Want to see what an examiner might find? Try the USPTO Patent Public Search Tool.
US patent examiners are a skeptical lot. Their job is to find reasons to reject patents. To do this, they initially assume that any new patent application is either prior art or an obvious combination of different prior art references. The USPTO equips the examiners with various computer search tools to help them find this prior art. Until recently, these included: PubEAST (Public-Examiners Automated Search Tool), and PubWEST (Public-Web-Based Examiner’s Search Tool). Examiners also search US and international patent applications and patents as well.
Previously, the only way that the general public (anyone who is not an examiner) could access these tools was by physically traveling to a patent resource center! Since there are only a few patent resource centers in the US, these search resources were thus effectively out of reach to almost everyone. So patent applicants were forced to guess what an examiner might find by using other types of search engines. These were better than nothing, but the results were not the same.
Now everyone can search like an examiner:
Fortunately, the USPTO has now decided to open up their search process to everyone. On February 1, 2022, they announced the Patent Public Search Tool. This allows online access to the USPTO examiner search tools for patent applicants, attorneys, investors, and competitors.
The system allows for simple queries, allowing you to search for inventors’ names, filing dates, and assignees. It also allows you to enter more complex logical queries (e.g., AND, OR, NEAR, WITH) and search selected parts of the patent literature such as the patent Abstracts, Claims, Brief Summary, and Detailed Description.
The system has many other excellent features, including:
- Highlighting: It can automatically annotate patent images with colored markers that highlight where your search terms fall.
- “Keyword in context” shows where your search terms are falling within the patent text
- Preserving a record of your search history
- Tagging documents for later examination or printing
