Re: patently frustrated

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Cremati" <johnjohnc@core.com>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2005 2:03 PM
Subject: Re: patently frustrated

> It is hard to believe that the US patent search is so
> difficult any thing prior to 1970 or so..... I do not know
> how these patent attorneys do it............ They really
> need to make it more user friendly........ John Cremati
>
   Its the on-line search that is limited for patents issued
before 1976. The USPTO site has only images of these patents
in the form of Fax TIFF files. After that both the images
and full text versions are available.
   Patent attorneys have access to more complete information
including cross-reference books that list patents by
patentee, the assignment, title, date, etc. Some large
libraries have compete patent rooms with this information on
microfilm, or very rarely, the original patent journals.
   Real patent searches are difficult because titles do not
always give an accurate idea of what has been patented and
certainly no idea of the validity of the patent. However,
this does not apply to finding patents for the information
in them or for historical purposes.
   For a patent as old as the one being asked about there
may not be an equivalent in another country.

---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@ix.netcom.com