US Design patents

Stephen Adams (stevea@magister.co.uk)
Sun, 20 Dec 1998 15:54:30 +0000

Dear all
Thanks for your various replies to my question about searching for
Design patents on the USPTO web site. Since some of you replied
directly to me and did not appear to copy your remarks to the list
server, I will summarise the findings below.
1) The bibliographic search page can be limited to design patents by
putting D* in the patent number field before any other criteria.
However, this doesn't work as cleanly in the full text search page; you
require at least 3 characters i.e. D+2 digits. If you use the
associated tables of year vs. publication no., you can locate the
appropriate 2 digits to input which match any date limitation which you
apply, but it's a bit clumsy if you want to search across the entire
date range.
2) If searching by classification, you can get a de facto limitation to
Design patents by using a D prefix class mark.
3) If you want to do a totally text-based search, I am advised that
searching the claims field for the phrase "ornamental design" will
"closely approximate" [sic] the desired result. This might not have the
desired degree of precision that online searchers are used to, but I
understand that the USPTO are looking into Document Type field limits
for the new year.

Thanks again to all contributors. And can I take this opportunity to
wish all my friends and clients of Magister over the past year, a very
happy Christmas.

--
Stephen Adams
Magister Ltd. - Patents Documentation Consultancy
62 Norton Road, Reading, RG1 3QJ, GB
Tel/fax:  +44 (0)118 926 7981
e-mail:  stevea@magister.co.uk


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