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 - 01:35:18