A patent is a legal right to exclude others from the commercial exploitation of a novel, useful, and non-obvious invention. Patents are granted by a government agency for a limited term, in exchange for the public disclosure of the invention and its workings. The US government agency that grants patents is the US Patent and Trademark Office.
General information concerning patents
The USPTO's plain-language overview of patents and the patenting process.
Note: the recommended browser for these tutorials is Chrome.
Most patent information is openly available online. Patent databases and search engines vary by breadth of contents, national or international coverage, basic interfaces and advanced search tools.
1. Search by classification.
The most effective way to search for patents for a specific area of technology is to identify the most relevant groups in the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) scheme.
Recommended: search Google Patents by keyword > find a patent in the right technological area > review its CPC "Classifications" > run new searches for each relevant group (e.g., "F03D7/0236") > combine CPC classes and keywords.
Other strategies:
(a) ask an AI tool for examples of CPC groups for x technology - but beware of hallucinations!
(b) browse the full CPC Scheme listing all CPC groups - Graham is available to assist with this.
2. Search by field.
Patent fields include inventor, assignee (owner), and patent number. Field searching is most useful for finding a known patent or patents held by a known person or corporation.
A. After a patent expires, can someone else patent the same thing?
B. How much does it cost to get a patent and how long does it take?
C. If there's the smallest detail that someone wants to change about a product, does that mean they can get a patent for it if the rest of the design is the same?
D. Why is such obtuse language used to describe technical details?
E. What would happen if you filed for a patent around the same time as another group with a similar design?
F. How often do people believe they have invented something only to find out there is a patent for it already? Is this still infringement?
