5 Patent Searching Databases that a Patent Attorney Should Know About

It is always advisable for innovators and companies operating within the intellectual property ecosystem to get patent protection for their unique innovations (s). Their relevant national patent office provides this protection. But for a patent application to be approved, the inventor must ensure that the rules and/or criteria for patentability established by the patent office are met. The technology asserted in the patent application must not already be used; it must also be innovative and non-obvious to qualify for patent protection.

The quickest and easiest method is to navigate the top patent databases, which compile all patent data in a way that makes it simple to search across many criteria.

What is a Patent Searching Database, and how does it work?

A patent searching database is an online tool that helps inventors, intellectual property experts, and legal professionals quickly and reliably find results throughout the patentability search process. Additionally, intellectual property law firms frequently assist creative people and companies by conducting searches of these well-known patent search databases to find pre-existing prior art in the form of patents.

These databases shorten the time needed to gather information, analyze potentially pertinent results, and provide a report you can utilize.

Five Patent Searching Tools That You Should Know About

1. Google Patents

Google developed this free intellectual property search engine in 2006 and it is regarded as one of the most innovative. Since only a few patent-searching software programs do an exhaustive novelty search for potential patents, it is an essential piece of software for intellectual property legal firms. Because of this, it is wise to verify with Google Patents again. You may get started by putting the required patent name into Google Search. The first result is frequently a direct link to the patent itself. The enormous Google Patents database, which has 87 million patents in total, contains patents from countries including the United States, China, Japan, Korea, and Europe.

2. Espacenet

One of the complete IP search databases currently available is this one. It combines the resources of patent organizations from over 98 countries in one location. This free IP searching database allows intellectual property law firms to provide their client’s superior services.

More than 110 million patents in Espacenet’s database are accessible to the public through its website. Consequently, it can address some of the most difficult problems that intellectual property law firms go through while conducting searches for patent inventiveness and prior art.

The Smart Search, Advanced Search, and Classification Search capabilities included in this IP searching database allow users to do IP address searches. The Advanced Search tool is helpful for intellectual property law firms when seeking patents on a certain subject area since it allows searching by publication number, application number, priority number, inventor’s name, and publication date.

3. The Lens Org

All patent attorneys should be aware of The Lens Org, one of the first online databases for finding patents. It is an open database that incorporates data from the leading patent authority in the world, including the European Patent Office, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (EPO). It includes bibliographic information on patents from the European Patent Office (EPO) dating back to 1907 (more than 81 million documents), USPTO patent applications from 2001, USPTO patents (granted) from 1976, more than 14 million USPTO assignments, EPO grants from 1980, WIPO patent applications from 1978, and IP Australia full-text patents.

The Lens Organization offers a wide and comprehensive database to search and several forms of metadata searchability, including expanded patent family sizes in addition to publication, filing, and priority dates. The database is useful for patent attorneys looking for a user-friendly, easily accessible global patent database for their clients. You may search for your region’s lapsed, abandoned, or expired US patents using the INPADOC patent status and family information service. In PDF format, graphical trees may illustrate patent families visually.

Additionally, the website lens.org has a dynamic chart feature that might be useful in information analysis.

4. PatentScope

PatentScope is a free online patent search engine by the World Intellectual Property Organization. This browser-based patent searching database, available online, now contains full-text copies of all international Patent Co-operation Treaty (PCT) applications. The patent papers registered under the authority of the other collaborating regional patent administrations have also been included in this database.

5. Design View

You may look up design patents using the free online database DESIGN View. This database was introduced by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in 2012, and its use has increased since then (EUIPO). You may search this database, which has over 16,941,630 registered designs from 72 cooperating national offices worldwide. Users will value how simple it is to use the interface of this database. The basic or advanced search options can be used to focus the search. This database also makes it possible to compare designs side by side. Additionally, it supports 37 languages, enabling patent attorneys to search for patents in the language they feel most at ease.After reading this blog post, it should be obvious that patent search databases can significantly reduce the turnaround time for searches. The same technology may help patent attorneys streamline their research, efficiently review important patent papers, and reach the best conclusions.