Finding Key Words In A Patent

Some inventions are very visual. The patent search then usually takes the form of images comparisons. Other inventions are more textually descriptive. It can then become long and fastidious to read patents in order to find some key words or expressions.

Use your web browser to simplify and accelerate this task. Firefox, for example, offers a search option for finding words (ctrl-f). Firefox can search across a patent text file for desired words. It can also, if wanted, highlight all the showing appearances of specific words across a text.

For older patents, before 1976, Google Patents includes an optical character recognition search option. It will search all the recurring appearances of specific words across a patent file.

Key Words Searches

A patent search first starts with a good understanding of an invention. One must clearly grasp the innovative characteristics of an invention. This step is capital towards the selection of the keywords that will be used to start a patent search.

English is the main language of patents. Keywords are thus preferably expressed in English for a preliminary search on the Google Patents web site, for example. Keywords are used in diverse combinations in order to pinpoint and especially to reduce the number of patents that may relate to an invention.

The goal is to find one or a few key patents that are the most similar to an invention. If needed, use synonyms or more technical expressions. Once these key patents are identified, the patent search can really start using notably the American Patent Office web site.

Google Patents

There are many tools useful to make a patent search. One such simple tool is Google Patents. Google Patents offers many advantages: easy to use, free, includes powerful search capabilities. It is notably possible to conduct a patent search by using keywords amongst the earliest American patents, which is not possible on the American Patent Office web site.

Google Patents offers an optical character recognition tool that searches older digitized patent documents. This is particularly useful for relatively simple inventions of the mechanical type.

Affordable Patent Searches

Patent searching is a complex activity. It involves finding and analyzing patents that are related to a specific invention. It is not an easy process.

I am a consultant in intellectual property, and more particularly in patent searches. Relying upon 14 years of experience in the field, I have completed over 2,000 patent searches, thus acquiring an important expertise in the field.

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