BRB's Public Records Blog

Sources for Finding Intellectual Property

United States Patent and Trademark Office www.uspto.gov/main/patents.htm

This is the ultimate source. If you can spend some time learning to correctly search within the Web site, you will get the best results. Remember, when you are searching for a company, refer to it as assignee. Separately, search the assignee or the town, if small or unique, (skip New York and Los Angeles), and search for the inventor by last name. Other reliable sources include:

www.freepatentsonline.com -- Indexes the full page, but does not give the full results.
www.patentgenius.com -- Excellent search capabilities but, unfortunately, the results are limited.
www.google.com/patents -- Does not index the full page.
 

Note: This tip is from Cynthia Hetherington's book  Business Background Investigations

About Online Access to Public Records

Three important facts—

Less than 50% of the available public records from the government can be found online.
Usually the searchable and viewable information found online is limited to name indexes and summary data rather than document or document images. Most free access sites permit the former, not the latter.

Most free government public record websites that provide index searches list no personal identifiers beyond the name.

© excerpt from The Sourcebook to Public Record Information

Key Trade Associations - Public Record Research Tip

Researching a fact or problem related to public records or finding the right public record vendor can be difficult. People often overlook trade associations as resources of information and companies.

A list of the nation's top trade associations whose members are involved with public records to some degree, visit http://www.brbpub.com/prs/TradeAssn.asp

© excerpt from The Sourcebook to Public Record Information

Allegheny County, PA Raises Court Filing Fees and RE Recording Fees

Effective February 2, 2009, the Allegheny Department of Court Records and the Department of Real Estate increased a number of filing and recording fees. For example, a 4-page filing that used to cost $45 now is $65. The search and copy fees remain the same.

For the Civil/Family Division see:
http://dcr.alleghenycounty.us/Civil-Fees-2009.htm.

For the Department of Real Estate see:
www.county.allegheny.pa.us/re/fees.aspx

Two Bills Introduced in New Mexico to Permit Email Requests of Public Records

Two bills were recently introduced in the New Mexico Legislation that would permit the public to request via email copies of public records.

Bill 598 Amends Section 14-2-8 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1993,
Chapter 258, Section 5) and states "For the purposes of this section, "written request" includes an electronic communication, including email or facsimile; provided that the request complies with the requirements of Subsection C of this section."

Bill 507 states that "A written request may be made in electronic or paper form. Information on how to make requests for public records shall be prominently displayed on a publicly accessible web site maintained by or for the public body holding the public records. And the record custodian shall make public records available in electronic form accessible from a remote location, upon request, for a fee of twenty-five cents ($.25) or less per page."

Both bills received a do-pass recommendation from the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee. View the bills at http://legis.state.nm.us/lcs/_locatorcom.aspx?year=09 

Dane County Wisconsin Sheriff's Office and Record Requests

The Dane County (where the city of Madison is) Wisconsin Sheriff's Office now permits record requests to be made via online as an automatic email using the request form at www.danesheriff.com/records.aspx. Records available include accident reports and sheriff investigated incidents.

Missouri - Court Merger in Atchison County

In Missouri, the Circuit Court is the court of general jurisdiction and the Associate Circuit Court is the court of limited jurisdiction. A growing trend is to form Combined Courts. Effective Monday, February 2, 2009, the Associate Court in Atchison County is combining operations (and record databases) with the county's Circuit Court. A record search will produce results from both courts.

New Webpage for Finding Local Record Retrievers

The Public Record Retriever Network (PRRN) is pleased to announce a new webpage at www.prrn.us. The page allows the public to search by state and county (or parish) to find a local public record retriever PRRN member who can research a name or access a record file at the local the court or recorder's office. The webpage also has several informative articles with facts about record searching. The other web location for searching a PRRN member is still active at www.brbpub.com/prrn/search.aspx. 

Wyoming Courts

Each county has a District Court of “higher jurisdiction” and a Circuit Court of limited jurisdiction. Effective January 1, 2003 all Justice Courts became Circuit Courts and follow Circuit Court rules.

Circuit Courts handle civil claims up to $7,000 and small claims to $5,000. The District Courts take cases over the applicable limit in each county.

Three counties have two Circuit Courts each: Fremont, Park, and Sweetwater. Cases may be filed in either of the two court offices in those counties, and records requests are referred between the two courts.

Municipal courts operate in all incorporated cities and towns; their jurisdiction covers all ordinance violations, DUIs, and some misdemeanors, but no civil jurisdiction. The Municipal Court judge may assess penalties of up to $750 and/or six months in jail.

Probate is handled by the District Court.

© excerpt from The Public Records Tips Book.

Montana Secretary of State Records

Several changes went into effect on October 1, 2008 for the office of the Montana Secretary of State. The fee increased for copies and fax-back services for corporation and other business entity records, and for UCC filing records. The new copy fee is now set at a flat rate of $5.00 for copies per search or file. Previously the rate was $.50 per page.  The Secretary of State will return copies or documents via fax. The new fax-back rate is a $5.00 flat fee. Previously, the fee was $3.00 for the first 10 pages then $.50 for each additional page.
 
A complete list of all fees, including all filing and search costs, is found at http://sos.mt.gov/BSB/forms/fees/Business_Filing_Fees.pdf.