1. How to Search for Patents LSM3256 TROPICAL HORTICULTURE
Loh Mee Lan
Science Resource Librarian Patent Lead, Scholarly Communication Team NUS Libraries
(Powerpoint Presentation :
22 Jan 2018

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© NUS Libraries

3. Purpose of Powerpoint Presentation
Introduction to Patents
How to Read a Patent Document
How to Search for Patents
This Powerpoint Presentation is a basic introduction on patents and how to search patents.

4. Introduction to Patents
What is a Patent?
The Inventor The Government Authority
others from making, using or selling the invention for a term of years.
The inventor gives the public a full and complete disclosure of the invention with a teaching of how it works.
Sections
Introduction to patents
>> Patentability & Types of Patents
How to Read a Patent Document
>> What is on a Patent Document?
How to Search Patents
>> Search Process
>> Boolean Operators
>> Keyword Searches
You can say it’s like a contract between the inventor and the government authority. The authority in Singapore that issues patent is the Intellectual Property office of Singapore (IPOS). When a patent is granted, you have the right to stop others from making, using or selling the invention for a term of years. To be given this rights, the inventor must give a complete disclosure of his/her invention.
Patents is one type of intellectual property. The others examples of IP include copyright, trademarks, etc.
You can find more information on IP in Singapore, please go to

5. Introduction to Patents
Sections
Introduction to patents
>> Patentability & Types of Patents
How to Read a Patent Document
>> What is on a Patent Document?
How to Search Patents
>> Search Process
>> Boolean Operators
>> Keyword Searches
Same invention can be filed in one or more countries
Patent protection
Has limited lifespan
Typically 20 years from application
Long process
May take several years for patents to be granted.
Invention may first published as patent application before granted as patent.
The same invention can be filed in one or more countries. Filing for patents is very expensive and it is often a business decision to decide which countries or jurisdiction you want to file for patents protection.
Patent may first be published as a patent application. This is not the same as granted patent. Patent application does not has the same legal protection as granted patents. If the patent is granted, the granted patent document is published. Thus, there may be two or more documents published for the same invention, a patent application as well as a granted patent document.
Although patent protection is typically 20 years from application, renewal fees must be paid. Failure to pay fees may result in lapse of patent protection. Once the patent lapsed or expired, it may be freely available for anyone to use.
FAQ : Patents (WIPO -

6. Patent : a Simple Illustration
Introduction to Patents
Sections
Introduction to patents
>> Patentability & Types of Patents
How to Read a Patent Document
>> What is on a Patent Document?
How to Search Patents
>> Search Process
>> Boolean Operators
>> Keyword Searches
Invention of a knife with sharp
blade
Person B:
Inventor of folding knife and has obtained a patent in USA
Patent Expires : 31 Dec 2022
Not able to make folding knife because of A’s patent (unless pay royalties or buy over patent)
Able to make folding knife after 30 June 2019 freely
Person A :
Inventor of knife and has obtained a patent in USA
Makes and sells knife
Patent Expires : 30 June 2019
Let look a simple hypothetical example.
Person A invented knife with the sharp blade and had obtained a patent which expires on 30 June 2019.
Person B had invented an improvement to the knife by making it foldable. However, he is unable to manufacture his folding knife as it infringes on Person A’s patent. He can either pay a license fees or buy over Person A’s invention to use of his/her technology to manufacture the sharp blade. Or he can wait till the expiry of person A’s patent before he can manufacture his knife freely.
Everyone else:
Able to make knife with sharp blade after 30 June 2019 freely
Able to make folding knife after 31 Dec 2022 freely

7. Patentability & Types of Patents
Introduction to Patents
Sections
Introduction to patents
>> Patentability & Types of Patents
How to Read a Patent Document
>> What is on a Patent Document?
How to Search Patents
>> Search Process
>> Boolean Operators
>> Keyword Searches
Patentability
Types of Patents
Novelty
Utility
Non-Obvious
Utility
Plants
Design (Registered Design)
You may have invented something and you think it’s wonderful. You feel there is a market for your product and you want to stop others from copying or selling your invention. But what makes an invention patentable? Here are some general principles on patentability and types of patents.
Please see Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) on “What’s a patent?” for more information (
Patents are broadly divided into 3 types – utility, plant and design (registered designs).
(See IPOS website for more details :

8. Usefulness of Searching Patents
Introduction to Patents
Sections
Introduction to patents
>> Patentability & Types of Patents
How to Read a Patent Document
>> What is on a Patent Document?
How to Search Patents
>> Search Process
>> Boolean Operators
>> Keyword Searches
“Patents fit at every stage of R&D, from ideation to commercialisation. Patents are an important source of technical information. Engineers should read patents during the innovation process to understand R&D trends, emerging technologies and white spaces. According to a survey by nature, ** 60% of all patent readers and 72% of those reading for scientific reasons reported that they found useful scientific information, in the most recent patent read in their field….”
“…. Patents are typically granted at a later stage of the R&D process but looking at patent literature should start at ideation. If you have an idea, it may be worthwhile checking whether a patented invention covers it. Looking at patent information prevents you from duplicating effort, and equips you to improve your invention and build around an existing patent.”
As a students, you can use patents to generate ideas for your projects or research. Or search patents to see what have been done before and not duplicate the research work that been done. Patent information is often freely available on the Internet.
Source: **

