[Genealib] Google Patents: A drawback

[Dawn Rohan]

The first U.S. patent was issued in 1790 to Samuel Hopkins of
Philadelphia.  Searching the patent number X1 will pull it up but not
Samuel Hopkins.  

Google Patent Search is far from perfect and there are other OCR
databases available at Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries. 
Sometimes a search of multiple OCR databases is required to get ok
search results.  If your patron is lucky, a PTDL in their state has
created a human indexed, field searchable database of patents issued to
residents of their state.  To find a list of these databases go to:
http://www.ptdla.org/resources/statepatentdatabases.html.

Also on this website is a copy of a Powerpoint I created on using
Patents of Invention as Genealogical Resources
(http://www.ptdla.org/handouts/Patents%20of%20Invention%20as%20Genealogical%20Resources.ppt
).  Feel free to use it.   Unfortunately it may take awhile to download
since I used a lot of patent images as examples.



Dawn Rohan
Intellectual Property Librarian
Wyoming State Library
Cheyenne, WY 82002
drohan at state.wy.us
307-777-7281
 
Email to and from me, in connection with the transaction of public
business, is subject to the Wyoming Public Records Act and may be
disclosed to third parties.


>>> "Mara Munroe" <Munroe at oshkoshpubliclibrary.org> 12/19/2006 11:02 AM
>>>
I don't know how far back this is supposed to cover, but my
father-in-law's 1960 application is there, and so are patents for the
typewriter circa 1880. 

Mara B. Munroe
Local and Family History Librarian
Oshkosh Public Library
Oshkosh WI 54901-4985

"History is where the evidence leads us; heritage is what we choose to
remember and celebrate."  Edward T. Linenthal
-----Original Message-----
From: genealib-bounces at mailman.acomp.usf.edu 
[mailto:genealib-bounces at mailman.acomp.usf.edu] On Behalf Of Cynthia
Van
Ness
Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2006 1:35 PM
To: genealib
Subject: [Genealib] Google Patents: A drawback

Not to rain on everyone's parade, but according to the patents
expert in my library, Google has not enhanced the existing USPTO
database--for example, doing OCR and indexing all existing
patents from before 1976.  They just applied their search engine
to what USPTO already digitized.

Try searching on Koosh ball--you know, those stringy, rubbery
ball toys from the 1980s.  You will not find it because Koosh
was a trade name given to the product after the patent was
granted.  You have to know to look for balls, filaments, and so
on, and browse through 50 or more patents to find the right one.
 This is a search process that even I know little about after
decades in librarianship.  Now picture the average layperson
going at it.

This is a problem with specialized databases that Google's magic
cannot solve: the fact that the language that the end user
brings to the search screen does not necessarily match the
vocabulary used by the creators of the database.


*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:**:-.,_,.-*
Cynthia Van Ness, MLS, bettybarcode AT yahoo DOT com
http://www.BuffaloResearch.com 

"Everyone claims to want a city, but no one here wants city living.
City living by its definition is crowded.  It is tolerant of other
people.  It is dependent on a sophisticated population that makes a
hundred compromises daily so that they can benefit from the collective
energy that a city generates."     --Robert N. Davis, Jr., May 4, 2004
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