Website based patent information searching mechanism

International Journal of Computer Engineering
International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976 – 6367(Print),
and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976Sep6367(Print)© IAEME
ISSN 0976 – 6375(Online) Volume 1, Number 2, – - Oct (2010),
ISSN 0976 – 6375(Online) Volume 1
IJCET
Number 2, Sep - Oct (2010), pp. 180-191 ©IAEME
© IAEME, http://www.iaeme.com/ijcet.html

WEBSITE BASED PATENT INFORMATION SEARCHING
MECHANISM
L. Chandra Sekaran
Research Scholar
Anna University Coimbatore 641046
E-mail: lcskaran@gmail.com
Dr. S. Balasubramanian
Research Supervisor
Anna University Coimbatore 641046
E-mail: s_balasubramanian@rediffmail.com

ABSTRACT
Patent information comprises of extensive information accumulated over a long
period of time. It is technology information enabling the acquisition of new information
in relation to idea collection and research progress when searching for new R&D themes.
Also, exclusive right is protected over a specified period enabling the prevention of
entrance by competitors, and as a right to receive royalties through license agreements it
is a means to create management profits through royalty revenues and prevention of
overlapping research by determining the technology & merchandizing trends of
competitor corporations. It should be utilized and managed as management information
to secure product competitiveness using the monopolistic market control over the period
for which the right is valid.
Key Words: Patent Information, Novelty Search, Validity Search, Patentability Search,
Bibliographic Search, Assignment Search, Right Termination Search, Patent Map.
1. UTILIZATION OF PATENT INFORMATION
A very broad description might be that a patent search is the process by which
prior inventions or ideas are examined, with the goal being to find information that bears
close similarity to a given patent or proposed invention.
1.1 Usage in Technology Development
period of time, so it is technology information enabling the acquisition of new
information in relation to idea collection and research progress when searching for new

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ISSN 0976 – 6375(Online) Volume 1, Number 2, Sep - Oct (2010), © IAEME

R&D themes. Although the technology is announced after 18 months in accordance with
the application announcement system, it enables determination of technology trends and
standards of similar firms in a particular field, and makes possible the theme selection,
discovery of missing technology, and adjustments in development process of one’s firm.
1.2 Usage of Rights Acquisition & Utilization
When constructing the specifications, one’s own scope of right can be confirmed
by taking the rights details and prior technology of other firms into consideration, and a
decision in relation to patent acquisition can be reached. Patent rights of other companies
can be obstructed or their scope of right reduced through information provision,
submission of objections, invalidity judgments etc.
By acquiring a patent, exclusive right is protected over a specified period enabling
the prevention of entrance by competitors, and royalties can be received by permitting the
right to exercise to other companies in accordance with license agreements. When
providing the right to exercise to another company, a corresponding right to exercise can
be gained from that company in a cross-licensing arrangement.
1.3 Utilization in Management Information
It is a means to create management profits through royalty revenues and
prevention of overlapping research by determining the technology & merchandizing
trends of competitor corporations. It should be utilized and managed as management
information to secure product competitiveness using the monopolistic market control
over the period for which the right is valid.
2. CATEGORY OF PATENT SEARCHING
The following category of Patent Searching is given below:
• Searching by International Application Number
• Searching by Subject
• Finding Company Information with Patents
3. PATENT WEB SITE
There are several different ways of searching for patents on the web. The two
major patent web sites recommended by the S&E library are the Delphion Intellectual
Property Network and the United States Patent and Trademark office (USPTO). The
Delphion site has complete patents from 1974 until the present in an image format, plus

