Global Patent Search Network (GPSN)

04 Apr Global Patent Search Network (GPSN)

In an effort to expand coverage of worldwide patent collections, the USPTO announced the launch of the Global Patent Search Network (GPSN) to make the patent research easier and more comprehensive by providing streamlined search capability to multiple international patent collections. The GPSN is the first patent-related initiative to use cloud technology.

As a result of cooperative effort with the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) of the People’s Republic of China, Chinese patent documentation is now available for search and retrieval in the inaugural release of the GPSN. Accessible from the USPTO website(http://gpsn.uspto.gov/), the data available includes both full text Chinese patents and English machine translations enabling users to search Chinese patent documents in the English or Chinese language. Users can search documents including published applications, granted patents and utility models from 2008 to 2011 in this collection, which will periodically be updated with more current data.

This new search tool delivers to the public, as well as our patent examiners, an additional source of foreign patent collections. Furthermore, the immediate availability of English machine translations will effectively address the language barrier and allow for quick analysis of the relevancy of the prior art while reducing the need for costly human translations. Machine translation technology can sometimes generate awkward wording, but it provides an excellent way to determine the gist of the information in a foreign patent.

http://gpsn.uspto.gov/