Blog Posts by Subject: Patents and Trademarks

Here are scans of the color plates of U.S. Plant Patents received at SIBL for the weeks of June 12 and 19, 2012. These follow from the earlier Plant Patent plates posted for the weeks of April 17 and 24, 2012, the weeks of May 1, 8 and 15, 2012, and the weeks of May 22, 29 and June 5, 2012.

Here are scans of the color plates of U.S. Plant Patents received at SIBL for the weeks of May 22, 29 and June, 2012. These follow from the earlier Plant Patent plates posted for the weeks of May 1, 8 and 15, 2012 and the weeks of April 17 and 24, 2012.

As before, please be careful in using these - they're really not appropriate to use for prior art or other similar searches. Otherwise, please enjoy!

Here are scans of the color plates of U.S. Plant Patents received at SIBL for the weeks of May 1, 8 and 15, 2012. These follow from the earlier Plant Patent plates posted for the weeks of April 17 and 24, 2012.

Despite the shift from the Patent and Trademark Depository Library designation to our new Patent and Trademark Resource Center status, one vestige of over 140 years of being a patent depository remains. Color images for Plant Patents are only available in print, and are still being received here at SIBL in paper format. This seems like a good opportunity to take a look at some of the most recent ones we've received here, and so we've done a bunch of QAD color image scans. Please take a look...

They weren't found in Area 51; or Area 57 or Hangar 18 or anywhere close to Roswell for that matter. For those of you who want to believe — I'm sorry, you'll have to wait a bit longer. The bibliographic record for this find shows the US Alien Property Custodian as author, and these patents, or patent applications in the cases ascertained so far, are documents from the Second World War.

The talent pool in patents and trademarks at SIBL is deep — which means we're almost always ready to answer IP questions on the spot when they come up. But I've been lucky and have had the opportunity to wear the patent and trademark hat — yes, there is one, it won first place in a contest a few years ago! And among the privileges this brings is the opportunity to invite U.S. Patent and Trademark Office representatives to come to SIBL every couple of years for public and staff presentations.

November 8 is fast approaching, and with it the Intellectual Property day at SIBL, featuring representatives from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. This seems like a good opportunity to recommend one of the Library's best sources for information about trademarks, Stephen Elias and Richard Stim's Nolo book Trademark — Legal Care for Your Business and Product Name.

Those who take an interest in patents will have heard by now; the U.S. has a new patent law, the "Leahy-Smith America Invents Act." It's too early to tell whether the changes that will take place as a result will be revolutionary or not; and for that I await the views of the experts. But it is worthwhile taking note of these recent patent law amendments in anticipation of the visit to SIBL by the USPTO on November 8.

We're just starting to get the word out — November 8, 2011 will be a day to explore Intellectual Property protection when the Science, Industry and Business Library hosts a visit from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

First some breaking news! The word has come down from the US Patent and Trademark Office. The new name of the Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries will be Patent and Trademark Resource Centers. The actual name change will be official as of October 1st. Although as yet no festivities are planned, we look forward, both before and after the change, to helping you with your Patent and Trademark research here at SIBL.

What do Trademark Examiners do? No — this is not a trick question. They do examine applications for trademark registrations.

I'm hesitant to use the word easy; things easy to do don't usually have to be identified, and when things aren't all that easy, it's not good to suggest they are. But, Patent Searching Made Easy is the title of a Nolo Press book by David Hitchcock (currently available here at SIBL in its fifth edition), and I'm going to exploit an opportunity to write a little about both this book and patent searching.

One premise of the U.S. patent system, and of most of the other large established patent systems in the world, is you can only patent something once. Too late, then, for the wheel; but for the better, improved wheel a patenting opportunity awaits. Of course, how do you find out if someone beat you to it? Or, in the language of patent experts, how do you find the prior art?

Since 1871, the United States Patent Office (now the Patent and Trademark Office) has partnered with libraries (including a predecessor to NYPL) in different parts of the United States, creating depositories of patents and trademarks so local inventors and businesspeople can conveniently search these documents in anticipation of their own filings or registrations. For the last several years there have been around 80 to 85 Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries (PTDLs) throughout the country. Soon there will be none.... Why?

So you have your menu—and now need to choose which form of IP protection to use for your bottle or other idea. Of course if you have all the time and money in the world, maybe you can do it all. But since the question really is about business, it's important to consider what works for you before starting the final processes to protect your IP.

While for certain kinds of things the choice of which form of IP protection to seek is obvious, it's not too hard to think of examples where there could be more than one possibility. To illustrate this point, I would like to use for an example nothing less than a humble bottle.
 

In recognition of Black History Month, I thought I would take this opportunity to suggest U.S. Patents as an available primary resource that can be used to do historical and biographical research on African American Inventors.

Continuing from our January 31st entry, and again using Richard Stim's Patent, Copyright and Trademark as our springboard, here is some brief information about the remaining two types of intellectual property; trade secrets and its "polar opposite", patents.

It's impossible to expect every researcher coming to SIBL to know the differences between the four main types of Intellectual Property (IP) protection. We have found that Patent, Copyright and Trademark, by attorney Richard Stim, is an excellent resource for learning about and comparing these laws.

Here at the Science, Industry and Business Library, the title we most frequently recommend to patent researchers is David Pressman's Patent It Yourself, currently available at the library in its 14th edition.