9. Introduction to Patents
Did you know that there was a patent granted for NUS Libraries Book Bin?
Sections
Introduction to patents
>> Patentability & Types of Patents
How to Read a Patent Document
>> What is on a Patent Document?
How to Search Patents
>> Search Process
>> Boolean Operators
>> Keyword Searches
Just to show something that may be of interest to you.
Do you know that a patent was granted in Singapore to one of the NUS librarians for the Book Drop back in 2008? For this invention, the patent was applied in July The patent application was published subsequently in February 2008 but the patent was only granted with effect from 14/05/2010. The patent lapsed on 20 July 2011.
You can search in IPOS website (2) for details of the actual patent document. As you can see here, the patent process takes many years.

10. How to Read a Patent Document
In the next section, I will highlight to some features that are unique to patents

11. What is on a Patent Document?
How to Read a Patent Document
Patent Cover Page (e.g. of US Patent)
Bibliographic Data
Contains key patent data, such as patent number, title, list of prior art, patent class, name of inventor, assignee, filing and issue dates, etc.
References cited
Abstracts
A general description of the technical disclosure provided in the specification
Representative Drawing/Diagram
Sections
Introduction to patents
>> Patentability & Types of Patents
How to Read a Patent Document
>> What is on a Patent Document?
How to Search Patents
>> Search Process
>> Boolean Operators
>> Keyword Searches
Usually patents has a cover page which consists of bibliographic information, abstracts or representative drawings

12. Granted Patent Country Code Title of Patent Kind Code
Other patents & publications
Claim
This is an example of a granted patent.
Country Code
You will see the patent number with the country indicated in front of the number.
Kind Code
The Alphabet indicated after the number is the Kind Code. It gives an indication of the kind of patent. For example, if you come across a journal article with “US7,249,913 B2”, you know that this is a granted US patent ( .uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/support-centers/electronic-business-center/kind-codes-included-uspto-patent). For patent application which are published, often it is indicated with “A” kind code. However, it is best to check with the individual country’s patent office to see the kind codes used for that country.
For more information on country code, kind code, please visit the NUS Libraries’ Patent Libguide (
You can also find related patents using the information found in the References Cited Field.
Abstract
References cited

13. What is on a Patent Document?
How to Read a Patent Document
Description/Specification
Includes background, detailed summary and description of the invention
Teaches what the invention is, what problems it solves and how it works
Claims
Define the legal boundaries of the invention, exclusively owned by the patentee for the term of the patent, e.g. US7,657,849 ( pdf)
Registered design or design patent has only 1 claim (e.g bHMGMWJrQfT2IGwAQ&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAA)
Sections
Introduction to patents
>> Patentability & Types of Patents
How to Read a Patent Document
>> What is on a Patent Document?
How to Search Patents
>> Search Process
>> Boolean Operators
>> Keyword Searches
Next, it will give descriptions or details like how it works. Lastly, there is a section on claims. This defines the legal boundaries of the invention.

14. Patent Application - US
This is an example of published patent application. Please note that not all published application will always lead to being granted. Sometimes, the process just stopped at the application stage.

15. Example of Granted Patent
How to Read a Patent Document
US4, (
Sections
Introduction to patents
>> Patentability & Types of Patents
How to Read a Patent Document
>> What is on a Patent Document?
How to Search Patents
>> Search Process
>> Boolean Operators
>> Keyword Searches
This is an example of a granted patent. This is a relatively old patent. You will notice that there is no kind code indicated in this patent document.

16. Information About How to Read A Patent Document
Here are some links which you may want to read further on this topic:
Website:
How To Read a Patent : The Art of Quick Read (
Book Chapter
Matthew Y Ma (2015) How to Read a Patent. Fundamentals of Patenting and Licensing for Scientists and Engineers: 2nd, pp ( 0_0003)

17. How to Search Patents Quick Tips Using Internet Sources and Patsnap
In this final section, we learn how to search for patents.

