Tutorial for Conducting a Patent Search

While conducting a patent application search for the nCap Technology product which was posted just a few moments ago, it occurred to me that a lot of people have never searched for a patent. If you have an idea you believe needs to be protected by a patent, one of the first things you need to do is determine whether your invention has already been claimed. Another scenario that necessitates a patent search is when designing a new product to make sure a patent holder cannot file a n infringement claim against you, and then sue to either prevent its use altogether or to require a royalty payment (you have no control over the $$$ amount). I know an engineer whose company is essentially being held hostage to the tune of several hundreds of dollars per unit shipped because of just such an infringement claim. The USPTO has a well-done video tutorial for first-time patent investigators.. You could potentially save yourself a lot of grief by learning to do patent searches.

Posted February 2013

Copper Mountain Technologies Vector Network Analyzers - RF Cafe Website

RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps while tying up your telephone line, and a lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail" when a new message arrived...