Are you aspiring inventor and have an idea about the nextbig thing? Do you have an idea or product that you want to protect? According to “Patent Statisticsas Economic Indicators: A Survey”: “patents are property right toa knowledge asset; patent counts can be useful measuresofinnovative output”.
Some of the many items we use every day have been patented byinventors.Patents are submitted every day for all types of goods and services. Google is ahead in the number of patents submitted at over 2,566 US patents within the last year(www.ificlaims.com)
If you have an idea that you want to protectyou need to find out if your invention has already been patented byanother inventor or company. To do that you will need to do a patentsearch. Most patents are publishedthrough governmentwebsites that are available for the public to see. The following sites are good sites to start your search:
- US Patent & Trademark Office.http://www.uspto.gov/
- Japan Patent Office.http://www.jpo.go.jp/
- European Patent Office.http://www.epo.org/
For more information about how to conduct effective extensive patent searches visit:
