Google’s US patent search feature

Using the zippy Google Patent Search, you can now search the full text of the U.S. patent corpus in order to find patents that interest you.

For those who don’t already know it, patents issued in the United States are public domain government information and images of the entire database of US patents are readily available online via the USPTO website.

As such, it was rather easy for Google to tap into this huge intelligence concentrator, for the enjoyment of patent searchers everywhere and yes, the patent pages are hosted by Google, directly.

To get you started in your US patent exploration, here are a few popular search suggestions.

By patent details:

• Patent Number: patent:1247412
• Inventor: ininventor:edison
• Assignee: inassignee:fairchild

By classification (see the USPTO’s Patent Classification resources):

• Current US Classification: uspclass:”99/385″
• International Classification: intlpclass:”A63B 6308″

Can you guess which patents these drawings refer to?

It’s pretty interesting to browse all those older patents filed in the early 1800s so just be curious and fire up a search of your own!

Needless to say, the extensive array of patent information readily available should satisfy most people, especially since Google Patent Search covers the entire collection of patents made available by the USPTO, from patents issued in the 1790s through those issued in the middle of 2006 (approximately 7 million patents).

It should be noted though that patent applications, international patents and US patents issued over the last few months are available… yet. Google does intend to expand the patent search coverage, in the future.

Patent results are ranked according to their relevance to a given search query, in a similar fashion as the now ubiquitous Google Web Search.

Tags: google, patent search, us patents, intelligence

Technology trends update

Information technology managers need to keep an eye on a vast array of technological trends evolving across the spectrum, for modern corporations.

The following are just a handful of the latest trends gaining speed:

1. Corporate blogs – If you can’t post a sales rep at the door of every single one of your customers, why not have the president of your company post his educated thoughts online within the comfort of his own blogging engine.It takes discipline to keep everything updated but the payoff comes in many forms, namely a tighter relationship with your customers.
2. Evolved content management – While the major search engines help you locate the information you’re hunting for online, a new breed of content management solutions is emerging for you to do the same within your own corporate realm.Amazingly, the information already existing in your own archives could be even more useful to your team if it were to be searchable in new, engaging ways so make sure to fully tap this hidden resource using the latest CM offerings.
3. Passwords at large – While roughly 30% of all organizations keep a written record of their passwords, the balance of them keeps them on mobile devices and laptops.Sending out your road warriors out there to do their thing is good but if they’re walking around with utterly sensitive data, you may be exposing yourself to new unintended security risks.Be smart and lock you sensitive information in a safe, non-mobile, place.
4. Outsourced processes – You could call this “BPO 2.0″ mainly because the latest technological convergence, on-demand applications and network access are driving a new kind of business-process outsourcing (BPO).Depending on your line of business, there may be some advantages to outsourcing part or all of your business processes namely the fact that a more flexible and distributed workforce may focus more on quality rather than just lowering cost.The outsourcing can apply to a whole range of your internal processes ranging from manufacturing to marketing and globally, it helps businesses focus on their core competency instead of attempting to be an expert at everything.
5. The rise of BI – In a sense, business intelligence is a broad category of applications and technologies for gathering, providing access to and analyzing data for the purpose of helping enterprise users make better business decisions.While many BI applications are available at the desktop, more and more vendors are extending access to mobile devices therefore improving on-the-road productivity and broadening BI adoption.

While identifying, following and understanding these trends is part of today’s CIO’s jobs, it’s also important to keep corporate management in the loop.

Keeping an eye on what’s moving and shaking in technology is healthy, even if no implementation is planned in the short term because when the time comes, it’s better to have some reflection already ongoing about a given technology or approach than none at all.

Tags: tech trends, technology, corporate blogs, evolved content management, passwords, outsourced processes, business intelligence, bi, modern corporations