Due to my line of work, I find myself having to use both these services frequently, despite avoiding google as much as I can. I see a lot of alternatives out there for internet searching, but when it comes to specific fields, alternatives tend to be scarce.
Patents seems to be the hardest one to find alternatives. The thing with google patents is that it searches from multiple databases, from multiple countries, so we don’t need to look for each source.
I used to litigate patents, and for international searches I have not found an adequate substitute. Depending on why you are searching, searching may be inadvisable anyway, at least in the U.S. if your search uncovers a specific patent (or even arguably should have uncovered a specific patent) and you are later sued by the rights holder for infringement, your actual knowledge of the patent can be used against you to show willful infringement, a damage multiplier. Apparently, companies that know about a patent need to hire competent legal counsel to analyze the patent with respect to their products and give them an opinion on possible infringement. That process can be quite expensive, so it is often better to not search in the first place. I wrote a few opinions over the years, but it was not a common activity. Accusations of willful infringement were pretty common in litigation though, probably about 40% of my cases.
Just writing this quick summary makes me glad I retired from practicing law.
Also, you are not my client, this is not legal advice, I might be a fraud, yadda yadda yadda.
Thank you for the tip. In my case, I’m working with technology prospecting, and we use patents as a source of information on what kinds of new technologies to expect, what technologies are about to become public domain, etc. It’s not something that can violate any IP.