- Author:
- David Hitchcock
From the Publisher:
"Am I the First__ __" What inventor hasn't lost sleep pondering this question__ __ Until recently, the only way to assess the novelty ofa new invention was to wade through the patent database at heh United States Patent and Trademark Office in Virginia -- or hire a patent searcherfor $500 and up. Expensive andinconvenient, these options probably dampened the spirits of countless would-be inventors.
Now inventors can get instant feedback on their ideas over the internet. Fortunately, there's also an entertaining guidebook for the novice patent searcher: Patent Searching Made Easy. Written by inventor David Hitchcock, the book explains step by step how to use an Internet browser to search U.S. patents. It discusses how to classify an invention properly, and then, using that classification, find all relevant patents issued since 1971. Whether browsing infant flotation devices or computerized pet toys, the inventor can quickly tell by searching over the Internet whether he or she is in the running to be "the first."