As part of its Patents Education Curriculum, the Silicon Valley USPTO will host a two-hour workshop on patent searching. Learn to search databases used by patent examiners on the USPTO Universal Public Workstations (UPWS) which are publicly available at the regional office. A supervisory patent examiner will instruct the attendees on the following:

• What are the benefits of searching?
• Where can you search?
• When should you search?
• How do you search using USPTO search tools?

This session is designed for inventors, entrepreneurs, and those who have a beginning to intermediate knowledge of patents and would like to learn more about patent searching.

If you do not already have a UPWS login account which are valid for one year, please arrive approximately 30 minutes before the workshop to register for one. This event and UPWS accounts are free and open to the public.

Most of the class will be lecture; however, you will have the opportunity to practice on our Universal Public Workstations during the last 30-45 minutes. Please note, you may have to share a workstation due to limited availability. Priority to use the workstations will be given to those who pre-registered and in the order of their arrival. You may want to allow extra time after class to use a workstation.