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How to Use Google to Find Patents Using Google Patent Search
Have you ever thought up an amazing invention and wondered if it had already been taken? An easy way to find out is by doing a patent search. Luckily, Google makes finding patents a breeze by using their simple-to-use patent search.
Searching for Patents
You can find Google’s patent search at the following address: www.google.com/patents.
When you load the main page, you get the following page:
Overall, the page looks very similar to the normal Google homepage. You may also notice that Google displays five featured patents on the page. If you hit reload or refresh on your browser, you get a group of five new patents that you can look at. This is one way to browse Google’s vast patent collection.
In the above screen shot, I have pre-filled the search box in with the word skunk. It is amazing to think about, but as you can see in the screen shot below, there are a plethora of patents that involve skunks.
Probably the coolest patent is result number six - The Synthesized Scent. This person had the uncanny idea of masking human odors with skunk scent… brilliant! For the sake of our discussion and to get a good overview of the Google Patent Search, we will click on the first patent results - Toy Skunk.
Patent Overview
Once you click on a patent, Google gives you an informative page with an overview of that patent. For example, in the toy skunk example below, you can see that Google provides the following:
- An abstract
- The ability to download the patent as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file
- The ability to search within the patent
- The ability to read the patent using Google’s built-in reader program
- Patents that the current patent cites
- Patents that reference the current patent
- Claims - what this patent claims to do
- Drawings
Here is the overview page in all its glory:
If you click on the Read this patent tab at the top of the page, you can easily read the patent using Google’s web-based reader. The reader is very full featured. It allows you to:
- Jump to any section of the patent
- View the patent number, filing date and issue date
- Search within the patent
- Download the patent as a PDF file or plain text file
If you scroll down to the drawings, you can get a close up of how cute these skunks really are!
Search by Patent Number
If you happen to know a patent number that you want to search for, all you have to do is type the following into a Google search box:
patent [enter patent number here]
For example, if you search for patent D271052 as shown below, Google provides an easy link to the patent on the search results page.
Interesting Patents
Just by clicking refresh/reload on the main Google Patent Search page, you can see many fun and interesting patents. Here’s a few that I thought were very interesting:
- Device for Cooling an Infant’s Brain
- A Dental Drill from the 1800’s
- A Combined Scarecrow and Advertising Device
- A New Style of Underwear Invented in 2000
Have fun finding new patents! If you do find any that are interesting, feel free to post them below.
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