Prior art searches: examples Massimo Barbieri

1. Prior art searches: examples Massimo Barbieri (Technology Transfer Office) – Politecnico di Milano E-mail: massimo.barbieri@polimi.it

2. Example 1 The first example relates to aircraft landing gears. Prior to impact with a runaway, the wheels of a landing aircraft are not rotating. When the wheels touch the runaway, they must quickly accelerate to match the speed of the aircraft. Source: P. Schwander – “An evaluation of patent searching resources: comparing the professional and free on-line databases, “World Patent Information”, 22 (2000), p. 147 - 165

3. During this transient period rubber of the tires are been abraded, leading to premature wear. To prevent this premature wear, we can easily imagine that those wheels could be rotating prior to landing of the aircraft.

4. Concept to be combined: “landing gear” “pre-rotating” Enter “landing”, “gear” and “rotating” as keywords in title or abstract

6. Relevant patent detected in the previous list of titles

7. The classification code B64C25/40 perfectly matches the inventive concept we were searching for.

8. Use classification code to broaden the search to retrieve a more complete set of relevant patents Search by classification

10. Example 2 The people is often disturbed by the use of mobile phones in public areas: cinema, hospitals, etc. To resolve this problem, one can imagine systems blocking mobile telephone communications in a given area or room. Try to retrieve patents relating to those systems. Step one: define the concepts best covering this invention: common technical features that may be found in patents relating to the subject. mobile phone, cellular phone noise, disturb*, silence hospital, cinema, public prevent, screen* Source: IPR Helpdesk Bulletin N. 5, November 2002 - http://www.ipr-helpdesk.org

11. Step two: combine the concepts Several combinations yield no relevant results. The combination "cellular and telephone and disturb*" yields, however, one relevant document that corresponds to our subject.

12. Step three: use the classification symbol to continue the search This WO document is classified under H04K3/00 that covers systems to jam communications. This classification symbol combined with the keywords "telephone or phone" give a small number of additional documents: WO0207120, A SYSTEM TO DENY CELLULAR SERVICE AT REFUELING STATIONSEP1061686, CALL MASKING SYSTEM FOR MOBILE TELEPHONEWO9818232, CELLULAR TELEPHONE JAMMING METHOD AND DEVICE

14. At this search we can add additional steps for obtain a broader collection of patents by using other words to cover the concept of a telephone. H04K3/00 combined with "mobile or cellular" yields an interesting list of additional relevant patentsThe resulting list of patents can be extended further by using additional keywords such as inhibit* and mask*. We can not said that our search is exhaustive, but it does give a good overview of existing patents and technologies used to inhibit cellular phone calls.

15. Search with keywords and classification codes

16. Example 3 Request: applications of SHAPE MEMORY ALLOYS in biomedical field Preliminary search with QPAT Query: “SHAPE MEMORY ALLOY” in “all text” field: 8.752 results Most relevant ECLA classification codes: [02] A61F-002/86 Stents formed from wire-like elements [N0610]; [03] A61F-002/90 the wire-like elements forming a net structure [N0610]; [04] A61F-002/90B [N: made from sheet material, e.g. using laser cut or etching holes] [N0610]. [00] A61M-025/00 Catheters; Hollow probes; [01] A61M-025/01 Introducing, guiding, advancing, emplacing or holding catheters; [02] A61M-025/01C [EPO: Advancing or steering means, e.g. self-propelled]; [03] A61M-025/01C10 [EPO: Tip steering devices]. [01] A61B-001/005 Flexible endoscopes [N9711]; [02] A61B-001/005D [EPO: using shape-memory elements] [N9711]. [00] A61B-017/00 Surgical instruments, devices or methods, e.g. tourniquets [C9702]; [01] A61B-017/12 for ligaturing or otherwise compressing tubular parts of the body, e.g. blood vessels, umbilical cord; [02] A61B-017/12P [EPO: Occluding by internal devices, e.g. balloons or releasable wires ] [C9705].

17. [01] A61F-002/82 Devices providing patency to, or preventing collapsing of, tubular structures of the body, e.g. stents [N0610]; [02] A61F-002/86 Stents formed from wire-like elements [N0610]; [03] A61F-002/88 formed as helical or spiral coils [N0610]. [00] A61L-031/00 Materials for other surgical articles, [EPO: e.g. stents, stent-grafts, shunts, surgical drapes, guide wires, materials for adhesion prevention, occluding devices, surgical gloves, tissue fixation devices ][C0304] New search with the query (224 results): (SHAPE MEMORY ALLOY?) AND ((A61F-002/90B) OR (A61M-025/01C10) OR (A61B-001/005D) OR (A61B-017/12P) OR (A61F-002/88) OR (A61L-031/02B))/EC) Another search (IPC relevant codes) with the following query (666 results): ((SHAPE MEMORY ALLOY?) AND ((A61F-002/00) OR (A61F-002/06) OR (A61B-017/00) OR (A61M-029/00) OR (A61B-001/00))/IC) Is the search complete?

18. Other keywords: Shape memorizing material SMA Shape memory device Ni-Ti Ni-Ti-Nb Shape memory element New query (1.609 results): (((SHAPE MEMORY ALLOY?) OR SMA OR NI-TI OR NITI OR (SHAPE MEMORY DEVICE?) OR (SHAPE MEMOR+ MATERIAL?) OR NITINOL OR NI-TI-NB OR (SHAPE MEMOR+ ELEMENT?))/CLMS/FCLM/GCLM AND (A61F OR A61B OR A61M OR A61L OR A61C)/IC) AND PD=2008-01-01:2009-06-05