Patents and Trademarks: Patents
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What are patents and why do they exist?
- A patent is federal protection for inventions registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
- Patents help protect inventions by "excluding others" from making, selling or offering for sale, using, and importing into the US.
- Patents can be owned by individuals or organizations - usually an invention developed while working for an organization belongs to that organization.
- Patents do expire at fixed terms, unlike trademarks that can be renewed indefinitely.
- Patent applications can be provisional (cannot become a granted patent) or non-provisional.
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What are the different types of patents and how long can they last?
- Utility Patents (20 years): most common type of patent that protects function (process, machine, composition, manufacture)
- Design Patents (15 years): protects design of an article of manufacture
- Plant Patents (20 years): protects asexually reproducing distinct varieties of plants invented or discovered
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What can be patented? Patents must be:
- Real, not a theory: someone could use
- Clearly described with how to make and use
- New or novel: cannot be something that already exists
- "Non-obvious" in context of something already invented
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What is not patentable?
- Ideas, laws of nature, physical phenomena (no one can "own" gravity!)
For more basics see: uspto.gov/patents/basics/essentials
(image credit: USPTO)
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Brainstorm search terms: determine related terms like synonyms or other names for the item (shoes might also be called footwear).
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Search Patent Public Search and other US patent databases: Patent Public Search is USPTO's official database plus other databases might be useful like Dimensions. Make sure to format your search string appropriately for each database.
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Review the results found above that are similar to your invention, including all parts of the patent such as the drawings and claims. Make sure to organize your results and keep track of what you review!
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Expand the search with CPC classifications and review the new results. Be sure to use the manual as needed and look into training options too.
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Check cited references that will be listed for each patent for more possible similar inventions.
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Broaden your search with international patent and discipline-specific databases, reviewing new results.
For more details review USPTO's Multi-Step strategy that includes links to more resources.
Let's say you're looking to get a patent for your new flying car that your company has designed here in the USA. It is capable of vertical take off and landing plus is powered by completely renewable energy (like a certain movie franchise from the late 1980's)... Probably you'd like to protect how it flies - take off, landing, flight. How would you get started?
(image: NASA.gov)
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Brainstorm search terms:
- Car: car, automobile
- Flying: flight, flying, aerial
- Vertical capabilities: VTOL, "vertical landing", "vertical takeoff", "vertical take-off" (VTOL = Vertical take-off and landing)
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Develop your search string and conduct a keyword search in selected databases
- Search string: (car OR automobile) AND (flying OR flight OR aerial) AND ("vertical landing" OR "vertical take-off" OR "vertical takeoff" OR VTOL)
- Keep in mind that search results can include patent applications, but this string results in around 2,200-2,300 patents found in both Dimensions (filtering for US patents) and Patent Public Search
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Review the results found above that are similar to your flying car, including all parts of the patent. You might use a citation manager or other systematic method to review your results after exporting.
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Expand the search with CPC classifications and review the new results - in this case if you've been following developments in flying cars, you might look up existing patents from Alef Aeronautics to help. You find they have a couple patents and looking up one (ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=US-11485490-B2).
- CPC classifications found: B64C3/18, B64C25/32, B64D27/24, Y02T50/60, B64C3/385, B64C3/26, B64C39/062, B64C3/14, B64C3/187, B60F5/02, B64C25/06, B64C2003/142, B64C29/02, B64C39/066, B64C2009/005, B64C37/00
- Which covers:
- B64: AIRCRAFT; AVIATION; COSMONAUTICS
- Y02: TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
- B60F: VEHICLES FOR USE BOTH ON RAIL AND ON ROAD; AMPHIBIOUS OR LIKE VEHICLES; CONVERTIBLE VEHICLES
- These all have relevancy to your invention, so you'll need to pick the most relevant ones out of the categories and add to your search. Example of picking a group and subgroup out of classification.
- Dimensions: search to group or subgroup level
- (cpc_group:B60F5 OR cpc_group:B64C3/14) yields around 520 patents in search
- Patent Public Search: can search similarly as in Dimensions to group or subgroup level
- (B64C3/14.cpc. OR B60F5.cpc.) yields around 560 patents in search
- Dimensions: search to group or subgroup level
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Check cited references, such as for US-11485490-B2 mentioned above: includes other US and foreign patents plus a NASA publication
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Broaden your search with aerospace databases and international patent databases such as:
- AIAA Aerospace Research Central
- Espacenet
- Dimensions - filter for all except US patents
- Lens.org
There are 5 main categories as you go from your idea through maintaining your patent (see details on USPTO's Patent Process Overview):
- Prepare to apply (focus in this guide!):
- What kind of IP protection (patent or others)?
- Is it patentable?
- Search for existing patents
- What kind of patent?
- Cost?
- International protection needed?
- Do you need a lawyer?
