With a single click, it searches multiple sources for related content that existed at the time the patent was filed…
Google is well known for containing a wealth of free tools. For patent practitioners, google’s patent search engine often provides more accessible results than even the USPTO’s patent database. Google has improved an already stellar tool by adding a prior art search to their repertoire.
Prior art is all information that has been disclosed to the public in any form about an invention before a given date. Prior art includes things like any patents related to an invention, any published articles about an invention, and any public demonstrations. Prior art can sometimes be a real problem for patent attorneys as the growing volume of published material is becoming an insurmountable challenge. Google aims to fix all of this.
In Google’s own words,
“With a single click, it searches multiple sources for related content that existed at the time the patent was filed…
The Prior Art Finder identifies key phrases from the text of the patent, combines them into a search query, and displays relevant results from Google Patents, Google Scholar, Google Books, and the rest of the web.”
