Purposeofthisdocument….

Thisarticleisatutorialonseveralfreepatentsearchtoolstohelpanyonewhoneedstolocate
patentinformation.

Thisdocumentwillactasarapidintroductiontoeachtoolemphasizingitskeyfeaturesand
wherethosefeaturescanbefound.Sinceindividualneedsvary,itisourhopethatyouwillbe
abletorapidlychooseatoolwiththefunctionsthatfityourneeds.

Thebestpatentsearchesareiterativeusingdifferentsearchtoolssinceeachtoolworksslig
htlydifferently.Thesamesearchwasperformedineachtoolusingthesamekeywordsandy
ouwillnoticethatthenumberofresultsisquitedifferent.Thisismostcommonlyduetothec
ountriescoveredandthewayfamilymembersaregrouped.

Ideally,youwouldwanttoperformasearchusingatleasttwosearchtools.Eachtoolhasdiff
erentstrengths,therefore,bysearchingwithdifferenttoolsyoucantakeadvantageoftheir
uniquesearchfeatures,suchasWIPO'stranslationquerybuilder,orGoogle'ssynonyms.

Featuredtools:

Manyexistingopensourcedatabaseshavebeenintegratedintofreelyavailablesearchtool
s.Wehavechosentopresentfourtoolsbasedontheireaseofuse,reliabilityofresultsanduse
fulkeyfeatures.

•Espacenet

•GooglePatents

•PATENTSCOPE

•TheLens

Presentationofeachtool:

Thesectionforeachtoolwillincludethefollowingtopicsandthesamesearchwillbeusedfo
rdemonstration.

1.OverviewandCoverage

2.SearchingCapabilities/KeyFeatures
3.ResultsManipulationCapabilities

4.PrivacyandSecurity

5.AdditionalInformation-Help

Introduction

Table of Contents

IntroductionP2

EspacenetP3-7

Google PatentsP8-12

PATENTSCOPEP13-17

The LensP18-22

Comparison of ToolsP23

Other Resources P24

Best Practices For Protecting Your Patent Search Information

WhenusingfreesearchtoolsontheInternet,considerthefollowingtips:

1.Onlysearchonencrypted(HTTPS)sites(protectsagainsteavesdroppersonWiFinetwo
rks)

2.Deleteyourbrowserhistoryafteryouhavefinished,orsearchinan“incognitowindow”(
preventsinformationaccessintheeventofcomputertheft)

3.Storeyoursearchnotesonyourcomputer’sencryptedharddrive,orintheCloud(prevent
sinformationaccessintheeventofcomputertheft)

Primer on Information Security:

Protectingconfidentialityisacommonsourceofmisinformationregardingfreesearchtoo
ls.Usersshouldbeawarethatnotool(paidorfree)iswithoutrisk.However,byfollowingaf
ewtipsandunderstandingthe“threatmodel”,youcanconfidentlysearchforpatentswhilet
akingreasonable,best-
practicesecuritystepstoprotecttheconfidentialityoftheinvention.

Securityandprivacyarebothimportanttoprotectingconfidentiality.

Therearemultipleareastosecurewhilesearching.First,considerlocalsecurity(software
updates,harddriveencryption,physicalsecurity)andthesecurityoftheprovider(compan
yreputation,securityengineers).

Second,youneedtoknowthewaysinwhichyoursearchstringscanbeseenasyoutypethem
andwhataretheassociated“threats”.

-Yourkeyboard(hardwarekeyloggers)

-Yourbrowser(extensionsthatcanaccessyourpages)

-Yourcomputer(softwarekeyloggers,viruses)

-Theinternet(eavesdroppersonnon-HTTPSsites)

-Thesearchtool(weaknessesofsecuritysystems)

Last,youneedtoknowwhatcansaveyoursearchstrings.

-Yourbrowserhistory

-Thesearchtool

Privacycoversthelastpiece:whatdoesthesearchtooldowithmysearchstrings?Eachcom
panyhasaprivacypolicythatdetailshowyoursearchstringsareprocessed,whohasaccesst
othemandunderwhatcircumstances,forhowlongtheyarestored,andwhatidentifyinginf
ormationtheyarestoredwith.
Today’s patent search tools are a powerful means of obtaining key
information when used with a knowledge of security, privacy, and best
practices for protecting your 2