18. Searching Patents To Generate Ideas
Brainstorm ideas
Think out of the box
Find concepts or keywords to describe the ideas that you have
Use these concepts/keywords to search in patent databases
Explore what has already been done before
Are there any possible enhancements/improvements to existing products?
Are there inventors or companies that you know who are in this field?
Do some research on them and see what they have done before or currently doing
Other Factors to Consider
Who will likely to use your product?
How big is the market?
Where is the industry heading to? Know what is the technology trend, etc.
Here are some questions to consider when you want to use patents to generate ideas
Searching patents are just only one aspect, there are other factors to consider if you want to develop your ideas further, e.g. commercializing your products

19. Search Process How to Search Patents Artificial Grass Change keywords?
What are you looking for?
Identify keywords/concepts
Identify search engine/database
Search in Database
Look at Results
Satisfied?
End
Artificial Grass
Artificial
Grass and landscap*
Databases e.g. Patsnap, The Lens, Google Patents, etc.
Apply search techniques
Relevant results?
Change keywords?
Change database?
Change search techniques? No
Yes
Sections
Introduction to patents
>> Patentability & Types of Patents
How to Read a Patent Document
>> What is on a Patent Document?
How to Search for Patents
>> Search Process
>> Boolean Operators
>> Keyword Searches
In summary, in order to retrieve a comprehensive results in your search, you need to look at several factors like identify the right keywords/concepts, identify the best database or search engine to use, etc.
Whether you are searching in Patsnap or any databases e.g. Scopus, Web of Science, try to identify appropriate keywords and databases and apply the correct search techniques. You may need to search more than one databases to get the best results.

20. Keywords in the articles Keywords not in the articles
Boolean Operators
How to Search Patents
Keywords in the articles
Keywords not in the articles -
Sections
Introduction to patents
>> Patentability & Types of Patents
How to Read a Patent Document
>> What is on a Patent Document?
How to Search for Patents
>> Search Process
>> Boolean Operators
>> Keyword Searches
Bed
Frame
Frame
Bed
Bed
Frame
AND OR
NOT
Bed
Bed frame
Bed
Frame
Bed frame
In most databases, you can combine different concepts together in your search using “NOT”, “AND”, “OR” Boolean search operators.
NOT
You want information containing BED, but not those with FRAME or BED FRAME. Sometimes, it is called AND NOT operator. Using this search operator would retrieve fewer records/results.
AND
You want information containing BED FRAME, not those with just BED, FRAME. Using this search operator would retrieve fewer records/results. OR
You want information containing BED, FRAME, BED FRAME. Using this search operator would retrieve more records/results. However, it may include irrelevant results as the search terms may occur in the same record but not necessarily what you want!
Bed
Frame
Frame
Bed frame

21. grass landscap* turf fake mat carpet
Searching Tip : Performing Keyword Searches (
Identify Key Concepts and Keywords
List down keywords and synonyms for each concept
for “use of artificial grass for landscape purposes”
How to Search Patents
Truncation Symbols (Database specific)
? - can be used to replace one individual character
* - can be used to replace a string of characters at the end of a word
Sections
Introduction to patents
>> Patentability & Types of Patents
How to Read a Patent Document
>> What is on a Patent Document?
How to Search Patents
>> Search Process
>> Boolean Operators
>> Keyword Searches
Concept 1
Concept 2
Concept 3
artificial
grass
landscap*
synthetic
turf
fake
mat
carpet
First break down the topic you want to search into different concepts. For the above topic on “use of artificial grass for landscape purposes”, you may come up with 3 concepts, “artificial”, “grass”, “landscape”.
For each concept, try to identify alternative terms/words.
Combine similar terms using “OR” operator.
Besides combining the words using AND, OR, NOT Boolean Operators, you also have to think about synonyms.
Search Topic :
((artificial OR synthetic OR fake OR carpet) AND (grass OR turf OR mat) AND landscap*)

22. Patent Databases on Internet
How to Search Patents
Sections
Introduction to patents
>> Patentability & Types of Patents
How to Read a Patent Document
>> What is on a Patent Document?
How to Search for Patents
>> Search Process
>> Boolean Operators
>> Keyword Searches
There are free patent databases available on Internet.
You can visit the NUS Libraries’ Patent Libguide (Internet Sources Tab) for more details.
Below are some suggested databases:
Espacenet
Google Patents
The Lens
The Lens database ( is a good alternative to Patsnap and has many useful features. It allows you to find journal articles cited within patent documents.

23. Patents Libguide (http://libguides.nus.edu.sg/patents)
The NUS Libraries has a library guide or libguide on patents ( If you cannot remember where to look for relevant information, go to this guide.
Go to the Patent Libguide to access the subscribed and free Internet patent resources.

24. Patents Libguide (http://libguides.nus.edu.sg/patents)
One of the subscribed databases is Patsnap. If you have not registered for a Patsnap account, you can login as Guest. Otherwise, login using your Patsnap account.

25. Quick Guides to Searching in Patsnap
Here are some quick guides you can look if you need help on how to search Patsnap:
Expand Search
Keywords or Topic Search
Patent Classification Search
Semantic Search

26. Patent Resource Team NUS Libraries
Ms Loh Mee Lan (Patent Lead, Scholarly Communication Team and Member, Science Resource Team,
Mr Iftikhar Hayat (Lead, Engineering Resource Team and Member, Patent Resource Team,

27. Thank You!