Free Mexican Patent, Trademark, and Design Search Tools: VIDOC and SIGA

Patent search professionals will mainly rely on subscription patent databases to locate worldwide patent prior art, but sometimes full-text versions of documents or specific bibliographic/legal status data can be quickly located for free through the online services available on intellectual property office websites. IP office websites also often offer a wide range of additional search options for other types of intellectual property, such as trademarks, industrial designs, and even copyright records.  In past posts, I’ve reviewed the free patent and IP search resources available on a variety of IP office websites, including the intellectual property offices of France, Singapore, and Sweden.  In today’s post, I’d like to give a brief overview of the patent, trademark, and design search options available through the website of the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI). In particular, the IMPI website offers VIDOC, a search tool for locating the detailed record and related full-text documents for a variety of Mexican intellectual property records, including patent and trademarks.  SIGA is another service accessible on the IMPI website that allows users to create queries through a variety of search forms in order to locate records from the Mexican Industrial Property Gazette.

Read on for a description of the broad search and display options for Mexican patent, trademark, and design records accessible through various online services within the IMPI website, including VIDOC and SIGA.

A Free Online Portal of Swiss Intellectual Property: Swissreg

I’ll admit, my interest in exploring the online search portals for various intellectual property office websites has gotten a bit out of hand. From Hungary to Singapore, I’ve taken a world tour of the many innovative websites that offer free access to a broad assortment of intellectual property records, ranging from utility patents and industrial designs to trademark and copyright records. This obsession for exploring worldwide IP portals has even created an entire section on Intellogist dedicated to patent authority websites.  I recently visited the free online IP search portal for the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, called Swissreg, which allows users to search through data on Swiss patents, trademarks, designs, SPCs, and even topographies.  This portal offers a variety of fielded search forms for each intellectual property type (except topographies), and users can view bibliographic details and legal status information for each IP record.  Links are also provided for patent results to the full documents accessible on Espacenet.

Continue reading for an overview of the coverage, search, and display options on the Swiss IP search portal Swissreg!

The 3 Best Ways to Find Google Search Product News

In 2012, I discussed some of the best websites for locating database updates and search platform news.  A network of blogs and websites exists that caters specifically to professional searchers and IT specialists, and these sites discuss the latest updates to popular patent and non-patent literature search platforms.  The websites for specific database and search systems also often list the latest news about their respective search platforms, although these press releases are usually rather promotional in comparison to the more objective search engine news sites.  One specific search platform mentioned frequently on these sites is both highly utilized and highly controversial within the prior art search community: Google.

Google produces a number of useful products that often provide a good starting point for patent and non-patent literature (NPL) prior art searches, such as Google Scholar, Google Books, and Google Patents.  Users should remember, however, that Google is not the end-all resource for prior art searches.  Both free and subscription patent and non-patent literature (NPL) databases exist that contain specialized collections of patent records, scholarly journal articles, etc. that aren’t accessible at all on Google.  The Google search algorithm will also never replace the human strategy, technical knowledge, search skills, and multilingual knowledge of professional patent searchers. Just as a machine translation tool like Google Translate can’t replace the knowledge and comprehension of a professional human translator, Google search products can’t replace the expertise and strategy of a professional searcher.  Google is just one of many search resources in the patent searcher’s tool belt.

Keeping that caveat in mind, Google products still provide an excellent starting point for scoping out relevant prior art (especially non-patent literature), so searchers should stay up-to-date on the latest Google news and product releases.  After the jump, learn about three techniques for finding the latest Google search news!

Patents to defend us against meteors

It seems we can’t go a single column without mentioning some sort of apocalypse. We had a bacon-apocalypse, the Mayan apocalypse, and now we have a potential apocalypse due to a large chunk of meteor flying across the sky in Russia recently, caught on numerous dashboard cameras, injuring over a thousand people due to the shockwaves. Now everyone knows that Russians put cameras on their dashboards to catch footage of cows being dumped from a truck that tips over (go to 3:01 mark), but who would have thought that technology would be used to capture what could have been the destruction of a part of Russia had the meteor impacted the Earth at a more direct angle. Since the world is largely ill-prepared to deal with a much bigger object headed toward the Earth, we need to turn to our heroes to save the day.

