You will be pleasantly surprised as to how soon these arcane sounding terms become old friends. Again, in each case, examples and their screen images will aid you to grasp what is going on. Most of the methods covered in the book are cost free, but there are also fee-based methods. Their use and possible advantages are described. Many foreign patent systems are fee systems and the author lists the Internet addresses for the patent systems of some 17 countries and the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Some inventors make the mistake of failing to check non-patent office sources for prior art.
Two frequently used Internet search engines, Alta Vista and Yahoo, are described and the addresses for seven more are given. Web addresses for 12 government agencies are also given. Yet another tool to consider are the many discussion group Websites. At the conclusion, the author gives suggestions for analyzing your search results. He notes it is common to come up with a half a dozen prior art patents and cites the four Patent Office criteria regarding Statutory Class, Utility, Novelty, and Unobvious.