Hermes_Trismegistus - 29-4-2004 at 16:01
The U.S. patent office is not set up to allow for searching with keywords; patents dating before 1975.
So, I have been reduced to following the trail of reference patents back to God.
and my searches end with so many false starts it looks like the family tree for the whole of humanity.
Any suggestions?
BromicAcid - 29-4-2004 at 16:06
You can find patents from a modern day that correspond to what you want and from there you can get the CCL numbers that relate to those kind of
patents. You can search earlier patents via CCL number in the advanced search area. From there you can go here and search for exactly what the CCL number means and other things in the vacinity of it. So once you have the CCL number that is kind of the
master key. Although I think really early patents, 1830 and earlier do not go by the same CCL number classification as these are the earliest patents
I find.
Espacenet
Turel - 30-4-2004 at 06:22
http://gb.espacenet.com
If_6_was_9 - 1-5-2004 at 08:05
Look at where the patent is classified. Look up the class and subclasses and search the relevent subclasses, just like what I've done for the
past fifteen years. It works.
[Edited on 1-5-2004 by If_6_was_9]
If_6_was_9 - 2-5-2004 at 12:58
Use the link Bromic gave you to look at classes and subclasses:
http://www.uspto.gov/go/classification/
Another thing you can do is use the patent number as a keyword to search for patents. This gives you patents that give it as a reference. This is
called a forward search. If you find some good patents that way, look at the references listed in those patents and look at the patent classification
and search relevant classes and subclasses.
To view patent images at uspto.gov you need a TIFF browser plug-in. See
http://www.uspto.gov/web/menu/plugins/tiff.htm
I use Alternatiff
http://www.alternatiff.com/
[Edited on 2-5-2004 by If_6_was_9]
If_6_was_9 - 2-5-2004 at 13:38
You can even go to the US patent office to search. There is a new database available to the public (really two databases). Its a lot faster than
using the internet. They're getting rid of the paper patents now and putting everything on computer databases.
[img]http://www.sciencemadness.org/scipics/uspto1a.jpg [/img]
They even have foreign patents.
[Edited on 2-5-2004 by If_6_was_9]