I found an old US patent from the 1970’s that described something that could be useful to me, but that I have never actually seen sold. The patent was actually granted - it was not a patent proposal. Is it possible in any meaningful sense to find out when, where, and/or by whom products covered by a specific patent were (or are) manufactured or sold? For example, results that look like this could be helpful: “Oh, this was sold in the Sears Catalog as Item # YR-4332 between 1975 and 1992 and was available at most branches of The Cool Stuff Shop between 1987 and 1995.”
Yes, I realize that a patent this old has expired and that I could just go ahead and start making stuff myself, but I don’t have the infrastructure to do it and might not have all the necessary skills.
I don’t think so, no. You register your patent, but there’s no reason to register (and indeed no mechanism for registering) follow-up information about what (if anything) you have done in terms of exploiting the patent granted to you.
You can find out, presumably, to whom the patent was granted, and if that company still exists or that person is still living and can be traced, you can approach them and ask them. But they may or may not have any interest in digging through their files to find out if they ever did anything to exploit that patent.
There is certainly no register of patent use by number. That is between the patent holder and any prospective manufacturer. The patent office is not involved. I suspect the majority of patents never went anywhere. But if you Google the number, it may turn up if someone posted about it, or if it is commonly listed in the item’s description when it is sold, as the patent would be marked on the item produced.
I collect some vintage items that have patent numbers marked on them. In many of the cases, it is hard to recognize what the patent even refers to. In those cases, the manufacturer has only used a single element of the patent in the final product, but they still have to list the patent numbers used. It is not uncommon to find a more complex object, like an appliance, that has 3, 4 or more patents marked on it.
Thanks, I already tried a Google search and didn’t find anything useful. One idea I did have was to see if there was some sort of search engine that specialized in product documentation, with the understanding that some (many?) manufacturers put patent numbers in the manuals too.
Is there a law in the US that requires this? I mean, I have seen items sold with patent numbers quoted on the packaging, but I have always assumed that this is a choice by someone to draw attention to the existence of the patent in this particular instance, not a legal requirement. And lots of products would incorporate or rely on hundreds of patented components/processes. I’d assume that quoting specific patent numbers on the packaging is (a) voluntary, and (b) very much the exception, not the rule. Am I wrong?
35 USC 287 concerns marking and notice requirements for patented articles in the U.S. Short version is that some form of notice is required to inform people that the article is protected by patent. Traditionally, this has meant marking the article with things like “Pat.”, “Patent Pending,” the USPTO issued patent number, etc…, otherwise the patentee may have been barred from collecting damages from infringement that occurred before the infringer received actual notice of their infringing activities. The America Invents Act of 2011 made the notice requirements a bit less stringent, but still some actual or virtual mark is required for either the article or article’s packaging. See, e.g., the article, Patent Marking under the America Invents Act for a more in-depth discussion.
I think the requirements have been relaxed over the years. But it used to require non removable marking, so a label was not enough. I have seen items with enough patents marks on them that it looked like a bibliography.
One thing I collect is vintage electric kitchen mixers and one might carry patents for the beaters, the release mechanism, the bowl design, the gearbox, the juicer attachment etc. All borrowed from separate earlier mixer designs.
Just to piggy-back on this question: is there a more-fully-indexed database of pre-1976 patents besides USPTO.gov?
My grandfather purportedly had one or more patents, and they would have been granted somewhere in the 1965-72 timeframe. For pre-1976 patents, USPTO can only search by patent number or classification, neither of which I have (and even if I guessed at the classification, since I know what the patent was for, there’d probably be thousands in that group).
Raza, time to hit the repository. You should be able to locate the nearest one in a major city library. Each volume will have the patents indexed by patent description, grantor’s name and assignee’s name. It really won’t take that long to look through seven years. If you can only find microfilm copies of the index it will take a bit longer.
I love looking through the old records. As you page through the book or microfilm, a wondrous assortment of things parades past.
And for the OP, Robert, do you want to post the patent number here, perhaps this will help things. Or PM me.