HOW DOES ONE RESEARCH A PATENT?

q98 · Post by **q98** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 1:30 pm

My grandfather Edward McCREADIE was granted "GB Patent# 516755. Fire - extinguishers for ships. McCREADIE, E. Sept. 3, 1938, No. 25820. [Class 47 (ii)]".

Does anyone know the British/UK Patent Office website address and does it permit on-line searches?

Post by **AndrewP** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 1:37 pm

Hi Jim,

Have a look at:

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/

All the best,

AndrewP

q98 · Post by **q98** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 1:40 pm

Thanks Andrew; got the t-shirt. Site to be more related to modern IP than anything else.

Jim

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 1:49 pm

Hi Jim
Is this any use?
http://www.bl.uk/collections/patents.html
http://www.21citizen.co.uk/collections/ ... story.html

best wishes
Lesley

q98 · Post by **q98** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 1:56 pm

Located an e-mail address which I will try.

Thanks.

Jim

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 12:22 am

Hello Jim,

The full text of the patent appears to be on this page. There are a few OCR errors but you can probably sort them out.
http://www.wikipatents.com/gb/516755.html

The patent is also mentioned in this publication
http://www.google.com.au/books?id=o6gPA ... ltcoats%22

I’m not too clear if that’s a book or a monthly magazine.

Alan

q98 · Post by **q98** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 4:45 am

Thanks again Alan

My daughter worked out (always the way!) how to get to the on-line document but neither of us can figure out the errors.

AND thanks for the book reference - off to my local Library IF I can locate an ISBN for it.

Jim

Neil McRae · Post by **Neil McRae** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 3:09 pm

Hi; I have been searching patent records in both the UK and US for some years. A game fraught with difficulties but if you go here http://gb.espacenet.com/search97cgi/s97 ... N/home.hts
you will be able to search for a patent by number. Have to add GB in front of the number for a UK patent because this is a data base that includes patents from all over the world. If you are searching for a patent before 1916 the game gets even more inteesting because the patents started each year at No 1 so you have to include the year before the number and then add noughts to make up a 5 figure patent number.

For 516755 you just cllick on number search and then enter the number as GB516755 and you will get to an extract of the patent. Then you click on the title line for the extract and from there you can request the original document. from there you can save a copy of the pages. ::Neil::

Post by **paddyscar** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 3:29 pm

Hi Neil:

Thanks for posting your findings; it will make it easier for others seeking information on a subject that doesn't get much coverage.

Frances

Neil McRae · Post by **Neil McRae** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 4:26 am

Yes I can understand the difficulties. I am a bit new to researching family stuff but I have been researching historic lighting for years and we have complied a huge patent database of US patents which involved a number of people searching for patents and recording the findings. Massivly boring work but well worth the effort. So far we don't have a searchable European database but I have hunted down hundreds of Uk and various other European patents and I know most of the pitfalls. Esp@cenet is not the easiest of places to work with but once you understand the rules it is not so bad. As a matter of interest you might be interested to know that you can search by name so if you know you have an inventive ancestor you might be able to discover what and when. Got to make a change from searching for births and such. ::Neil::