A SIMPLIFIED PROCEDURE FOR SEARCHING UNITED STATES CHEMICAL PATENTS J. G. PREMO National Aluminate Corporation, Chicago 38, Illinois
research laboratories whose interests are diversified and have limited budgets for purposes of patent searching often fail to find pertinent United States patents on a particular subject which could have profound bearing on the course of future research. This situation is not confined to industrial research laboratories, but is believed to be commonly found in the research programs conducted by such institutions as private foundations, colleges, and universities. Patent searching has often been deemed the sole prerogative of professional searchers who operate from the Patent Office, where access may be had to classified compilations of U. S. patents. The average researcher usually believes a quick scanning of Chemical Abstracts for pertinent articles will give him a sufficient background for the start of a research project. Frequently, the most pertinent sources of information in specialized fields of technology exist primarily in U. S. patents and, if these valuable sources of information are hastily glossed over, there is a good chance that duplication of known technology will result. Most mell-equipped chemical libraries contain a complete set of Chemical Abstracts. By using standard bibliographical procedures, it is relatively simple to find one or two pertinent U. S. patents dealing with the particular subject in question. Once such patents have been found, it then becomes an easy matter to discover the majority of other pertinent patents dealing with the subject under investigation. Since February 4, 1947. every U. S. patent contains a list of the references cited against it during its prosecution history. These references are usually other U. S. patents, but many times the references include articles, foreign patents, and other types of references which bear upon the subject matter of the patent. If one or two recent patents are available on a particular topic, it is a simple matter to order one copy of each of the references cited against these patents and to study them for pertinency to the problem a t hand. Quite often it will occur that only a few of the references will be pertinent, with the rest being ancillary to the particular subject involved. I n this case it would be desirable to order the references cited MANY
VOLUME 35, NO. 7, JULY, 1958
against the subsequent patents that were found pertinent. Thus, by continually bark-ordering, it is possible t o obtain a chronological picture of the development of a particular field mith a minimum of effort. The more patents discovered in the initial search of Chemical Abstracts the greater will become the probability of unearthing the complete history of the subject under study. It is, of course, extremely desirable that d l the patents listed by Chemical Abstracts be used as a starting point for the back-ordering process. A good test for an indication of the completeness of the search is wheu the references backordered begin to be duplicated. Prior to February 4, 1947, the references cited during the prosecution of a U. S. patent were not listed a t the end of the patent, but they may be obtained by writing the Patent Office. The charge for this service is nominal plus the cost of the referenres ordered. By using the system and method outliued above, it is possible to obtain much valuable informatioil regarding a particular field of technology. When a complete set of patents have been obtained, they will be helpful not only to the research worker during the development of a particular project, but also will be of invaluable assistance to the patent attorney in the event a patentable inventiou results from the research program. This method of chemical patent searchiug is by no means deemed to be infallible. It canuot be a suhstitute for an extensive search in the fles of the U. S. Patent Office. But the small sum required to search the patent literature in this way is rewarded mith valuable information that sometimes would not be obtained with a search conducted by a professional aearcher using Patent Office facilities. To conduct these searches, all that is required is a set of Chemzcal Abstracts, patience, and a deposit account with the Patent Office which contains sufficient funds to bear the cost of ordering U. S. patents, photostats, and the like. When used properly, this system becomes a simple, routine operation which can be followed through with a minimum of effort.
