” include: Arbitration, Applications, Families, File Histories, Litigation, Reassignments, Shepardizing and patent-related Web Sites.

Patents - U.S. - LexisNexis InfoPro - Zimmermans Research Guide

Related Posts:

• The Guide to Downloading Patent Copies has been updated
• Guide updated…now with patent searching resources and no trans fat
• PDF Patents…the Guide has been updated

Free, worldwide patent search site — NEW

PriorSmart.com

Related Posts:

• PDF Patent Site: PatentReader
• Googling for patents
• The Guide…updated

Calculating When A Patent Expires…

Hat tip Doug, Michael Neustel has a new site…PatentCalculator.com that allows you to input a patent’s filing date/issue date and determine the expiration date and maintenance fee dates.

See also “How to determine when a patent expires.”

Related Posts:

• Tool for determining patent terms
• How to determine when a patent expires.
• Did they pay the maintenance fees? Expired?

Google Patents Now with Published Applications, and Green Tea Extract

According to the Patent Librarian’s Notebook, Google Patents now includes published applications. A quick search confirms!

Related Posts:

• I Love Google! Google Patent Search goes live.
• PatentFizz now does Published Applications!
• AWOL Patents in Google Patent Search

Patent Pal Patent Searching Toolbar

PatentHawk points us to Patent Pal, a web browser toolbar for patent searching.  [hat tip Bill]

The Patent Pal is a free resource for the patent community. It contains over 20 unique patent related searches. These searches include Google Patents, FreePatentsOnline, Esp@cenet, WIPO, Pat2Pdf, the MPEP, and many more. You can see the list of available searches on the screenshots page. It also includes links to other useful resources for both US and foreign patent practice, such as links to every major patent office in the world. Those interested in taking the Patent Agent Registration Examination will also find useful links in the Exam menu. Finally, the Patent Pal provides a convenient interface for receiving RSS feeds from popular patent related blogs. 

Related Posts:

• Excellent tool for patent searching and research
• Links, links, and more links
• Free patent searching database and free pdf downloads

One bad apple…all practitioners suffer (The USPTO and Easy Access to Public Data)

One of my favorite quotes is:

The … right to criticize either by temperate reasoning, or by immodest and indecent invective, … is the ultimate source of (citizens’) authority. –Judge Learned Hand

That being said, I was thrilled to see Matt Buchanan’s new “opinions” page on his blog where he speaks his piece. For instance, in his latest post he tackles the USPTO’s recent incidents of limiting (or at least making less accessible) public data. Another example is the addition of the verification code in Public PAIR.

I presume* the USPTO took those actions to deal with a few data/bandwidth abusers, but am not thrilled that the data is less accessible to legitimate use by the public (and practitioners) than it used to be. One bad apple…

[*I say “presume” because I haven’t seen a public explanation posted anywhere (let me know if I missed it) from the USPTO explaining why they are changing things. Need to know basis, I guess…]

Related Posts:

• PAIR, now with an additional step
• Another site for patent searching
• Internet Access to Patent Application Files Now Available

PatentFizz now does Published Applications!

Matt over at PatentFizz has announced that PatentFizz is now starting to cover published patent applications. Very cool!

What can you do at PatentFizz? Oh, let me count the ways!
1. Download PDF copies of patents.
2. Download PDF copies of just the first pages of patents.
3. Enter a patent number and have all the relevant information for a patent on one page.
4. Check whether a patent is expired.
5. Leave comments (for instance, invalidating prior art) on a third party’s patents.
6. Automatically generate a weekly (delivered by email) report regarding patents issued in a class, to an assignee, etc.

Way to go Matt!

Related Posts:

• PatentFizz bubbles up a screencast — how to download patent .pdfs
• Did they pay the maintenance fees? Expired?
• Buchanan Times Two, CLE and Patent PDFs

PAIR, now with an additional step

Today, I noticed this gem when I went to access Public PAIR:

If it means that PAIR and TDR are less likely to be offline (which I’ve seen a number of times in the past month)…GREAT.

If it means that practitioners will have yet another impediment to easy access to government data…NOT GOOD.

Related Posts:

• Public PAIR/Recaptcha’s unintended consequences?
• USPTO Notice: New Version of PAIR
• USPTO Announces New Private PAIR Feature: Outgoing Correspondence Notification

Cool Patent Searching Tool: PatentScrounger.com

Neat way of patent searching…visually, by viewing the first pages of your search results:

www.patentscrounger.com

Related Posts:

• Free patent searching database and free pdf downloads
• Excellent tool for patent searching and research
• [UPDATE] Another patent tool: FireFox Search Bar & patent searching

A question for my readers: filling out 1449 (IDS) forms

One of my secretary’s biggest headaches is taking a pile of patents and from them generating an IDS (PTO-1449). While we use an IP forms program, it isn’t much more “automated” than a fillable PDF form.

The questions is…is there a better way of doing this? Are there other software options, preferably ones that take a list of patent numbers and automatically looks up the inventor name/issue date?

If not…would anyone find such a solution useful? (I have an idea…that could make it possible to create an IDS from a stack of patents in a matter of seconds…)

Thanks in advance for whatever insight you have.

Related Posts:

• How to detemine if a patent has been litigated over
• Question for my readers: Patent Drawings & Patent Attorney Names
• New USPTO IDS Regulations a Litigator’s Dream???????