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some patents issued during 1971-1973. The U.S.P.T.O Patent Database covers 1790 to
present and provides the full image of each patent as well as bibliographic data and
"front-page" information. The U.S.P.T.O allows you to use several different fields
making this the ideal database for in-depth searching.
Table 1 shows the evaluation pattern of patent searching
Search Options Delphion U.S.P.T.O
Date Range 1974 – Present 1790 - Present
Searchable Fields • all fields • all fields
• title • title
• abstract • abstract
• assignee • assignee name/city/state/country
• inventor • inventor name/city/state/country
• agent • primary examiner
• claims
• patent number
• other references
• issue date
• U.S. references
• application date
• patent number
• international classification number
• current U.S. classification number and many
more!
Link to Full Patent Image YES YES
Link to Prior Related Patents YES YES
Link to Subsequent Related Patents YES YES
Cross Searching with International YES NO
Patents
4. PATENT SEARCH TYPES AND METHODOLOGIES
There are many different types of patent searches, including Novelty searches
(also called Patentability searches), Infringement searches (also called Clearance,
Freedom to Operate, or Right To Use searches), Validity searches (also called Invalidity,
or Enforcement Readiness searches), and State of the Art searches (also called Collection
searches). Each type of search has a different purpose, and demands a different search
strategy.
• Novelty Searches
• Validity Searches
• Infringement Searches
• State-of-the-art searches
4.1 Novelty Searches
The Novelty search, also referred to as a Patentability search, is the most common
type of patent search. Novelty searches are conducted when an inventor has an invention

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which he is interested in patenting, and wishes to determine if anyone has previously
invented anything similar or identical. Novelty searches generally have no date
constraints on the prior art. In other words, if you find prior art that reads on the
invention, it does not matter whether the prior art is from yesterday or 100 years ago - it
is relevant. The reason for this lack of date constraints has to do with patent law:
Anything that has already been disclosed to the public, in any manner, at any time, cannot
be patented.
4.2 Validity Searches
The idea behind a validity search is that the Patent Office may have issued the
patent (or allowed specific claims contained in the patent) in error. Examiners are pretty
good at what they do, but they are not infallible and they are often operating under severe
time constraints. They may have missed a relevant piece of prior art, and this resulted in
them granting a patent with claims that never should have been allowed. The situation
with a Validity search is often that a company has made a product that infringes upon
another company's patent, and they are being sued as a result. One way to win an
Infringement case is to invalidate the patent in question. If a patent search can locate prior
art that reads on the claims of the patent in question, those claims will be struck from the
patent. The patent owner then loses his legal right to sue over products that would
infringe on those claims.
Whereas a written description of the invention forms the basis of a novelty search,
validity searches are done on existing patents, and that patent will serve as the disclosure.
Note that with a Validity search, the idea is to find prior art that is relevant to the
validity of the CLAIMS of the subject patent. Read that again: the CLAIMS. Not the
general idea. Not the entire patent, but each claim, one by one. As a result, this is
normally a more time-consuming search than a novelty search.
A successful Validity search finds references that the Patent Office missed (you
might think this is rare - but it is not), and thereby provides evidence that the claims
should have been disallowed on the grounds that someone had already come up with the
invention before the patent in question was filed. Pay close attention to the word "filed".
The application filing date is very important in Validity searches because it determines
the priority date (sometimes called a "get behind" date, for reasons that should become

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apparent) of the patent. It doesn't matter when a patent issued - it matters when it was
filed. You must prove, for each claim, that inventions were known which were so similar
to the claim in question, before the filing date of the present patent, that the claims should
not have been allowed.
Let's use a fictional example to illustrate what we mean:
U.S. Patent 9,999,999, in Claim 1, claims a computer chip that is faster and
generates less heat than any other chip on the market. The patent was filed for on
1/1/2002, and granted on 2/1/2003.
In searching the prior art, you find two pieces of prior art that contain information
which is very similar to claim 1 of the subject patent. Piece "A" is an article from a
computer magazine, dated 11/01/2001. Piece "B" is a patent which was filed for on
4/1/2002 and issued on 12/1/2002.
Which of these references is relevant? The answer is "A". Piece "A" came before
the filing date of the patent in question. Although Piece "B" issued before the patent in
question, it was not filed before the patent in question. Only the filing date matters,
because that documents who conceived the invention first, not who got it through the
approval process the fastest.
In general, when conducting a Validity search you do not cite any prior art that
has already been cited on the front of the subject patent. This prior art in listed on the
patent because it has already been reviewed by USPTO examiners and, since the patent
was granted, the examiners obviously felt that those references were not similar enough
to the invention at hand to stop the patent from issuing. In some cases the examiners may
have been wrong, but proving that is an uphill battle as compared to finding prior art of
which the examiners were unaware.
Note that while it is the CLAIMS of the subject patent with which we are
concerned (in other words, we are searching on the claims), the art cited may come from
anywhere (just like in a Novelty search). Relevant art does not have to be from the claims
of other patents.
Let's now revisit the idea of dependent and independent claims. Remember our
fictional example where Claim 1 read "A lighter, more aerodynamic design for a bicycle

