Access to patent information and documentation in public patent libraries

The paper summarizes the results of a study performed in 1980 for the Commission of the European Communities.The objective of the study was: to study the organization of existing public patent libraries and on this basis, supplemented with interviews with experts on patent information, to draft recommendations for the improvement of access to patent information in public patent libraries.The patent offices of the Federal Republic of Germany and France and the European Patent Office were visited in addition to the Science Reference Library in London and patent libraries and patent information centres in: Nürnberg, Liverpool, Lyon, Strasbourg and Toulouse.The most important problem areas identified are: identification of user's needs, the extent of the documentation needed, publicity programmes, location of the patent information centres, organization and staffing of the centres.The study is a supplement to two previous investigations sponsored by the Commission: Survey of Readership in Public Patent Libraries and Investigation of the Present and Future Use of Patent Literature.     

Progress report on the establishment of a Patent Information Centre (informationszentrum patente) in the Federal Republic of Germany

The author describes the structure of the sectorial information centre for patent information (IZ 17) which is being established in the Federal Republic of Germany as central information service under the responsibility of the German Patent Office. The local patent information services will be incorporated in the system. Details are further given on the work of the user's working party 17, which since April 1980 has taken part in the planning of the information centre by the German Patent Office.     

The patent system in Singapore

Patent protection in Singapore was formerly only available by obtaining a UK patent grant and then registering the grant in Singapore. The patent system that was implemented in 1995, and has replaced the former procedure, is described here. Applicants can request search and examination, in which case the work is outsourced to the Austrian or Australian patent offices. Alternatively applicants can submit the results of the corresponding search and examination reports carried out by a prescribed office (the patent offices of Australia, Japan¹, New Zealand, UK, USA, Canada (This only applies to Canadian patent applications filed when in English.) and the EPO (This only applies to European patent applications filed when in English.)). A mixed mode of relying on a search from a prescribed office or under the Patent Co-operation Treaty, followed by filing a request for examination, is also possible. The ePatents system, currently providing online Singapore patent register, database, renewal and address updating facilities, is summarised, as is SurfIP, an online service providing a patent search covering many databases and countries, IP management tools, and facilities to assist the commercialization of IP.     

Patent information services in India with special reference to drugs and pharmaceuticals

Patent information is useful to a wide spectrum of users. Chemical patent information is particularly useful to those concerned with innovations in this area, as the chemical patent literature is almost of the same size as the chemical journal literature. National and International patent laws and treaties greatly influence the size of patent literature, its dissemination and exploitation for economic development. Paris Convention, WIPO and PCT programmes have all played an important role in the field of patent information. In India, patent information has a very significant role to play because the country's present law offers wide-ranging opportunities from adaptive development on a foreign patent to its commercialization. Patent information services in India are provided by several organisations which include the Patent Office Headquarters at Calcutta and its branches at New Delhi, Bombay and Madras; Patent Information System, Nagpur; National Informatics Centre, New Delhi; Patent Unit, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi; Technical Information Cell, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Hyderabad; National Chemical Laboratory, Pune and National Information Centre for Drugs and Pharmaceuticals, Lucknow. Many of these organisations cover all areas of technology whereas others are restricted to particular disciplines. National Information Centre for Drugs and Pharmaceuticals is one such specialised centre restricted to only drugs and pharmaceutical. Its services such as patent bulletin and patent searches on selected drugs have been well accepted by the users. The Centre's holdings of foreign patent literature are meagre and need to be strengthened by acquiring them mainly from the U.S.A., France, F.R.G., Japan, Italy and Switzerland which are the top six nations responsible for introducing new drug substances. With a computer now installed at the Centre, the Centre should acquire INPADOC database and collaborate with existing Patent Information System, Nagpur and National Informatics Centre, New Delhi for better services. A survey of the patent information services in the countries of Asia and the Pacific carried out by the International Bureau of WIPO has put India in the first category because here information services are rendered by both the Industrial property organisation and other outside agencies.     

