If you are performing an online patent search you can improve your search effectiveness with two simple techniques.
First, enter your buzz words in the search engine and see what comes up. Pay particular attention to the vocabulary used on other patents that arise in your initial search. Use the same vocabulary to search more patents using those same words. Often, when Patent Agents write a patent application they look at competitive patents for terms commonly used in reference to that type of invention. Therefore, patents in a similar category will tend to have similar terms and phrases.
Second, once you find patents that are anywhere similar to your idea using the buzz work search, go to the 'Citations' and 'Referenced By' sections listed on that patent. These are patents that are considered to be relevant to that patent. You can open those patents and see if any of them are relevant to your idea.
Monday, September 21, 2009
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