Googling for Inventors • Self-Driving Car Guidance • California Sued Again on Net Neutrality

“Google it” could have a whole new meaning for inventors. The Patent and Trademark Office is teaming with the search giant, along with Cisco Systems and MIT, to create an online archive about inventions and other products in use—known as prior art.

The goal is to give patent examiners, inventors and other researchers more tools to look up prior art, regardless of whether they’ve been patented. The archive “will help our examiners, and the public, to identify additional prior art upfront, during the examination process,” PTO director Andrei Iancu says.

Patent examiners rely on prior art research to determine if ...