T&L Publications

I spent some time researching online for like item. I am coming up with 0's. Anchorage has a wonderful patent library so I am off to thrash through the hard copies on Sunday Can anyone of you advise me on conducting an in depth online search? What is a FIELD in cotext of a data search?

As used on the Patent Search page I sent you to, a "Field" is a section. That is, for the purpose of searching, patents are divided into a number of sections or fields: Title, Abstract, filing date, issue date, claims, etc. <p>As a first pass, I would suggest leaving the selection window you refer to set to "All Fields". That way all the fields of each patent in the database will be searched. <p>If you start getting a lot of results, 'cause you figure out the terminology that is being used to describe things in your area of interest, then you might restrict your searching to, for example, only ABSTRACT. The Abstract is a very concise description of the invention. So once you figure out what terms to use, searching the abstract will weed out those patents that only mention the terms in a passing manner, and probably in a totally different context.<p>Don't overlook the ADVANCED search tool, which you can get to from the buttons at the top of the page I sent you to. There is a table on that page that has an explanation for all the field names. Additionally, you can do more complicated searches.<p>P.S.
Don't post your idea on the Internet before you file your application.<p>[ October 05, 2003: Message edited by: cato ]<p>[ October 05, 2003: Message edited by: cato ]<p>[ October 05, 2003: Message edited by: cato ]<p>[ October 05, 2003: Message edited by: cato ]</p>

I did a search based on the general description you mentioned in the other thread and got 15 hits. I've pasted the results below. Based on the titles, hit numbers 2, 6, 11 and 15 sound like they are in your area of interest. <p>The search terms I used were Measure$ and Pile Drive$.<p>The Dollar signs are "wild cards" I used to pick up any ending for the words, such as, for example,--pile drives-- and --pile driver--, --measures-- and --measurements--. If I had left off the ending "e" on those words (measur$ and pile driv$) then my search might have also picked up patents that don't include those words but do include the words --measuring-- and --pile driving--.<p>
Results of Search in 1976 to present db for:
measure$ AND "pile drive$": 15 patents.
Hits 1 through 15 out of 15 <p>

<p>
PAT. NO. Title
1 6,394,704 Screwed steel pile and method of construction management therefor
2 6,301,551 Remote pile driving analyzer
3 RE37,066 Soil sampling system with sample container rigidly coupled to drive casing
4 6,144,038 Method and device for detecting the position of stacked material
5 6,012,328 Method for calculating a penetrating depth when putting in supporting elements into a water bed
6 5,581,013 Method and system for obtaining useful foundation information
7 5,488,876 Soil sampling system with sample container ridgidly coupled to drive casing
8 5,487,622 System for treating polluted groundwater
9 5,447,301 Governor foot assembly for cyclically sensing the height of a feeder sheet pile
10 5,188,485 Foundation pile of reinforced concrete
11 5,117,924 Energy transfer unit for a pile driver
12 5,090,485 Pile driving using a hydraulic actuator
13 4,331,050 Control for paper cutting apparatus
14 3,999,399 Protective guard means for wood piling and a method of installing same under dry working conditions
15 3,931,729 Dynamic force measuring instrument for foundation pile and casing<p>[ October 05, 2003: Message edited by: cato ]</p>

Paper copies will be stored by "class". Figuring out which classes you are interested is a daunting task. I suggest printing out the patents from the above list that are closest to what you are thinking about, or doing more searches to find something closer still.Then show the closest ones to the librarian and asking the librarian to take you to the related classes (they are listed on the front page of each patent). U.S. classes and Foreign classes are more of the FIELDs that can be searched on line by the way.<p>[ October 05, 2003: Message edited by: cato ]</p>