Re: Researching Patents

Art Chakalis (achakali@freenet.columbus.oh.us)
Wed, 20 May 1998 04:05:27 -0400 (EDT)

On Tue, 19 May 1998, Bob Szabo wrote:

> I was wondering if anyone on the list has any knowledge about resaerching
> patents.
>
> Living near DC I was going to go to the patent office to research patents
> for Ferrotype plates.
>

Bob

It's been a few years since I've done any searching, I participated in the
search for my printing patent. Only very recent patents are computerized
. . . since sometime in the 60's . . . Luis quoted the exact year in a
note a few days ago. The balance of what you will find are microfilmed
records organized by Class and Subclass in chronological order. As an
example Class 430 Subclass 289 are Chromate Processes/Photographic. If
you consider the era in which photography was developed, you really need to
plan on looking at the pre-computerized information.

The first thing I'd suggest is to pick what classes you believe the patent
could or should be filed under and then start to look. Plan on spending a
lot of time if you want to be certain about not missing something of
interest. The film readers let you print (photocopy) the patents of
interest at a modest cost.

Lastly, you don't need to be in Washington to research patents. There are
a host of patent depositories around the country. As an example within
Ohio, Ohio State University in Columbus and the Main Public Library in
Cleveland house the entire patent library.

I found it to be very fascinating to look at some of the early
photographic patents. A patient attitude will help.

Have fun. Sincerely, Art

Art Chakalis
Columbus, Ohio, USA