Guide to International patent searching

The following is a simple step by step guide to conducting a basic international patent search using the internet.

Step 1 - Select an appropriate database to search

Conducting an international search necessarily means a database will have to be selected that has coverage of multiple countries. Esp@cenet provides access to a database comprising a collection of world patent documents. The USPTO (US Patent and Trademark Office) provides access to US granted and pending patent applications. Google Patent Search also provides very user-friendly access to US granted and pending patents.

Step 2 - Decide how best to get the information required

A patent subject matter search can be approached in a number of different ways. Direct searching can be done using keywords in the title or abstracts. Alternately, as all patent documents are classified according to the International Patent Classification (IPC), this can be used to retrieve relevant documents.

Other less direct methods can be used to retrieve information. For example, if a particular patent applicant or inventor name is known, documents in these names can be selected.

In some circumstances, a combination of approaches may be the most suitable method. For example, a keyword search may be combined with an IPC search.

Step 3 – Conduct the search

Having decided how to retrieve the required information, the search can be conducted by entering search terms into a query for a database. Esp@cenet uses both simple and advanced search forms for this purpose. For example, the term "motor" could be entered into the Title or Abstract field on the form. A couple of important things to note here are:

• a search should be conducted, initially, as broadly as possible. It can then be narrowed. Narrowing can be achieved by adding other keywords or other limiting factors such as an IPC or publication date; and
• for keyword searching, all word or term variations need to be used. For example, in Australia we make a type of confectionery called "fairy floss". A search for a machine that makes this would include these terms. However, in the USA, this confectionery is called "candy cotton". These terms would need to also be included or results would be missed.

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