Where all do I look??

Could someone please tell me the best places to do research?? I use Google, and the U.S. Patent Office.

Are there other good places to do research on product ideas??

Lesia wrote:

Could someone please tell me the best places to do research?? I use Google, and the U.S. Patent Office.

Are there other good places to do research on product ideas??

Lesia, I want to apologize for no one answering your questions on a timley manner. Maybe we still have some glitches to work out.....

There are many sites and ways to search patents. The USPTO & Google are 2 of them. I use the USPTO more than Google, Google seems to be behind up to 3 months at times on newly issued patents. Patents are issued every Tuesday the USPTO is never behind unless for some reason they have a software glitch. I have never seen it happen but sure it can.
I also use freepatents online it's a user friendly search site. I have inventors ask me quite often which sites to use, once I get them on free patents online, give them a short lesson they seem to be able to search much easier. One thing that really helps them on FPOL is searching patent publications after the 18 month waiting period has ran out. They can click on a designated box and search publications by then selfs or search pulications & patents at the same time. I wouldn't suggest that medthod, it gets to confusing and makes for a long day... Your better off searching them separated. Just remember someone can elect to not have the pat app puplished. Theres nothing you can do about it. Its the nature of the beast.
I have helped 3 inventors become better at searching in the last 30 day,,,,,they are more productive now but have along way to go......

There are many search sites on the web to search. I will give you links below. Figure out which ones best fits and is user friendly for you. You need to learn how to manuver around in the sites to be productive. Practice, practice, and more practice will help you be productive in your searches. One thing I tell everyone is dont stay away from the site for long periods of time untill your able to remember how to manuver around easy.

http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/

http://www.google.com/patents

All sites below I have never used before.

http://www.patentstorm.us/

http://www.patentlens.net/daisy/patentlens/patentlens.html

I'm sure there are more Lesia, google and see what you can find....
Bill is one of our mentors maybe he can chime in on this subject with others.As a matter of fact I'm going to ask Bill a question today I need answered I cant figure out on my own..

Lesia I hope this helps you out. Have fun searching....

I might get around to elaborating at some point, but for now...

Patent searching:

www.freepatentsonline.com - slightly enhanced features compared to the USPTO's site.

www.sumobrain.com - I haven't used it but I believe it is the same as www.freepatentsonline.com just slightly better.

Google Patents - Great for pre-lim searching or "back checking." Best when used in conjunction with another site.

www.delphion.com - The best site (and most convenient) in terms of features/advanced search capabilities. Not free.

www.espacenet.com - Good if you need to search foreign databases not searchable via the other free sites, or if you want to use ECLA classifications to search patents (the international classification system is different than the US one, and in some searches an ECLA subclass or two might be more pertinent to a search than any US subclass). freepatentsonline/SumoBrain allow you to search WO/EP/JP, though, and those are the databases you will usually be concerned about. Delphion offers broad access and enables searching by ECLA classes and more.

www.patentscourge.com - This is a Google Custom Search engine set up by Criterion Dynamics (really, set up by me). As a tool for searching patents/patent apps it is only so so. It is a respectable resource for searching certain sources of non-patent prior art.

Market data -

Google - Google actually deserves to be listed as a research tool, as obvious or as pointless as that may seem. I will not be providing a free (or paid, for that matter) tutorial on how to best use it, but Google provides strong advanced search capabilities and can at times be more useful than research databases that some pay good $$ for.

Ebscohost - Basically a database of news/magazine/trade publication/etc articles and is quite possibly accessible online for free through your local library.

Factiva - similar to Ebscohost, Lexis Nexis, etc. It is very useful however when you factor its advanced search capabilities and overall ease of use. It is not cheap but they sometimes offer a free trial.

Census Bureau - The Census Bureau's site is a good place to find basic industry/demographic statistics. For an easy way of searching the site (and other market data on the web) - check tr.im/quickstatistics

Dun & Bradstreet (Selectory.com) - The best company listing out there. It is not free but they offer a free semi-functional seven day trial.

Reference USA - A lesser version of D&B possibly accessible through your local library.

I forgot to add - while Biznar.com is nothing overly special per se - it is worth a mention here as a pretty decent and completely free resource for market/business data.


- Bill
bill@criteriondynamics.com
www.criteriondynamics.com

First of all, Thank you both for the great advice!!

I certainly do not want to keep you, but there is one other thing that I need to know.....Should I check all of these on each and every product search?? Also, at what point do you feel that you have accomplished your research and are satisfied to stop??

Lesia wrote:

First of all, Thank you both for the great advice!!

I certainly do not want to keep you, but there is one other thing that I need to know.....Should I check all of these on each and every product search?? Also, at what point do you feel that you have accomplished your research and are satisfied to stop??

You should check whichever sites you feel you should check. You feel that you are done when you feel that you are done. Just use common sense..theres some kinda ratio of "potential usefulness" to "effort/investment required" and at some point its no longer worth it. Of course when you are conducting research it can be complicated because you don't know what you are looking for until you find it (or else you wouldn't be looking for it).

Of course, its not just time that's involved, its also what you are doing. If you are conducting basic keyword searches like 'golf ball' on the USPTO's site (or a different patent search site) you could spend months conducting searches without necessarily having done much of anything very worthwhile as there would be a good chance that you were still missing out on relevant patents/patent apps. You should make an effort to familiarize yourself with advanced search operators, language used in patents, classification systems, etcetera...If you lack a certain degree of familiarity or experience you should ideally be spending more time to account for that.