OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS

Classification 398/all - subclasses >> view this class definition

U. S. PATENT RESOURCES

As general guidance, a complete search of U. S. patents in this art area will include the following:

1. A classified search of the original classification class and subclass for the subject matter and the other highly relevant art areas in the US patent documents
2. A text search of the US patent documents; patents, PG PUB, and OCR databases:
• Broad text search for the general inventive concept(s), not limited by classification
• Narrow text search for the specific claimed invention
• Boolean text search employing the relevant inventive terms

The resources listed below are internal USPTO search tools. However, the information that they cover is available either commercially, on the USPTO web site, or in the Public Search Facility on the USPTO Headquarters campus and the Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries.

EAST/WEST

EAST Coverage: 1971 - present, Full Text: 1971 - present

WEST Coverage: 1971 - present, Full Text: 1971 - present

Full text patent and inventor searching.

All patent documents in a classification are viewed by USPC for relevance to the patent application being searched. Classification search is recommended for all applications. It is most useful when the network, system, device, or circuit arrangement or structure constitute important aspects of the claimed invention. Text searching is useful when searching for a specific element, function, or standard, or for determining a field of search. Classification parameters combined with text is most useful when terms in the claims are well established, and when the subclass contains a large number of references.

BRS Search/USOCR Database

EAST Coverage: 1920 - 1970, Full Text: 1920 - 1970

WEST Coverage: 1920 - 1970, Full Text: 1920 - 1970

Full text of U.S. patent grants.

All patent documents in a classification are viewed by USPC for relevance to the patent application being searched.

PGPUBS

EAST Coverage: 2001 - present, Full Text: 2001 - present

WEST Coverage: 2001 - present, Full Text: 2001 - present

U.S. published applications.

All patent documents in a classification are viewed by USPC for relevance to the patent application being searched. Classification search is recommended for all applications. It is most useful when the network, system, device, or circuit arrangement or structure constitute important aspects of the claimed invention. Text searching is useful when searching for a specific element, function, or standard, or for determining a field of search. Classification parameters combined with text is most useful when terms in the claims are well established, and when the subclass contains a large number of references.

FOREIGN PATENT RESOURCES

Searched separately from the U.S. Patent Search. These databases consist of abstract documents. Text searching abstracts requires the use of different search logic e.g. the use of broad Boolean and/or operators instead of narrow proximity operators.

Derwent World Patents Index and the contents of the EPO Abstracts and JPO Abstracts are available commercially.

Derwent World Patents Index, Classification and Text Search

EAST Coverage: 1963 - present, Full Text: - N/A

WEST Coverage: 1963 - present, Full Text: - N/A

English abstracts database of patent documents from more than 40 patent-issuing authorities.

Used for text and assignee/inventor searching. Queries may include classification parameters when combined with other terms to be searched in the technical content of the application.

EPO Abstracts, Text and Classification Search

EAST Coverage: 1978 - present, Full Text: - N/A

WEST Coverage: 1978 - present, Full Text: - N/A

English abstracts database of patents and published applications from EPO, WO/PCT, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Switzerland. USPC searching is limited to documents added to the database from 1978 to September 30, 1995.

EPO patent documents in a USPC or an IPC classification are viewed for relevance to the patent application being searched. Used for text and assignee/inventor searching.

EPO esp@cenet

esp@cenet Coverage: 1920 - present, Full Text: 1920 - present

National patent information from all member states of the EPO as well as bibliographic data from patents worldwide.

This database is used as a source for translations.

FPAS3

Coverage: 1980 - present, Full Text: -

USPTO foreign patent document retrieval system.

JPO Abstracts, Text and Classification Search

EAST Coverage: 1976 - present, Full Text: - N/A

WEST Coverage: 1976 - present, Full Text: - N/A

English abstracts database of Japanese published unexamined applications. USPC searching is limited to documents added to the database from 1978 to September 30, 1995.

JPO patent documents in a USPC or an IPC classification are viewed for relevance to the patent application being searched. Used for text and assignee/inventor searching.

JPO Industrial Property Digital Library

NCIPI Coverage: 1976 - present, Full Text: 1976 - present

Japanese patent information.

This resource is used as a source for machine translations of Japanese patent documents from 1993 to present.

NON-PATENT LITERATURE RESOURCES

The resources listed are those that USPTO staff have found consistently yield the most relevant search results. Commercial databases available through a single vendor can generally be searched simultaneously, although it is preferable to search full text and bibliographic databases in separate groupings. In addition to the use of subscription databases and public Internet sites, it is recommended that books, manuals, standards and specifications be considered in the search for prior art.

ACM Digital Library

ACM Coverage: Dates - vary, Full Text: Dates - vary

Citations and full text articles from ACM journals, newsletters, and conference proceedings.

This resource provides relevant data on optical communications.

IEEE Xplore

IEEE Coverage: 1952 - present, Full Text: 1988 - present

Full text access to technical literature in electrical engineering, computer science, and electronics.

This resource provides relevant data on optical communications.

ABI/INFORM

Dialog Coverage: 1971 - present, Full Text: 1991 - present

STN Coverage: 1971 - present, Full Text: 1991 - present

Covers worldwide business and management issues.

This resource provides relevant data on optical communications, and also contains product data.

Business Wire

Dialog Coverage: 1999 - present, Full Text: 1999 - present

Full text of news releases issued by approximately 10,000 corporations, universities, research institutes, hospitals, and other organizations.

This resource provides relevant data on optical communications, and also contains product data.

