Recorded on: September 1, 2020
2:00 PM CT
Presenter: Scott Bloomer, Director, AOCS Technical Services

Why are patents so complicated? Why is it so much harder to extract useful information from a patent than from a scientific paper or book? While scientific papers are written by scientist and engineers with the intent to inform, patents are usually written by lawyers with the goal of crafting a legally defensible position. In short, patents are written in a kind of legal code. Many scientists don't even bother to read patents after their first few efforts end in confusion or overload. However, about 70% of all technical information that is published in the world is only presented in patents. Thus, the researcher who is not intimidated by patents, but is equipped and able to extract the essence of a patent will operate from a position that is three times stronger than a colleague who only reads scientific papers and books. In this webinar, attendees became acquainted with codebreaking and pattern recognition strategies for identifying and extracting needed information from patents.