Patent information in a large electrical company, exemplified by the situation at Siemens

The special situation of patent information is dealt with against the background of the general problems of information provision. The role of the Patent Department of Siemens as a user of patent information and in the distribution of patent information within the company is discussed. Finally, the present system of current patent information on granted patents and first publications is outlined and an outlook on future developments given.     

The international patent classification

On January 1, 1980, the third edition of the International Patent Classifivation (IPC) published on July 1, 1979, entered into force. This means that on that date, almost 50 Industrial Property Offices throughout the world started applying the symbols of the third edition of the IPC, identified by “Int. Cl.³.” on their published patent documents and in their official Gazettes. The article underlines the importance of this event and gives detailed information about the IPC and its application.     

AIDB, the Italian Patent Information Users Group

The Italian Patent Information Users Group (AIDB—Associazione Italiana Documentalisti Brevettuali) was founded on February 24, 2004. At the end of that year, AIDB had 58 members, coming from different environments such as industry, private practice, public institutions, and content providers. During its first months of existence, AIDB coordinated various activities such as checking the extent and quality of documentation services offered by the Italian Patent and Trade Mark Office (UIBM), and promoting discussions about suitable certification schemes for professional patent searchers. In November 2004, AIDB organized a two-day national patent information conference, focused on the business impact of patent information and on the certification of patent searchers.     

Some problems in the use of the international patent classification

Nowadays the International Patent Classification (IPC) has become the main information-retrieval system in the field of patent information. The efficiency in using the IPC for patent search depends to a great extent on the consistency of classifying in Patent Offices of different countries. Insufficient consistency may be explained by errors in classifying, by peculiarities of patent laws influencing the wording of a patent document, as well as by the complexity of identifying the subject of an invention which should be classified. To provide the desired completeness and accuracy of classifying it is reasonable to use aspect analysis of document contents in order to reveal all relevant aspects from which the subject of an invention should be considered. The creation in different patent offices of common search files based on the IPC would also contribute to the efficient use of the IPC. An example thereof is the documentation file prepared under the project on class C 12.     

基于专利分析的超磁致伸缩材料工程应用趋势

对全球超磁致伸缩材料工程应用领域的专利文献进行检索收集、数据提取,从整体概览、技术分布、专利价值度等方面做了全面分析。通过关键词检索收集专利文献资料,对检索结果完成检全率、检重率验证,得到完整的专利文献资料。经过对专利文献的信息提取和数据处理,从整体概览、专利技术和技术价值等维度进行全面分析,得到全球超磁致伸缩材料工程应用的发展现状和研究进展,对技术发展趋势进行了预测。研究对中国超磁致伸缩材料工程应用领域技术创新及专利策略具有重要意义。     

Europe in the pole position of global patent information

Patent databases can be a paramount resource of technical information for researchers and engineers alike. But Europe’s innovating enterprises do not seem to be sufficiently aware of this resource. The European Commission is legally obliged to remove obstacles for the free access to information in the public domain. While both the United States and the Japanese governments have made available patent information on the Internet free of charge, Europe is as of yet lacking such access options (see Editor's note). A new initiative by the European Patent Organisation, accompanied by the European Commission’s “IPR Helpdesk” project, is starting to remedy this situation. The dimension of the planned measure will put Europe in the pole position of global patent information, while leaving sufficient room for added value offers by commercial providers.     

Processing of patent bibliographic data at chemical abstracts service

Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) has been involved with chemical patent information from its beginning in 1907. Since then, the patent literature has undergone many changes and CAS has tried to respond to those changes to better meet the needs of its users for patent information. One significant advance has been the signing of a long-term agreement with the International Patent Documentation Center (INPADOC) for a backfile of computer-readable patent bibliographic data and weekly update tapes. The article discusses the events which led to the signing of the INPADOC agreement, the manner in which the INPADOC backfile and weekly tapes are used to select chemical documents and determine basics and equivalents, and the format of the new Patent Index, derived from the INPADOC data, which was introduced by CAS in January 1981.     

