Calling All Techies

I know there are some long time members on this site who get a lot of their information by reviewing patents. I just wanted to pass along to all of you techies out there how easy this information is to access. The US Patent and Trademark Office has a superb interface for reviewing patents:

http://www.uspto.gov/patents/process/search/index.jsp

Select "Quick Search" (1976 and later)

Enter "Radar Detector" in Term1 Field

Select "All Fields"

Select "Search"

You will then see a list of the latest 50 patents (out of appx 500)

The Valentine patents are easy to locate because the principal engineer will always be Mike Valentine. Most of the important patents for ESCORT are registered under Steven Orr.

You will need a TIFF viewer to see these, but the USPTO provides a free link within their website with superb instructions

The details in these patents are amazing and you can really get an appreciation for the engineering that goes into designing and manufacturing a road worthy Radar Detector. Many of the functions for future uses of each invention have not been implemented yet, but the potential is clearly spelled out by both ESCORT and Valentine in their patent descriptions.

The easiest way to absorb this information is to copy and paste the patent into a Word document then print it and read it at your own pace. There are a lot of technical details in these patents. After reading through this information I get the feeling that any complaints I have regarding my RD's are minor:o These two manufacturers are doing everything possible to improve their products and both have an excellent understanding of the "Real World" we the users face in trying to detect true police radar. I applaud both ESCORT and Valentine for their outstanding efforts.

Note also that you can refine your searches using Term1 AND Term2. As an example you could use "Radar Detector" as Term1 and "GPS" as Term2 with logical operator options for both terms.

Have FUN :D

^^^Make it a sticky??

Definitely gonna have a look. I've read many patents at work. Never thought to search for detector patents.

Another tip. It is easier to read from a hard copy I agree. But if you search on Google patents (contains mostly the same as uspto) there is a pdf option making it easier to read or print. You also don't need the tiff viewer

Good Write-up for this!

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Originally Posted by The Stigs Cousin

Definitely gonna have a look. I've read many patents at work. Never thought to search for detector patents.

Another tip. It is easier to read from a hard copy I agree. But if you search on Google patents (contains mostly the same as uspto) there is a pdf option making it easier to read or print. You also don't need the tiff viewer

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Thanks for the tip Stigs. Pdf's definitely make life easier:D It is probably a HUGE undertaking for The USPTO to convert their legacy systems over to pdf files...

It is interesting to note that the Valentine patents are very detailed and extremely well written. It's like having a "Mind Meld" with Big Mike himself :)

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Originally Posted by AirMoore

Good Write-up for this!

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Thanks AirMoore - I'm just trying to figure out how you got that picture of my wife for your Avatar:confused:

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Originally Posted by Born2DV8

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Stigs Cousin

Definitely gonna have a look. I've read many patents at work. Never thought to search for detector patents.

Another tip. It is easier to read from a hard copy I agree. But if you search on Google patents (contains mostly the same as uspto) there is a pdf option making it easier to read or print. You also don't need the tiff viewer

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I think usually its the attorney that writes them, but the inventor would have say in it. Still impressive on the inventors part.

Thanks for the tip Stigs. Pdf's definitely make life easier:D It is probably a HUGE undertaking for The USPTO to convert their legacy systems over to pdf files...

It is interesting to note that the Valentine patents are very detailed and extremely well written. It's like having a "Mind Meld" with Big Mike himself :)

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I think usually the attorney is the one that actually writes the patents. The inventor would have say in it though. Still impressive on the inventors part.

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Originally Posted by Born2DV8

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AirMoore

Good Write-up for this!

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Thanks AirMoore - I'm just trying to figure out how you got that picture of my wife for your Avatar:confused:

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You'd be surprised what you can get if you just ask... ;)