The recent improvement also adds some Euro flavor to Google's patent search by including submissions to the European Patent Office.
ENGADGET: Google Patents search gets upgrade, now filled with prior art and European patent goodness
Now Google's patent search is giving prior art some love as well with the addition of the aptly named "Prior Art Finder" to its patent search tool.
ENGADGET: Google Patents search gets upgrade, now filled with prior art and European patent goodness
This is true despite the fact that prior to filing a patent application a thorough search is typically performed, looking for any publication that might block a patent from issuing, and that a patent application is only filed when chances for obtaining a patent appear good.
Her method for probing the validity of a patent often starts with a Google search, moving on to Wikipedia and more obscure troves, like Japanese patent databases translated into English.
Hmm, not to worry, ZapMedia also says it has an almost identical 2006 patent filed for in 2000 -- but that patent, as far as a quick USPTO search shows, hasn't been assigned to ZapMedia, instead remaining with Kenneth Liscomb and several other individuals also listed on the new patent.
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Marked by a patently obvious blue button, the new addition serves up relevant prior art results by using key phrases from a patent's text and putting them together in a search query.
ENGADGET: Google Patents search gets upgrade, now filled with prior art and European patent goodness
The search giant added 24, 500 more patents to its existing patent bank.
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So is the biggest search outfit, Overture , a little-known billion-dollar vendor that provides unbranded search services for other Web sites and has sued Google, alleging patent infringement.
So is the biggest search outfit, Overture (nasdaq: OVER - news - people ), a little-known billion-dollar vendor that provides unbranded search services for other Web sites and has sued Google, alleging patent infringement.
The extensive patent portfolio touches nearly every aspect of telecommunications and additional markets as well, including Internet search and social networking.
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