1. Patent Information Tools
For Patent Assistance:
Joanne Tobin
Information Services Department

2. Intellectual Property
Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.
Industrial property, which includes inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs
Literary and artistic works

3. Patents

4. What Is A Patent?
A grant of a property right giving the inventor of “any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter or any new and useful improvements thereof” the right to exclude all others from making, using or selling the invention without his or her permission for the life of the patent for General Information Concerning Patents Washington, DC: Dept of Commerce, US Patent and Trademark Office, 1994.

5. Who Uses Patents?
Inventors--to perform patentability searches & protect their ideas

6. Who Uses Patents
Companies--to insure they do not infringe on existing patents as they launch new product lines
Investors--to estimate the intellectual assets of a venture

7. Who Uses Patents
Students and industry researchers--to see what others have done to solve a particular design need.
Historical and genealogical researchers--to learn of the development of a technology or an historical figure’s accomplishments.

8. Patent Criteria Timeliness--the invention must be new Uniqueness
Detail--the patent must reveal enough about how the invention works so that someone skilled in the field could reproduce the invention
Caveat--This requirement does not mean patent documents are easy to read, however.

9. Types of Patents
Utility Patents
Design Patents
Plant Patents

10. Examples of Patents: Utility
Process
Machine
Manufacture
Composition of Matter
Improvements on any of the above

11. Process Statutory Class
Chemical Reactions
Business Methods - Only computer programs that affect hardware or process
Manual Process - Must have a useful purpose

12. Pat. No. 6,393,436
Method for commercializing goods and services over a global digital network

13. Machine Statutory Class
Emphasis is on parts or hardware
Conventional machine patents on automobiles, boats, photocopiers.
Software Machines - can be claimed as a process or a machine statutory class

16. Manufacture Statutory Class
Things made by human hands or machines
examples - erasers, books, chairs, floppy disks....

18. Composition of Matter Statutory Class
Chemical compositions, conglomerates, aggregates, supplied in bulk in solid, liquid or gaseous form
examples - all chemicals, soap, drugs, road-building compositions

21. Result of Tamiflu Search

22. TAMIFLU

23. Improvements on Any of the Other Statutory Classes
Discovery of a new use for something that is very old.
example - you discover that a machine that you use to clean venetian blinds can also be used to plant seeds

26. MORE EXAMPLES OF UTILITY PATENTS

27. Thomas Edison
Phonograph
Patent # 200,521
1878

28. Henry Ford
Motor Carriage
Automobile Chassis
Patent # 686,046
1901

29. Samuel L. Clemens
Suspenders
Patent # 121,992
1871

30. Abraham Lincoln. Manner of Bouying Vessels.
Patent #6,

31. WILL YOUR INVENTION SELL?
A patent does not guarantee commercial success.
Consider factors affecting marketability such as cost, novelty, ease of use…
Build and test a working model

32. Fire Escape
#912,152

33. Pat on the Back Apparatus
Pat. No. 4,608,967
Pat on the Back Apparatus
Ralph R. Piro
1986

34. Fire-Escape

36. Examples of Patents: Plants
Asexually reproduced distinct and new variety of plant

37. PP12, Melody Dixie

38. Examples of Patents: Designs
Patent protection for only the appearance and not structural or utilitarian features
Subject matter may relate to the configuration or shape of an article, to the surface ornamentation applied to an article, or both

39. Auguste Bartholdi
Statue of Liberty
Patent # D11,023
1879

40. Congressional Medal of Honor
Patent # D37,236
1904

41. Design Patent D82,802
1930
W. E. Disney
Toy or Similar Article

43. Hair Dryer
Design Patent #D302,868

44. Where to Access Patent Info
CASSIS II (USPTO CD ROM product)
Commercial databases listed on GTEL Website.
Pub West – database supplied by US

45. Key Sections of a Patent
Title
Inventor
Claims
Assignee (Not all patents are assigned)
Summary
Current U.S. Class
Cited References
Drawings

46. Cited References US patents Foreign patents Journal articles
Technical Reports

47. Methods to Research Patents
Keyword searching (will not retrieve all relevant patents)
Class and subclass searching - best way to search.

51. Searching for spacecraft

52. Index to Manual of Patent Classification
Subclass
Index to Manual of Patent Classification

53. Manual of Patent
Classification
Hierarchal
SYSTEM

54. Manual of Patent Classification
Hierarchal
SYSTEM

55. Class 244

56. Class 244

57. Class 244

58. Class 244
Subclass Def.

59. Patents back to 1790 for 244/156.8 (orbital control)
Titles included back to 1976

60. Key Parts of A Patent Front Page
Title
Key Parts of A Patent Front Page
Filed Date
Class

61. Patent No. 6,459,206 Continued

62. Patent No. 6,459,206
Journal articles
Conferences

63. CLAIMS

67. Patent # 6,459,206 B1

69. What The Examiners Search

70. Patents Search Template for Class 244

71. Design Class

72. Skycrane Landing System

74. Skycrane Landing System

78. Pre Grant Patents For
Class 244 subclass 158.6

79. Inventor Dean Kamen

80. Searching by Inventor Can search by inventor name back to 1976
Pre 1976 – need to search by class and subclass

81. Can Search Any Field

82. Lockheed Martin Patents

84. Worldwide Patent Searching

86. Search Results

88. How to Access Full Text Images
Download AlternaTiff Software
found on USPTO website OR
Go to
Go to Google.com

99. Trademark Infringement

101. BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF GEORGIA DBA GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

102. Advanced Search

105. Suggested form choice

108. Questions? 404-894-1395 joanne.tobin@library.gatech.edu