PIZnet, the joint Internet site for German patent information centres

The objective of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Patentinformationszentren e.V. (The Association of German Patent Information Centres) is to encourage the ongoing development of the centres and to achieve broader public dissemination of industrial property rights information. Since use of the Internet has steadily increased amongst wide sections of the public in recent years, and since patent offices have taken steps to give the public free access to patent information, the association has set up a Germany-wide network known as PIZnet (“PIZ” standing for “patent information centres” in German) in co-operation with the Federal Printing Office. This network includes a presentation on all German patent information centres and the services they provide, it answers questions on the patent system, publishes offers of licences, and covers much else besides.     

Prolific inventors—A bibliometric analysis

Patent information on 7392 inventors who received 9 or more U.S. Patents during 1975–84 was obtained. Analysis of the frequency distribution of patents per inventor reveals an approximately logarithmic decline from 9 to approximately 45 patents per inventor. The rate of decline decreases significantly for patent output above 45 patents per inventor. Patent citation analysis on 45 randomly selected inventors was performed. This sample included inventors who received from 9 to over 100 patents. The group received 1.79 citations per patent, 56.8% of the patents received at least 1 citation, and 2.7% of the patents received 10 or more citations. No statistically significant differences for these averages was found across the range of inventor patent output. No significant decline of patent quality with increased yearly patent output was observed.     

Sources of inventive novelty: two patent classification schemas,same story

Scientometrics - An essential feature of a modern patenting system is a classification schema for organizing, indexing and coding the technical information contained in a patent. Patent...     

Patent information: a team work

Patent Information is a multi-faceted specialization, combining the several aspects of industrial property— technology, economics, law and others — with the field of information.An efficient patent information service requires education on the industrial property system and on information techniques of professionals in various fields of technology and social sciences. To take full advantage of the information provided by patent documents, the users likewise must be trained.In Brazil several tentative training and promotional activities for potential users are being conducted. But the main question of education on patent information is still quite superficial.     

Description of the activities of the Division of Patent Information (DLI) of the Dutch government industrial consulting service (Rijksnijverheidsdienst)

The DLI (which stands for Documentation, Literature search and Information) arose from the setting up within the Dutch Patent Office of a division of the Governmental Industrial Consulting Service (RND) forming a technical information centre. Out of this came a special service provided by the Dutch Government to help inventors hampered by lack of money. If an inventor proves that his financial situation is poor, the filing of a patent application and patent agent's fees will be paid for by the government. The DLI performs a novelty search, and if this shows that the inventor's application meets the requirements of patentability of the Dutch Law, the inventor qualifies for financial assistance in filing the application. Further assistance for prosecution of the application is dependent upon a third party certifying that they are willing to exploit the invention. The DLI also gives lectures on intellectual property and general advice to anyone having difficulty with the patent system.     

Patent information from the Polish Patent Office

The Polish Patent Office activity within the scope of its patent information policy—with emphasis on the changes since the 1990s—is described. In addition to aspects of patent searching, such as documentation and databases, dissemination activities, for example education and training, and the role of Patent Information Centres, is covered. New challenges associated with the promotion of intellectual property protection and its role for the economy are also highlighted.     

Impacts of patent information on clustering in Derwent Innovation's ThemeScape map

ThemeScape Map (Clarivate Analytics, n.d.) is a data analytics tool provided by Derwent Innovation. It is used by patent researchers and R&D experts to generate quick patent intelligence (HG Insights, 2020). It is a general practice that users plot the map by using the default settings recommended by Derwent Innovation, but this default setting may not yield the most optimized results as desired. In this paper, the author contributes to the empirical study on the impacts of the combination of the different types of patent information to be used in ThemeScape Map when clustering patent data. As a result, this paper recommends patent analysts to include Patent Classification and DWPI data when plotting ThemeScape Map in order to achieve more optimized results.