« Why is Searching So Hard? | Main | Lack of Posts »
January 28, 2005
Better Search Facilities
About two years ago, I had the opportunity to perform some searches in the Search Room at the USPTO and quickly warmed to the computerized search facilities. I had been using Delphion ever since it was the old IBM patent site, which was frustratingly slow.
Even today, with a DSL connection (and hefty monthly fees), Delphion seems to operate at glacial speed in pulling up images or even doing a reasonably complex search. When I am doing a patent search, my brain seems to be going 100 miles per hour, ticking off new keywords or looking for different embodiments of an idea, and those multiple seconds are painfully frustrating while the browser clicks away waiting for Delphion to kick back some results.
At the PTO, the examiner’s computerized search system is available to the public in the Search Room. In addition to getting results quicker than Delphion, it spits back full size front page images of each patent it found, which you can flip through faster than if they were paper copies on the desk. Often, a fraction of a second look at an image is all that is needed to move to the next or to look deeper. While I did not flex the muscle of the search system by any stretch of the imagination, in a few short minutes, I was able to perform a search that would have taken an hour or two on Delphion.
I also had an opportunity to have lunch with someone from the PTO’s IT department, who explained that the bandwidth required for each of the search terminals was something like a T3 line to access the PTO’s database which was many terabytes in size. There was some talk about putting search terminals in three different locations around the country as a pilot program, but I never heard if that was implemented.
While I understand that many very high bandwidth users would bog down a system, the problem with implementing such a system is merely money, it is not technology. Bandwidth and data storage are both very cheap these days.
If you have ever visited a Patent Depository Library, you know what a waste of resources it is. All the patents are stored in microfilm by patent number, not by classification. This means that a search through one subclass means finding the microfilm roll, loading the machine, winding the film for a few seconds to locate the front page image, finding out it doesn’t apply, rewinding the film, unloading the machine, replacing the roll. Repeat for each of 1500 patents in your subclass.
The other thing you notice is all the dust in the PDL because nobody has used it in weeks.
If the PDL’s were replaced by one high bandwidth search terminal, the biggest problem is that there would be a signup sheet for the line of people waiting to use the terminal. I would expect that in Denver, a dozen or so terminals would be used daily.
If I were King for a Day, I would also set up a database that is mirrored off of the PTO’s patent search system and provide high bandwidth connections to all of the PDL’s and all college libraries. I would also offer law firms, corporations, and individuals access on a subscription basis, which would pay for the cost and upkeep of the entire system.
Posted by krajec at January 28, 2005 08:29 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.krajec.com/mt/mt-tb.pl/110
Comments
As a former Examiner, I could not agree more. By far the best tool for searching U.S. patents is EAST. Delphion and the PTO website just can't compete. One of the best reasons for being located near the Patent Office is having easy access to the public search room and EAST.
EAST does a good job of searching foreign patents too, although it is more limited because word searching is limited to abstracts and subclass searching is very hard becase many IPC subclasses are huge (at least most that I've ever used).
Posted by: Pete Medley at January 31, 2005 01:51 PM