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rim by using an oval cross-sectional shape", and Claim 2 read "The rim of Claim 1 where
the cross-sectional piece is formed from aluminum?".
If you were doing a validity search and you had to prioritize finding prior art to
invalidate one of these claims, which would you choose?
If you find prior art that invalidates Claim 1, then there is no oval rim to be made
of aluminum! Claim 2, being dependent on Claim 1, is destroyed by destroying Claim 1.
For this, and other reasons, independent claims are normally the targets in a Validity
search - it is more efficient to try and invalidate independent claims because you
automatically get the dependent ones in the process. You will know a claim is
independent if it has no reference to another claim in it.
4.3 Infringement Searches
Also called "Right-to-Use Searches", "Clearance Searches", or "Freedom-to-
Operate Searches", the point of this type of search is to prove that a proposed product or
invention does not violate any active patents (or conversely, to at least be aware that it
does, and make the appropriate business decision).
Keep these things in mind for an Infringement search:
1. You are normally only searching patents. Non-patent literature is normally not
necessary, since the issue is whether or not the client would infringe an in-force patent.
2. You must carefully read the Claims of each patent you find that might be relevant.
Remember, it is the Claims, not the descriptions found elsewhere in a patent, which
determine what it would take to infringe that patent.
3. Only in-force patents are of concern, so make sure you limit your date range to the last
20 years.
As we have already stated, Infringement searches are generally conducted by
trying to prove that no in-force patents exist with claims that would cause the client a
problem.
But, what if you are confident that such an invention or patent already does exist,
but it is over 20 years old? A viable alternate in some very specific cases might be to try
and prove that the invention is in the public domain, and therefore safe to use. This would
be done by showing that the invention had at one time been disclosed, but that the
disclosure occurred over 20 years ago.

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4.4 State-of-the-art searches
The term "State-of-the-Art Search" often means different things to different
people. Therefore, if you are a professional patent searcher it is crucial to understand
what the client is asking for before beginning this type of search (as it is with any search,
but perhaps more so here). Generally, a State-of-the-Art Search is designed to quickly
allow someone to see what is currently being developed in a given field. During such a
search, the searcher picks patents representative of a specific technology, but does not
cite every patent having to do with the technology, as there would be a great deal of
redundancy. However, sometimes a client may want each and every patent on a given
technology. This type of search is more properly called a Collection Search, but the terms
are often used interchangeably.
Before we talk about the specifics of different patent searches, we need to define a
very important patent searching concept: the "disclosure". The disclosure refers to the
document which explains the invention or concept on which you are going to search.
Depending on the search type, and your role in the patent search process, the disclosure
may take different forms.
If you are an inventor conducting your own search, you might not have a
disclosure at all. You might just have an idea in your mind as to what you are looking for.
If you are a professional patent searcher, you will likely have a disclosure from your
client or employer. If you are an inventor and have not written a disclosure, we suggest
you do, even if just to get your own thoughts in order - it will help you search more
effectively.
The disclosure for Novelty searches and Infringement searches describes the
proposed inventions or products. The disclosure may be anything from informal
document with rudimentary sketches of the invention to a complete patent application
with professional drawings, or even an existing patent.
Based on the disclosure, you should be able to answer this question: What are the
novel points of this invention? The reason for this is that you are going to be searching
for prior art relevant to the aspects of the invention that are novel - which is not
necessarily the entire invention.

