Patent Information for ECE 364D Introduction To Engineering Design

Finding patents associated with an individual or company may help you:

• Understand the work being done by the inventor or company.
• Find patent classifications to advance your work.  You are interested in a type of product and know that it is being produced by Company A.  If you can find Company A's patents, you can see how they are classified, and pursue those classifications.

The patent databases have options for inventor and assignee/applicant (this is where to find company information) searching:

• Espacenet - Advanced search --- see Names - Applicants and Inventors
• Google Patents - Advanced Search --- see Assignee and Inventor
• For searching in the U.S. Patent Public Search databases:
  • in Basic, use the pull-down menu to select the search field you want.  You are limited to one word per search box.
  • in Advanced, use HELP to find the right field limiters.  For example: microsoft.as.

Remember to check HELP information if searching doesn't go as you expect.