Patent pending question

[JESS1]

I own a small business. A process that I would like to use was published in July 2012 in an academic journal and described as "Patent pending" - no reference number was given. I have searched for this patent on Espacenet but can find no evidence of it. Now other competitors are using this process, and I don't want to miss out. But I don't want to enfringe a patent! How can I find out if this patent application was actually filed or issued?
Also if they put "patent pending" on a publication but did not actually submit an application isn't this illegal?

 

[Spearmint]

I believe that it is illegal to insert the wording 'patent pending' if it hasn't been officially applied for.

Without incurring the expense of a Patent Attorney to do the search for you, you could try the British Library. Check out their website. They have more advanced software/computers for conducting the searches and you never know they may even provide a service whereby they can do the search for you, but I'm not sure about the latter, and you may have to go there to DIY.

Patent Attorneys also use (freelance) researchers (if thats what they're called) to do searches for them, and again they may be able to help or direct you to one of them.

 

[kh43355z]

Patent applications are not typically published until 18 months after the date of filing. So assuming that the patent application in question was filed at about the same time as the journal publication, I would expect the patent application to be published in early 2014.

You can also use the website espacenet if you know the name of the applicant. This website is used by the majority of patent attorneys for basic searching and is free to use.