Using U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) website to find issued patents (patents that have issued) and published applications since 2001 (published applications have not necessarily issued as patents). Foreign patents and other references are relevant. Infringement is a separate issue.
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Visit The USPTO Website
http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html - The issued patents are on the left and the published applications are on the right. Issued patents and published applications are held in separate databases and must be searched separately. You may search using quick, advanced, and patent number search engines.
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Searching “Up and Down”
Once you have found a "relevant reference," search for additional references that have been cited by the relevant reference AND for additional references that refer to (are "referenced by") the relevant reference. When you access recent patents online, the "references cited" are listed and linked directly thereto. There is also a “referenced by” link.
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Searching By Classification
Search by Current U.S. Classification Class/Subclass (you can access older issued patents). You can find the Class and Subclass by finding a similar relevant patent reference or by using the U.S. Manual of Classification (http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/classification/). This is important because full text searches may only be done on patents that issued since 1976 and on applications published since 2001. Patents issued between 1790 and 1975 may only be accessed using the patent number and the current U.S. patent classification, but the full-page images of these patents are available.
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Further Patent Searching
For particularly relevant references, search for other patents/publications by the same inventor, assigned to the same assignee, or having the same title. You can also check the continuity data of issued patents at http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal/pair.
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Search the Web and Other Sources
Some foreign patent references may be obtained from http://www.uspto.gov/web/menu/other.html and http://www.epo.co.at/espacenet/info/access.htm. For purposes of "patentability," all references are relevant. Search the web. Read trade publications. Visit stores and competitors' places of business.
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