Here are some patents that might help us in the fight against meteors:

5 Unique Ways to Refine or Expand Result Sets with EBSCO Discovery Service

EBSCO Industries has developed a number of innovative search tools accessible on its flagship platform, EBSCOhost.  For instance, EBSCOhost offers a unique visual search option which we profiled in a 2011 blog post. EBSCO also produces the EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS), a customized index of an institution’s information resources (catalogs, institutional repositories, full-text subscription databases, etc.) that gives users access to the content through a single search form.  EDS also includes access to the EDS Base Index, which provides metadata for a wide range of materials, ranging from journals and conference proceedings to CDs and DVDs. EDS uses a technology called “platform blending” to provide relevant results from a variety of subject indexes (which the user must be subscribed to on the EBSCOhost platform).  The platform blending technology allows users to search by the subject headings from controlled vocabularies through the EDS platform.  Professional patent searchers may find this tool to be a useful way to efficiently search all of their organization’s non-patent literature resources through a single flexible interface.

I recently had the opportunity to test EDS, and I was particularly impressed by the variety of tools which the search platform offered for refining or expanding result sets within both the initial search form and the hit list.  EDS includes options to limit the search by discipline, subject, or content provider, and integrated searches and widgets may be used to expand the number of results.   After the jump, learn about five different ways users can expand or limit their result set on EDS!

Don’t Fall Prey to “Awkward” Patent Claim Translations

Applying for patent protection in a foreign jurisdiction can be fraught with difficulties every step of the way. If not handled properly, translating the patent application from its original language to that of the target jurisdiction can lead to huge problems that could come back to bite you down the road, sometimes to the tune of millions of dollars in lost intellectual property protection.

Recent news out of the Northern District of Georgia provides even more evidence of the fact that shoddy patent claim translation can result in reduced intellectual property rights. According to an article on Lexology:

In a case between KEG Kanalreinigungstechnik GmbH and KEG Technologies, Inc. (“KEG”) and Reinhart Laimer, Sewer Equipment Corporation, USB-Sewer Equipment Corporation, Ulrich Simpfendörfer, USB-Duesen, USB-Sewer Equipment International GmbH, Patrick Savio, Daniel Long and Elke Krantz (“Laimer”) over patents drawn to “hydrodynamic nozzles” for cleaning the inside surface of underground sewer pipes, Chief Judge Julie Carnes appointed Special Master Gale R. Peterson of San Antonio, Texas to preside over the Markman claim construction hearing and submit a report and recommendation on claim construction to the Court.

The patent applications in question were originally filed in Germany and then translated to English and filed in the United States. The Special Master concluded in his report that:

some of the claim language is “awkward” as a result of the translation.

Furthermore:

Laimer contended that some of the claim terms and phrases are beyond “awkward,” and instead are “unintelligible” and render the claims indefinite and invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 112(2).

The report stated:

although the master finds the claims amenable to construction, that does not necessarily mean that the claim passes muster under § 112(2). That is a question for another day.

Although the parties agreed on constructions for some of the terms and phrases of the asserted claims, the Special Master recommended constructions for the other disputed claim language as well. This is yet another example of a poor translation preventing an applicant from getting the exact protection they were seeking.

One bad document translation can cost a company dearly, and this has been clearly demonstrated again by Special Master Peterson. Gale R. Peterson is also a faculty member of Patent Resources Group, the leading provider of U.S. patent bar review and advanced U.S. patent law education, and a fully-owned subsidiary of Landon IP.

How can you avoid a bad patent translation ruining your business?
Customers should only consider professional technical translators who possess an in-depth knowledge of the patent process and the relevant technical art when choosing who will translate the patent documents they intend to use to file an international patent application. Landon IP is a leading provider of patent translation services and other patent-related services, including patent search, and advanced patent law training (Patent Resources Group).

Search Reports, Patent Documents, and File Histories from Brazil through e-Patentes

Professional patent searchers will often need to search for both patent and non-patent literature (NPL) prior art on a global scale during an exhaustive validity search.  Multilingual search capabilities, access to a wide range of both free and subscription patent and NPL databases, and the knowledge and skill to thoroughly search these systems are all necessary components for a successful global prior art search. Patent search provider Landon IP offers the most thorough global prior art searches available, thanks to a team of highly skilled multilingual patent search professionals who can skillfully utilize a range of patent and non-patent literature search systems from around the world.  The in-depth search system information available through Intellogist provides a glimpse into the global prior art search resources which Landon IP searchers utilize on a daily basis.

For example, today we’ll take a quick look at a free resource listed on Intellogist called e-Patentes, which can be used to locate PDF copies of Brazilian patent documents, as well as the search reports and file history papers related to these Brazilian patent records.

Read on to learn about e-Patentes, one of many global patent search resources described on Intellogist!