Better Genealogy Challenge no.28 was essentially 'Visit your national Patent and Trademark Office web site, and also try Google Patent Search.'
The Australian Government site, http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/, has a drop-down list to select whether you want to search patents or trademarks. I seemed to wade through many pages before I reached one where I could do a search. An unusual feature is the ability to drag and drop data labels to change their order in your results. You can also add or remove a label by dragging it into or out of the list of unused labels. I recommend including the label 'Agent Name', because in my search it revealed the inventor's address.
On the IPAustralia site I searched for 'Cunnamulla' (my home town) and found that in 1981 Stuart Charles BARKLA applied for a patent for a folding stock feeder. I did not find a similar reference using Google Patent Search, but I was pressed for time and may have missed it.
The Trademarks section has a link to 'Search for Australian Surnames'. (I quote) 'This is a tool used to assess how common a surname is in Australia. Trade Marks that consist of common surnames may be difficult to register.' I tested this tool with surnames from my mother's family, and the counts were RIENECKER=46, STEINKE=146. For my friend Helen, who is doing a one-name study, I found QUESTED=67.
In last week's challenge - using Google Scholar - I found a United States patent issued to William Stewart BENTLEY, Mooning, Cunnamulla, Queensland, Australia, for inventing an ornamental design for a bread bun.
('52 Weeks to Better Genealogy' is a series of tasks devised by Amy Coffin for Geneabloggers.)
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