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For instance, given a disclosure about a bicycle with non-slip pedals, the points of
novelty might be the particular shape of the pedals, or the materials that the pedals are
made of, or some type of locking mechanism that keeps your feet from coming off. Of
course, the disclosure may talk about bicycles in general, and the diagrams may include
pictures of entire bicycles, not just pedals. That does not mean that any patent about
bicycles is relevant. You must understand which features are common knowledge and
simply present to put the invention in context versus which features are potentially
patentable.
In a State-of-the-Art Search, the objective is often to find out what other people in
the field are doing. A State-of-the-Art search may not be based on a specific invention at
all, but rather the disclosure may simply be something like "Find all patents that discuss
the use of magnesium alloys in bicycle frames".
The disclosure for a Validity search will normally be an existing patent. You will
be given a patent number, and you will need to look the patent up, read it, and thoroughly
understand the patent - particularly the Claims.
While disclosures may take different forms depending on the exact situation, it is
always imperative that you know what you are looking for. It will save time, help make
your search results concise, and help ensure that you do not miss anything relevant
4.5. Bibliographic Search
As the researcher is already aware of the patent number and the inventor’s name,
the research can be conducted very simply and quickly. The point of this kind of research
is to find out what is protected by a particular patent number, and what patent is
possessed by a particular patent. Bibliographic search can be performed as personal
background search, history search, and chronological search.
4.6 Patentability Search
Patentability search is the most general. This search is to determine whether it is a
subject that can be patented, whether it is valid, whether it is original, and whether it is
self-explanatory. Therefore, it is advisable that the patentability search be conducted
before the development of the invention. The purpose of this search is to determine
whether a prior patent (prior technology) exists. The inventor can search useful prior data
in preparing for patent application. The search of invention ideas or prior technology in
relation to patents already applied can enable the application decision after confirming

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the possibility of acquiring the rights, and is the most fundamental utilization method to
widen and strengthen rights acquisition by enabling the adjustment of the claim.
4.7 Continuing Search
Continuing search is also called monitoring search and is mainly used to
determine patent trends in the interested filed or competitor trends. It also includes the
monitoring search of legal status etc. in relation to a specific case.
4.8 Assignment Search
When a patent is assigned to another person or company, it is the same thing as a
sale despite the use of other terminology. For example, whether it is an individual or a
company, the buyer is called the assignee and the seller, such as the investor, is called the
assignor. The purpose of this search is to determine the legal owner of the relevant patent.
4.9 Rights Termination Search
Unlike the infringement search which focuses on non-terminated patents, this
search focuses on terminated patents. This search determines the potential legal outcomes
of reproducing processes, products, and designs of other companies of which the
exclusive rights have been terminated.
4.10 Patent Map
This is a search of prior patent information in relation to new generation R&D
using various types of patent information utilization methods. It is a precise and
comprehensive method which can even be applied to highly advanced utilization methods
and is used for the purposes of technology information utilization for technology
development trends, technology extension situations, competitor trends, market
participation potential, product development flow, and determining technology scope &
the utilization of rights information for patent acquisition potential etc. through
collection, extraction, analysis, and mapping of relevant data to enable the setting of
R&D direction, overlap investment prevention, missing technology discovery, prior
prevention of patent disputes etc. by determining the proliferation status of the
technology.
5. WHO NEEDS A PATENT SEARCH?
There are many possible reasons for need a patent search. Some examples are listed
below:

