[SEL] Patents

[Rich Street]

Several folks have asked questions about patents so I thought a little
lesson in U.S. patents might be helpful to some.

 

1)       Go to the Patent Office site and read the page on viewing patent
images. http://www.uspto.gov/patft/help/images.htm

2)       You will need to download a special viewer program for your
browser, because older patent information is only in image form (not text).

3)       You can do a patent number search by going to
http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/srchnum.htm and entering the number,

4)       Or use this link format:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=    and simply type
the patent number at the end. For example to view #738992, you would have
the link read http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=738992 

5)        Once the viewer is installed, on the landing page simply click on
"images" to view the patent.

 

If you are handy with Excel enter a bunch of patent numbers in one column
and then in the next column paste special>text
"http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=" with NO quotes.

If you move to the next line and this turns to a hyperlink simply use the
edit>undo command to remove the hyperlink. Copy this cell down in the column
for all the patent numbers on your list. In the next column use the
concatenate formula to join the cells. I.E. = A2&""&B2 . Copy this down the
column. Highlight all of that column then hit copy and then paste special
and check values. You can then activate the hyper links by pressing enter
for each cell. You now have a spreadsheet that you can build a database of
patents on and have it hyperlinked to the actual patent documents.

 

Rich Street

Gig Harbor, WA

http://www.rstreet.us/modela/