- File application
- Create your USPTO Account
- Prepare provisional or non-provisional application
- Pay fees, submit & wait
- Application prosecution - patent examined
- Receive your patent
- Maintain your patent via fees based on type and entity
- USPTO Patent Public SearchPatent Public Search is USPTO’s new comprehensive patent and patent application search tool that replaces PatFT and AppFT. Patent Public Search covers all US patents and published patent applications from 1790 to the present. Users can customize the search interface, explore full patent documents and export results to a spreadsheet. **Note: Interface is designed for Chromium-based browsers and some functionality may be lost if using other browsers.
- Dimensions PlusDimensions Plus indexes more than 100 million publications, ranging from articles published in scholarly journals, books and book chapters, to preprints and conference proceedings. Dimensions Plus is an extensive and fully interlinked database with publications, grants, patents, clinical trials, datasets and policy documents. 1600s to present.
- Lens.orgSearches patent and scholarly publication data, with over 100 million patent records across 95 jurisdictions world-wide, and over 200 million scholarly records from PubMed, Crossref, and more. Many filtering and search options with advanced boolean functions, structured searches, classification searches and more. Lens.org also includes options for searching biological sequences included in patents.
- European Patent Office EspacenetSearch for information about published patent applications from over 80 different countries and regions (not just in Europe). Based on the PCT minimum documentation, which is defined by WIPO as the minimum requirement for patent collections used to search for prior-art documents for the purpose of assessing novelty and inventiveness.
- Google PatentsGoogle Patents indexes the full text of U.S. patents available through the U.S. Patent Office. Use the Advanced Patents search page to search by criteria like patent number, inventor, and filing date. Full text available in PDF. 1790-present.
- PatentscopeSearch over 100 million patent documents from WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), which includes over 4 million published international patent applications. Create a free account to access additional features for searching chemical compounds and downloading larger search records.
- Free Patents OnlineSearches patents worldwide, including Japanese abstracts, European patents, US patents and patent applications. Has download and export options and supports advanced searches.
- Derwent Innovations Index from Web of ScienceDerwent Innovations Index indexes citations, abstracts, and full-text patents from 40 worldwide patent-issuing authorities. You can view concise abstracts written by subject experts, then link to full-text primary records of patents from a range of full patent sources. 1963-present
- Plant Patents Image DatabaseFrom UMD, scanned color images for US Plant Patents and links to USPTO. Can search by number, title words, inventor name or patent classification code.
- Biosis Citation Index from Clarivate AnayticsBiosis indexes journal articles, conference papers, books and book chapters, and patents on all areas of life sciences including molecular and cell biography, pharmacology, endocrinology, genetics, neurosciences, and ecology. You can perform cited reference searches. 1926-present.
- Engineering VillageEngineering Village is the search interface to three engineering databases: Compendex, Inspec, and Knovel. Compendex (1884-present) indexes citations and abstracts from over 5,000 engineering journals, conference papers, books, patents, dissertations, and technical reports. Inspec (1898-present) indexes citations and abstracts from journal articles, conference proceedings, books, and dissertations in engineering and physical sciences. Knovel provides ebooks on engineering and related subjects.
- FSTA: Food Science and Technology AbstractsFood Science and Technology Abstracts indexes citations, abstracts, and full text from journal articles, conference proceedings, books, legislation, patents, reports, and theses and dissertations on the medical and biological aspects of food and nutrition. Full text is available as HTML and PDF. Coverage includes human and pet foods. 1969-present.
- NASA Technical Reports ServerNTRS indexes citations, full-text documents, and multimedia content from NACA and NASA publications and research reports. Content includes conference papers, journal articles, meeting papers, patents, research reports, theses and dissertations, images, movies, and technical videos. Full text available as PDFs. 1903-present.
- CAS SciFinder-nCAS SciFinder-n, produced by Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), is a comprehensive database for chemical literature, searchable by topic, author, substances by name or CAS Registry Number, or use the editor to draw chemical structures, substructures, or reactions. CAS is a core research tool for chemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, nanotechnology, physics, environmental science and other science and engineering disciplines. Registration is required. For details, please contact Kat Brown, katbrown@vt.edu.
- ReaxysReaxys indexes citations, abstracts, full text, and cited reference for journal articles and patents in inorganic, organometallic, and organic chemistry. Search the usual text fields, or draw chemical structures to find matching citations. 1771-present. For some functionality, registration/login is required. (Use your VT email address)
- IEEE XploreIEEE Xplore contains full text documents from IEEE and IEE journals, transactions, magazines, ebooks, letters, conference proceedings, standards, and IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology) publications. Full text content is provided as PDFs.Full-text journals back to 1884, conference proceedings back to 1951.
Note: IEEE Xplore includes patent citations, not filterable in searches for patents.