Broadening Google Patents by Jon Orwant.
From the post:
Last year, we launched two improvements to Google Patents: the Prior Art Finder and European Patent Office (EPO) patents. Today we’re happy to announce the addition of documents from four new patent agencies: China, Germany, Canada, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Many of these documents may provide prior art for future patent applications, and we hope their increased discoverability will improve the quality of patents in the U.S. and worldwide.
The broadening of Google Patents is welcome news!
Especially following the broadening of “prior art” under the America Invents Act (AIA).
On the expansion of prior art, such as publication before date of filing the patent (old rule was before the date of invention), a good summary can be found at: The Changing Boundaries of Prior Art under the AIA: What Your Company Needs to Know.
The information you find needs to remain found, intertwined with other information you find.
Regular search engines won’t help you there. May I suggest topic maps?