CMP Computer Fulltext

Dialog Coverage: 1988 - present, Full Text: 1988 - present

Full text information about the computer, communications, and electronic industries.

This resource provides relevant data on optical communications.

Computer News Fulltext

Dialog Coverage: 1989 - present, Full Text: 1989 - present

Full text articles from Computerworld and Network World.

This resource provides relevant data on optical communications.

DIALOG Telecommunications Newsletters

Dialog Coverage: 1995 - present, Full Text: 1995 - present

Full text telecommunications newsletters that provide information on companies, products, markets, and technologies.

This resource provides relevant data on optical communications.

DTIC STINET

DTIC Coverage: 1974 - present, Full Text: Dates - vary

DTIC scientific and technical papers, which cover telecommunications, satellites, imaging, and speech recognition.

This resource provides relevant data on optical communications.

Ei Compendex

Dialog Coverage: 1970 - present, Full Text: - N/A

Questel Orbit Coverage: 1970 - present, Full Text: - N/A

STN Coverage: 1970 - present, Full Text: - N/A

Abstracted information from 4,500 journals plus conference proceedings in engineering and technology.

This resource provides relevant data on optical communications.

Gale Group Computer DatabaseTM

Dialog Coverage: 1983 - present, Full Text: 1988 - present

Information about the computer, electronics, and telecommunications industries.

This resource provides relevant data on optical communications.

Gale Group GlobalbaseTM

Dialog Coverage: 1986 - 2002, Full Text: - N/A

Worldwide coverage of companies, products, and industries with a primary focus on Europe.

This resource provides relevant data on optical communications, and also contains product data.

Gale Group PROMT

Dialog Coverage: 1990 - present, Full Text: 1990 - present

STN Coverage: 1978 - present, Full Text: 1978 - present

International coverage of companies, products, markets, and applied technologies for all industries.

This resource provides relevant data on optical communications, and also contains product data.

IHS International Standards and Specifications

Dialog Coverage: - Current, Full Text: - N/A

This resource provides relevant data on optical communications standards.

Inside Conferences

Dialog Coverage: 1993 - present, Full Text: - N/A

Contains details of all papers given at every congress, symposium, conference, exposition, workshop, and meeting received at the British Library Document Supply Centre.

This resource provides relevant data on optical communications.

Inspec (The Database for Physics, Electronics and Computing)

Dialog Coverage: 1898 - present, Full Text: - N/A

Dialog DataStar Coverage: 1898 - present, Full Text: - N/A

Questel Orbit Coverage: 1969 - present, Full Text: - N/A

STN Coverage: 1969 - present, Full Text: - N/A

Inspec (The Database for Physics, Electronics and Computing) corresponds to the three Science Abstracts print publications: Physics Abstracts, Electrical and Electronics Abstracts, and Computer and Control Abstracts.

This resource provides relevant data on optical communications.

JICST-EPlus - Japanese Science & Technology

Dialog Coverage: 1985 - present, Full Text: - N/A

STN Coverage: 1985 - present, Full Text: - N/A

English citations and abstracts covering the literature published in Japan on all fields of science, technology, and medicine.

This resource provides relevant data on optical communications.

MathSci

Dialog Coverage: 1910 - present, Full Text: - N/A

Coverage of mathematics, statistics, computer science, algorithms, and operations research.

This resource provides relevant data on optical communications when algorithms or mathematical functions are used.

NTIS: National Technical Information Service

Dialog Coverage: 1964 - present, Full Text: - N/A

STN Coverage: 1964 - present, Full Text: - N/A

U.S. government-sponsored research, development, and engineering reports.

This resource provides relevant data on optical communications.

Optics InfoBase

Optics InfoBase Coverage: - N/A, Full Text: - N/A

Web-based repository of optics research.

This resource provides relevant data on optical communications.

Periodical Abstracts PlusText

Dialog Coverage: 1986 - present, Full Text: 1992 - present

Abstracts or full-text journal articles on science, technology, business, finance, and computers.

This resource provides relevant data on optical communications, and also contains product data.

PR Newswire

Dialog Coverage: 1999 - present, Full Text: 1999 - present

Complete text of news releases prepared by U.S. companies, public relations agencies, trade associations, city, state, federal and municipal government agencies, and other sources covering the entire spectrum of news.

This resource provides relevant data on optical communications, and also contains product data.

SciSearch: A Cited Reference Science Database

Dialog Coverage: 1990 - present, Full Text: - N/A

STN Coverage: 1974 - present, Full Text: - N/A

Cited reference index.

This resource provides relevant data on optical communications.

INTERNET SEARCH TOOLS

An Internet search should be considered when a search of the resources listed above fails to locate relevant prior art. A preliminary Internet search may be performed to obtain an overview of the technology, and to identify additional search terms and related product information.

Google TM

Google Coverage: - N/A, Full Text: - N/A

Internet search engine.

This resource provides relevant information for the following: tutorials, inventor papers and/or web sites, assignee or company product data or specifications, manuals, standards such as MPEGs, RFC's (Request for Comments), and ISO/IEC, etc. In addition, provides access to resources that can define the meaning of acronyms, or terms of art.

Public Comments on the Search Templates

Public comments on the search templates are invited. Comments should address the points enumerated in the Criteria for Evaluating Recommended Search Resources. Comments can be submitted via the Search Template Project e-mail link on each template page or by mail addressed to:

Mail Stop Patents Search Template Comments
Commissioner for Patents
P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, VA 22313-1450
Electronic submission is preferred. The Office will respond to comments in writing.