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• An inventor would like to make sure his invention is unique before he spends time
and money to obtain a patent (this would be a Novelty search).
• A company would like to produce a product, and although they do not wish to
patent the product themselves, they want to make sure that they do not get sued by
someone else that might have already patented the idea (this would be an
Infringement search).
• Company A is making a product, and is being sued by Company B, which
believes it holds a patent on the product, and Company A would like to prove that
Company B's patent is invalid (this would be a Validity search).
• A researcher would like a comprehensive listing of the most recent patents in a
certain field, to help guide his research (this would be a State-of-the-Art search).
6. SYNTAX EXAMPLES OF PATENT RESEARCH
Data Element Description
Find all documents containing the word 'cat' in any of
cat the main text fields (title, abstract, or
specification/description).
Find all documents containing the word 'cat' in only the
ABST/cat
abstract.
Find all documents containing both the word 'cat' and
the word 'dog' in any of the main text fields (title,
cat AND dog
abstract, or specification/description). The two words
may be in different fields.
Find all documents containing the word 'cat' in the
ABST/cat AND dog abstract, and the word 'dog' in any of the main text
fields (title, abstract, or specification/description).
ABST/cat AND APD/1/1/2000->1/1/2005 abstract which have an application date between Jan 1,
2000 and Jan 1, 2005.

title, but do not include any documents which have the
TTL/cat NOT dog
word 'dog' in any of the main text fields (title, abstract,
or specification/description).
Find all documents that contain either the word 'cat' or
the word 'dog', and which also contain either the word
(cat OR dog) AND (leash OR fence) 'leash' or the word 'fence.' Note that without the
parenthesis this query would be interpreted in an
entirely different manner.
Find all forms of the word 'electroplate', including
[with word stemming on] electroplate
'electropated', 'electroplating', and 'electroplater.'

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Find all documents containing the word 'cat' within 5
words of 'dog', in any of the main text fields (title,
"cat dog"~5
abstract, or body). The 5 may be replaced with any
whole number.
Cat is 5 times more important to the relevancy of
documents than dog. Find all documents containing the
Cat^5 OR dog word 'cat' or 'dog' but, all other things being equal, rank
the documents containing cat higher. The "5" may be
replaced with any whole number.
Find all documents containing words starting with
electron* electron like electron, electrons, electronic, electronics
etc
Find all documents containing words that has only one
Su?
character after 'su' like sub, sun, sum etc
7. FIELD ABBREVIATIONS
Field Code Field Name Syntax Example
ABST Abstract ABST/"cardboard box"
APD Application Date APD/1/1/1790->1/1/2001
APN Application Serial Number APN/000001
AC Assignee City AC/"New York"
ACN Assignee Country ACN/JP
AN Assignee Name AN/"Doe John"
AS Assignee State AS/NY
ASEX Assistant Examiner ASEX/"Doe John E"
AGT Attorney or Agent AGT/"Doe John E"
ACLM Claim(s) ACLM/"cardboard box"
CCL Current US Classification CCL/100/50
SPEC Description/Specification SPEC/"cardboard box"
PRIR Foreign Priority PRIR/1/1/1990
FREF Foreign References FREF/JP1234567
ICL International Classification ICL/G06F019/00
IC Inventor City IC/"New York"
ICN Inventor Country ICN/JP
IN Inventor Name IN/"Doe John E"
ISD Issue Date ISD/1/1/2000
IS Inventor State IS/NY
OREF Other References OREF/"Cardboard Box"
PARN Parent Case Information PARN/1234567
PN Patent Number PN/1234567
PEX Primary Examiner PEX/"Doe John E"
TTL Title TTL/"cardboard box"
REF US References REF/1234567

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CONCLUSION
period of time. It is technology information enabling the acquisition of new information
in relation to idea collection and research progress when searching for new R&D themes.
Also, exclusive right is protected over a specified period enabling the prevention of
entrance by competitors, and as a right to receive royalties through license agreements it
is a means to create management profits through royalty revenues and prevention of
overlapping research by determining the technology & merchandizing trends of
competitor corporations.
REFERENCES
1. “From invention to commercialization” Intellectual Property Office, 2002
2. www.kipo.go.kr Intellectual Property Office
3. “Patent search guide using the internet” Intellectual Property Office, 2001
4. “Patent map guide” Intellectual Property Office, 1999

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