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Ch E 499X: Applied Industrial Research

Guide to library resources for students in Ch E 499X, including patent (IP) and literature searching, and reference management.

How to find patents

What are patents?

In the U.S., a patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the Patent and Trademark Office. The right conferred by the patent grant is “the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling” the invention in the United States or “importing” the invention into the United States. What is granted is not the right to make, use, offer for sale, sell or import, but the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the invention.

Because patent documents contain highly technical and oftentimes obfuscating language, it can be difficult to locate relevant patents especially if you do not know the patent number or inventor's / assignee's name. Keyword searching alone will only get you a small part of the full scope of patent documents related to a particular topic. Happily, modern search tools are making it possible to search for patents much more easily.

Basic search strategies

Keyword searching

Keyword searching is probably the most familiar search strategy, since this is typically what we use when searching for other types of documents. This strategy finds patent documents containing the word(s) you entered, and sometimes common variations on those words. It is impossible to do a comprehensive patent search using only keywords.

Assignee or inventor searching

This involves searching for the person who invented the item being patented, or for the company that has been assigned the patent rights (assignee or owner). The inventor can waive their right to be named in the patent document, so this is not a foolproof method even if you know the inventor's name.

Classification searching

Precision searching using a patent classification system, typically Cooperative Patent Classification scheme (CPC). These systems organize patents hierarchically based on what they are about or for. If you know the classification for the type of item you're interested in, you can quickly locate all patents for that type of item regardless of language used.

Patent families

The USPTO defines a patent family as "the same invention disclosed by a common inventor(s) and patented in more than one country." Patent family information can help you track down additional relevant resources by locating additional patent documents, other items citing those patent documents, etc.

Search tools

For more help with patent searching

Contact your librarian for more help with patent searching. A librarian can help you develop search strategies, navigate a CPC search, and more.

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Lorrie Pellack
Contact:
Head, Research & Instruction Services Dept.
150c Parks Library
Ames, IA 50011-2140
Phone: 515-294-5569