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PATENT SEARCH RESOURCES
Introduction
Virtually every commercially viable product has been patented. America’s founding fathers
determined that patents should be granted by the government to encourage research and
development, and to protect those who make such an investment. In return for a patent, the
inventor is required to provide full disclosure to the public of the underlying theory, process,
and technology so protected.
Patents provide an incredible treasure trove of information, knowledge, and insight dating
over two hundred years, regarding locks and safes. Their history, technological
developments, defects, bypass techniques, and improvements are all chronicled. The
industrial revolution, and indeed every facet of American life, is built upon the foundation of
patents.
The database in Security.Org contains summary information and full text for over 1500
patents. It encompasses every patent issued in the United States for the past two hundred
years, for lock picking, decoding, and safe manipulation tools, as well as high security
mechanisms, such as sidebar, magnetic, induction, rotating disc, and other special designs,
which may be of interest to locksmiths, manufacturers, and law enforcement agencies.
Many of the patents that are referred to in Locks,
Safes, and Security are contained within this database.
How Patent Data is Organized Within this Site
Key search topics, including Patent Number, Inventor, Assignee, Classifications, Prior Art,
and a summary of the patent, are included in the information for each patent on our site.
Entry of any one or more key search terms, words, or phrases which may be contained
within the summary of any patent, will retrieve all relevant entries, organized by confidence
level, or subject. Searches for patents may be conducted through our Database or Infobase.
Searching for Specific Patents
There are several ways to search for a specific patent, on this site. You may utilize our
Database and Infobase search engines, or you may link to the U.S. Patent Office.
A
comprehensive list of patents relating to bypass tools also appears within the Patent area.
If you initiate a search using our text-based search engine, then a summary of all data which
meets your search criteria, and contained within Security.Org, will be displayed. This will
include products, security alerts, device security analysis reports, and patents. Hits will be
listed in order of "confidence level", or how close the item matches your query. You may
click on the link, to see the retrieved material. Remember to go back to the summary of
retrieved items, to examine other files which meet your search criteria. You may wish to
enter a bookmark for our search engine.
Each displayed summary patent is also automatically linked to an extremely sophisticated
national patent database, maintained by CNIDR. You may click on the search links,
appearing at the top of any summary patent, for additional complex search capabilities. Once
you are in the CNIDR system, you may search for any desired patent contained in the entire
US PATENT OFFICE database. At this point, your search is not restricted to topics or files
contained in Security.Org. You may also click on the link to patent databases worldwide,
under dial-80/links, or from areas within the patent database, to retrieve material from other
countries.
Prior Art
Our staff has methodically researched all patents relating to lock picking, decoding, safe
manipulation, and related topics, by examining the full text of every patent, at the USPTO in
Arlington, Virginia. Both the primary patents, and all prior art, have been incorporated into
our site. Thus, when there is a reference to Prior Art in a patent, or references cited in
connection with a patent application, you may instantly retrieve that information.
Prior art refers to previously granted patents, which relate to the subject matter of the new
patent. Theoretically, all prior art for a device, technique, process, or design, incorporated
within a patent, must be listed in that application, so that the patent examiner can determine
if the new patent violates the claims of an existing patent.
Prior art provides a method to research the history of an invention, and the underlying
technology.
Searching Security.Org and CNIDR databases
There are several differences between searching our patent database, on Security.Org, and
the CNIDR/USPTO system:
Security.Org contains all patents ever issued by the US Patent Office, relating to bypass
tools. If you search through our Infobase, then detailed information regarding a specific
query will be provided. You may then download the full text of the patent.
The CNIDR/USPTO system only has summaries from approximately 1976, and does not
provide immediate download of full text of patents, except by ordering from the USPTO, via
fax, mail, or overnight express.
Our database contains information specifically relating to locks, safes, and security, from the
granting of the first U.S. patent. The CNIDR/USPTO database contains patents for all
primary classifications, including locks, safes, and security, but only back to 1976. Older
patents cannot be searched on-line.
Finding Patents Relating to a Specific Lock or
Manufacturer
Product trade names, and the names of Manufacturers, (such as Medeco, Tubar, Primus,
ASSA, DOM, Abloy, Chicago, and Sargent Keso) generally do not appear in patents. We
have, whenever possible, listed the more popular designs in our Master Patent Index, under
dial-20/patents/d20title. You may enter a manufacturer or product description as a query in
the Security.org search engine, to retrieve matching patents, then enter that patent number
directly.
World Wide Search Resources
Information regarding patents may be searched worldwide, using the
following resources:
- Determine patent class using Manual of Classification
- Determine patent class using Index to Classification
- Retrieve patent titles using class/subclass code
- Retrieve patent abstracts using patent number
- Patent documents from the US PTO, UK PO, PCT, etc.
- US Code Section 35 - federal patent laws
- IPNS Internet Patent News Service
- Archive of stories from the IPNS, etc.
- Prior art searching services from STO
- A shopping mall for patent services
Enter a class/subclass code to get a list of patent titles. Use the following format:
70/394 that is, no embedded spaces, class and subclass separated by a forward slash, and
any subclass letters capitalized. Currently Design Patent titles (those in the classes of the
form Dxx.yy) are also retrievable.
Enter a patent number to get the abstract. Use the following format 4567890 or 4,567,890.
The US Patent and Trademark Office uses a classification scheme with 400+ main classes,
and tens of thousands of subclasses, to classify all of the 5,300,000+ patents issued since the
1800's.
The 400+ main classes are divided into four super groups: electronic, chemical, engineering
and mechanical, each of which are divided into 5 to 7 groups. A master list of all the classes
is available, by selecting MASTER U.S. PATENT PRIMARY CLASSIFICATION INDEX,
found on dial-20/patents/d20title.
- Design patent classes
- ELECTRONIC group
- Computing and data processing
- Electricity and electric power
- Electronics and electronic components
- Optics - Radiant energy - Photography
- Communications
- Other science and engineering, measurement, nuclear
- Music, education, amusement
- CHEMICAL group
- Biochemistry
- Chemical engineering
- Organic chemistry
- Surgery, body care, cosmetics
- Materials, compositions and explosives
- Agriculture and farming
- ENGINEERING group
- Heating, cooling, buildings, fluid handling, gas handling
- Earthworking and civil engineering
- Material or article handling
- Textiles and apparel
- Vehicles and transportation
- Office devices, paper handling, coatings
- MECHANICAL group
- Tools, hardware, pipes, joints
- Receptacles, containers, supports, partitions, furniture
- Manufacturing, assembling, metal working
- Motors, engines, pumps
- Rotary machines and mechanical power
- Machining and cutting
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