Re: [PIUG List] Summary: requirements for becoming a professional patent searcher

When I used to provide training in searching (at Amoco, we had one of only a
couple of successful end-user training programs), I compared searching (and
hunting for synonyms, alternative concepts, etc.), to a TV game show.
Instead of "Beat the Clock", searching was "Beat the Indexer". Extended to
patent searching, it becomes "Beat the (patent) Author".

Re the example of diamonds, one meaning of "adamantine" is diamond-like,
yielding the name for adamantane, that wonderful C10H16 hydrocarbon, the
structure of which is the diamond unit cell. Hence, when searching for
"diamonds" also include "adamant..." stems.

-- Bob Buntrock
Orono, ME



----- Original Message -----
From: "Adrienne Shanler" <shanlera_at_optonline.net>
To: "PIUG Discussion List @ Listbox" <piug_discussion_list_at_v2.listbox.com>
Sent: Monday, September 01, 2008 5:45 PM
Subject: Re: [PIUG List] Summary: requirements for becoming a professional
patent searcher


>I also want to add a flexible, devious mind.
>
> Patent searching is an art as well as a science and doing the background
> work is extremely important.
>
> I look at a patent as hiding something in plain sight. The invention is
> frequently referred to using an unusual designation or name or described
> in nonstandard or unusual terms. The name can be an old name or one used
> only within that organization. For instance, I was interested in a gene
> that was referred to as a certain kD size ORF, not by name, gene,
> function, EC number, reaction, etc. I found it using a BLAST search but
> the text search also retrieved relevant answers not in the BLAST search
> (and vice versa). A second example is a US patent that described a set of
> polypeptides in terms of only binding properties. It was very broad and
> extremely vague and from the 1990s. I finally figured out it was trying
> to patent antibodies in general.
>
> As an exercise, how would (or could) you describe a diamond or alternately
> call a diamond?
> --carbon crystalline lattice formed under heat and pressure
> --transparent, colorless coal
> --substance able to scratch glass
> --stone frequently found in engagement rings
> --Markush set of zirconia, moissanite and similar entities
> etc.
>
> Adrienne Shanler
> shanlera_at_optonline.net
>
>
>
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Received on Tue Sep 02 2008 - 23:42:54