Old patent search

February 27, 2006 9:20 AM

I'm looking for an old (pre-1900) patent and the USPTO site only allows patent number and classification searches for pre-1975 patents.

My wife does a lot of geneological searching and came across a reference to a patent that might have been filed by a relative. It's on a commercial site that offers reprints. But when I look this particular patent number up on the USPTO site, it comes up as a wood plane, not a coffin. Does anyone know of a database that has more searchable text in it that the USPTO?

posted by tommasz to Law & Government (16 answers total)

Contact your local Patent and Trademark Depository Library and ask for help.
posted by arco at 9:29 AM on February 27, 2006

Best answer: ...which according to your user info is the Chester F. Carlson Patent & Trademark Center.
posted by arco at 9:31 AM on February 27, 2006

Well, according to your profile you are in Rochester, so you could ask for help at the
Chester Carlson patent and trademark center at the central library of Rochester and Monroe county. If they are like most libraries they would be happy to help you with your search. It's more then likely you're going to have to look through some old patent books to find out more, though. Most of that stuff isn't online yet, as far as I know.
posted by jefeweiss at 9:34 AM on February 27, 2006

Are you sure the patent at the reprint site is a US patent? This source gives a PDF of that patent number as a wood plane as well.
There are other searchable databases but many of them are paid, e.g., Delphion and Dialog.
posted by exogenous at 9:34 AM on February 27, 2006

Too slow =)
posted by jefeweiss at 9:34 AM on February 27, 2006

Yeah, last week I was trying to find some patents of locust-killing devices from the late 1800s and had to give it up.
posted by LarryC at 9:42 AM on February 27, 2006

You could try adding 1 to the url.
posted by MrMoonPie at 10:10 AM on February 27, 2006

That doesn't work for exogeneous' link, though.
posted by MrMoonPie at 10:13 AM on February 27, 2006

Nevermind--I don't know what I'm talking about.
posted by MrMoonPie at 10:16 AM on February 27, 2006

I recently did a patent search and was suprised to find that there are two ways to search by patent number -- actually there are a few, but two that were germane to me -- Utility and Design. Design patents start with D. If the patent number you are trying to look up seems way out of sequence for other patents from similar timeframes, I would also try that as well.

So, if your patent number is 123,456 try also searching on D123,456.
posted by jessamyn at 10:39 AM on February 27, 2006

Response by poster: My local library rules! The number on that commercial website isn't the patent number. The library had a very old book for 1892 that listed patents by inventor name (among other ways) and I was able to find the correct patent number (470,767) using his last name. Thanks to all.
posted by tommasz at 10:45 AM on February 27, 2006

Is there a way to search for patent information if you know the inventor's name, the inventor's home state, the approximate year the patent was granted, but not the patent number?
posted by Asparagirl at 12:07 PM on February 27, 2006

Response by poster: Yes there is, but you can't do that on the web. I used an index that my library had to look up the inventor's name (see above). It also had their hometown and state and patents associated with the name. I'm not sure when it was published, but the condition was poor and it was not available on the shelves. The USPTO has a list of local libraries that have patent information available, that's the place to start.
posted by tommasz at 12:16 PM on February 27, 2006

You are looking for U.S. Patent No. 470,767. I don't know if that link will work but if not just put the number into this search page and then click on the images button to get the images. You will need to install TIFF reading software into your browser if you don't already have it - instructions here.
posted by caddis at 2:21 PM on February 27, 2006

hmmm, I just read your earlier comment tommasz. I really need to give these threads more than a cursory skim before I comment. Oh well, at least you found your patent. So, is it from one of your wife's forebears, or just some random dude?
posted by caddis at 6:36 PM on February 27, 2006

Response by poster: We're researching that now. He's probably a distant, distant cousin. It turns out he invented other things, too, like a "whiffletree coupler" which is associated with horse-drawn wagons.
posted by tommasz at 10:09 AM on February 28, 2006