a). "
3. Abstracts - Difference between Derwent and USPTO abstracts etc. "
I'm certain most patent searches have encountered the "repeat treat"
phenomenon, viz., the filing attorneys from multiple assignees on multiple
inventions use verbatim the same title. I've seen this occur dozens of
times in a large set of U.S. patents. If one pulls a sample of such
recurrent patents from an unenhanced title database, which all U.S. patent
free collections are on the Internet, then compares the Derwent assigned
titles from the World Patents Index, or IFI's added keywords to the titles,
you will surely see value added. This issue is even more sharply drawn
when comparing verbatim patent abstracts, either from U.S. or EP/PCT
documents, with WPI abstracts of the same invention. I've even had a
senior patent attorney "dare" me to find one of his more cleverly obscured
inventions based on the Official Gazette content alone. Yet that is the
primary content available on a number of the FREE WEB sites. Compare the
purposes of the filing attorney, who often wishes not to draw too much
attention to an invention when it appears in the Official Gazette, hence,
the generic titles & abstracts, to that of an indexer/abstracter of a
commercial patent database producer, whose job is to assess the key
inventive feature(s) of a patent, then highlight that content in an
extended title, focused abstract, or use/advantage summary.
b). "6. What type of searches are appropriate for free vs commercial
databases."
I'd suggest several types of searches for initial conduct in FREE Web
patent databases vs. commercial files.
1). Citing/cited patent searches of U.S. patents. The ease & speed of
citing/cited patent searching on the Web sites, with the hyperlinked
structure, certainly allows you to leverage a known reference much more
cost effectively than the commercial files within the U.S. patents,
1975-date domain.
2). Searching for patents by a particular inventor or company that a
researcher has read about in a journal article. Here, though one gets a
great many false hits, at least you aren't paying $1-$3/reference for the
false drops. Inventor name searching syntax, when searching the complete
name, is no easier on the FREE WEB sites than in commercial online
systems, plus the FREE WEB sites don't allow EXPANDing or NEIGHBORing to
view what terms are posted in the indexes. Still, if asked to get a quick
listing of granted U.S. patents by a R&D candidate employee, or to get a
listing of patents assigned to a small company, the FREE WEB sites are good
places to start. Plus, if your e-mail supports hyperlinks, you can
actually embed the Web retrievals into an e-mail response to your client,
should they want to explore it any further.
3). Screening of newly issued U.S. patents to your known key competitors,
or monitoring your own newly issued patents, or monitoring the U.S. classes
in which most of your patents issue. The U.S. PTO's Web site's advanced
search form allows for easy pasting in of fairly elaborate stored searches,
and unlike most of the commercial services, is available the DAY OF
PUBLICATION in the Official Gazette. This is a remarkably COST EFFECTIVE
current awareness! If you must see a drawing from the OG as well as the
abstract, you can wait until late Thursday or Friday to search & view the
OG for FREE on the Micropatent site.
roy.zimmermann@medtronic.com
Patent Information Specialist
612-514-3304 FAX: 612-514-3233