Lost the address of the patent search page. Need it badly and can't seem to get it to work when going thru the home page. (?) What am I doing wrong or is it geezerdom?
"H"
HELP!!!
Easy, old timer! They usa changed the URL recently:
http://patft1.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.htm
Your geezerdom has nothing to do with it.
http://patft1.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.htm
Your geezerdom has nothing to do with it.
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drexelantiques
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Alternate site
Harvey, I use the patent office site sometimes, but I have found the following site much easier to use, and faster once you get used to it:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/index.html
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/index.html
That's a handy site if you already have the pat. number or if you are searching for patents issued later than 1975. But I'm not sure you can do actual "searches" for earlier patents on the site. Punching in a number and bringing up a specific patent isn't really a search. If you have an older reel in hand, and you understand how some specific feature works, the labyrinthine USPTO classification scheme is just about the only way to go. For example, the majority of fishing reel patents are included in Class 242/subclass370:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/classi ... efs242.htm
The subclasses are defined by how the inventions work, so you have to do a little thinking before you attack your search this way.
Here's an example. You have an unmarked Kopf reel with his lever-operated clutch, and you want to find if it was patented and, if so, the patent itself. You understand that the crank turns a gear train that can be interrupted when the lever shoves the main gear sideways, away from the pinion. So you go to 242/370, then sub-subclass 223, "Fishing Rod Reels." Scanning the subclasses, you find that subclass 257 contains reels with "disengagable drive components." So you look for a subclass of 257, and Bingo! yay-banana There's subclass 263, which includes reels "wherein the drive mechanism includes a pair of engageable torque transmitting elements ["gears" in reel life], at least one of which is the drive element shiftable in a radial direction to interrupt the positive torque transfer."
Sounds good, eh?
Open subclass 263, make a guesstimate of the reel's age, and peek at the earlier patents in the list of 80 until you find the one that describes the reel in your hand.
I'm not sure there's a way to do a search like this anywhere but on the USPTO site.
http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/classi ... efs242.htm
The subclasses are defined by how the inventions work, so you have to do a little thinking before you attack your search this way.
Here's an example. You have an unmarked Kopf reel with his lever-operated clutch, and you want to find if it was patented and, if so, the patent itself. You understand that the crank turns a gear train that can be interrupted when the lever shoves the main gear sideways, away from the pinion. So you go to 242/370, then sub-subclass 223, "Fishing Rod Reels." Scanning the subclasses, you find that subclass 257 contains reels with "disengagable drive components." So you look for a subclass of 257, and Bingo! yay-banana There's subclass 263, which includes reels "wherein the drive mechanism includes a pair of engageable torque transmitting elements ["gears" in reel life], at least one of which is the drive element shiftable in a radial direction to interrupt the positive torque transfer."
Sounds good, eh?Open subclass 263, make a guesstimate of the reel's age, and peek at the earlier patents in the list of 80 until you find the one that describes the reel in your hand.
I'm not sure there's a way to do a search like this anywhere but on the USPTO site.
As far as I know, the only way to search early patents by date would be to narrow down your search to a few subclasses, then check the patents from around that date. You can get some idea of the range of patent numbers issued on a given date by trial and error or by estimating from other patents issued around the same time.
The problem with this stuff is that only the post-1975 patents have been digitized in a searchable text format. The earlier ones are images, and whatever might be needed to search text in a digitized image just isn't available on those sites. Some kind of optical character recognition program capable of searching through umpteen million images would be needed, and it would have to come up with results sometime during our lifetimes.
If they ever get around to digitizing the Patent Gazette in searchable form, life would be easier. Then you could search the annual index for names, dates, keywords, etc., and come up with brief descriptions of the inventions.
If I'm wrong about these searching problems, I hope someone will let us know about better search methods.
The problem with this stuff is that only the post-1975 patents have been digitized in a searchable text format. The earlier ones are images, and whatever might be needed to search text in a digitized image just isn't available on those sites. Some kind of optical character recognition program capable of searching through umpteen million images would be needed, and it would have to come up with results sometime during our lifetimes.
If they ever get around to digitizing the Patent Gazette in searchable form, life would be easier. Then you could search the annual index for names, dates, keywords, etc., and come up with brief descriptions of the inventions.
If I'm wrong about these searching problems, I hope someone will let us know about better search methods.
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drexelantiques
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Steve, it is more powerful than you think, you can search by dates too, and can call up images of much earlier patents. You just have to click around and learn how to reach those functions. It is much easier for most folks to use who do not know how to use the conventions of the patent office search which is pretty technical. It is so much faster that I usually will use it first, then if I need more detail go to the patent office site. It just appears that it doesn't do enough at first.
USPTO site
Thanks for the new address Steve. And also thanks Jeff. Will try that site as well. Bad Bob (needs all the guidance he can get!)
I'm not so sure.
Steve, I'm impressed by your knowledge and familiarity of the USPTO system. Your explanation makes it almost seem worthwhile.
Until now, I'd have been willing to dismiss it outright as completely worthless piece of antiquated proprietary junk. But all you guys say it is great, so maybe I'll give those sites another chance.
My vehicle of choice has always been Espacenet's international system, allowing you to search any country's database, or several together, by any search word, with complete documents, with any incomplete search criteria, OR by a variety of more sytematic flow-chart techniques similar to as outlined above. Reels incidentally are in international class A01K.
Try this as a jumping-off place:
http://orcaonline.org/images/pixel.gif ... vanced.hts
Steve, I'm impressed by your knowledge and familiarity of the USPTO system. Your explanation makes it almost seem worthwhile.
Until now, I'd have been willing to dismiss it outright as completely worthless piece of antiquated proprietary junk. But all you guys say it is great, so maybe I'll give those sites another chance.
My vehicle of choice has always been Espacenet's international system, allowing you to search any country's database, or several together, by any search word, with complete documents, with any incomplete search criteria, OR by a variety of more sytematic flow-chart techniques similar to as outlined above. Reels incidentally are in international class A01K.
Try this as a jumping-off place:
http://orcaonline.org/images/pixel.gif ... vanced.hts
