The presentation provided an overview of several major patent databases including WIPO's PatentScope, India's EKASWA and EPIDOS-INPADOC databases, and Canada's Canadian Patents Database. These databases allow users to search millions of patent documents from around the world and provide important information for researchers, innovators and those seeking to understand intellectual property rights. Effective use of the databases requires understanding how to conduct simple, advanced, equivalent and other specialized searches across different fields.
2. What is Patent ?
A patent is an exclusive right granted by the government for
an invention. It provides protection for the invention to the
owner of the patent for a limited period which varies from
country to country.
Patent is also a property right granted to a person or legal
entity (e.g., a corporation) by the Patent and Trademark Office.
The right conferred is “the right to exclude others from
making, using, offering for sale or selling” the patented invention
in any country or from importing the invention into the country.
3. Significance of Patent as Document :
Traditional scholarly publications such as journal articles, books,
and conference proceedings have been the major information
sources for academic researchers.
With the fast development of technology and innovation, patent
documents are becoming an increasingly important primary
scholarly information source.
Patents are governments grants that give inventors the exclusive
right to make, use, or sell an invention. In exchange, inventors
must fully describe the invention so that others can benefit from
this advance .
4. Because of the unique characteristics of patent
documents, they provide certain advantages over other kinds of
information sources.
1. About 600,000 patents were granted worldwide each year
recently, covering almost every field of technology
2. Patents usually disclose the newest technology or process,
therefore, it is useful for researchers to keep abreast with
the development in a field and get ideas for further
innovation.
3. Patent documents often have a standardized format. In
addition to bibliographic information and abstract sections,
patent documents must describe the technology in full detail.
5. What is Database ?
A database is a collection of information that is organized so
that it can easily be accessed, managed, and updated. In one
view, databases can be classified according to types of content:
bibliographic, full-text, numeric, and images.
Importance of Patent Database :
Patent Information is commonly not available in developing
countries . There are significant obstacles to identifying the
patent status of any particular product even in rich countries.
There are many patents field on various products . Patent
applications may be easily searchable.
7. Introduction :
Across the globe, there are over 180 patents offices in different
regions operating in different languages. With this information, it
is interesting to note that more than two-thirds of patent filings
across the world are accounted by only three patent offices,
namely US patent & trademark office, European Patent Office and
Japan Patent Office, also known as Trilateral Patent Offices.
Thus for any patent database it is of great importance to cover
the documents of these jurisdictions. The patent offices of the
trilateral countries and many other countries (such as China, India,
Canada, Korea, Singapore etc.) provide search facilities of their
patent documents online.
8. 1. PatentScope (WIPO)
PatentScope is the public database of record for Primary Care
Trust (PCT) international patent applications published by the
World Intellectual Property organization (WIPO). It contains
approximately 1.7 million international applications published
from 1978 forward. In 2009, WIPO extended PatentScope to
include national patent collections from the African Regional
Intellectual Property Organization, Cuba, Israel, Korea, Mexico,
Singapore, South Africa and Vietnam. The largest of these are
Korea (1.3 million documents from 1973-2007), Mexico (180,000
documents from 1991-2009) and Israel (144,000 documents from
1900-1999). WIPO also introduced a new search interface with
simple, structured and browse functions, and the option to display
search results as tables or graphs.
9. It provides Search as well as Advanced Search. We can Search
by Front Page, Any Field, Full Text, ID/ Number, Int.
Classification, Names, Dates.
10. What is PATENTSCOPE Search ?
PatentScope search is the FREE OF CHARGE search service
provided by the World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO) that allows you to access millions of patent
documents, namely:
International Patent Applications under the PCT
Regional and national patent collections from 25
Participating countries:
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa
Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic Etc.
The collections available are listed in the box on the Simple
Search page that opens by default.
11. What is the DATA COVERAGE ?
The search interface is available in 9 languages . A mobile
interface was also created for users who would like to use
PATENTSCOPE with their mobile phones. It is called PATENTSCOPE
Mobile and it is a simple and fast version of the interface allowing
smartphone users to search and browse millions of patent
documents.
12. How to SEARCH ?
A) Simple search
Here you can enter keywords in 6 fields: ALL; FULL TEXT;
ID/NUMBER; IPC; NAMES and DATES. To do so:
1. Select the field of interest;
2. Enter keywords;
3. Select the collection/s
you are interested in and
4. Hit the search button.
13. B) Advanced Search
The Advanced Search is the PATENTSCOPE expert search
interface in which an unlimited number of keywords can be
entered and combined and the most complex queries searched
for.
Queries containing field codes and Boolean expressions or
keywords can be searched for in this interface. To do so:
1. Enter keywords/Boolean expression/field codes etc.
2. Select the language in which you would like to perform the
search.11 languages are available;
3. Select the collection/s you are interested in and
4. Hit the search button.
14. Question
Mark
Language : 11 languages are available.
Stem : Untick this box if you would like to restrict your search to
the exact word/sentence typed in the box.
Tooltip Help: By ticking the Tooltip Help you will be shown
examples when moving your mouse over the interface.
Question Mark : Clicking on this Question Mark will
automatically display some search examples.
15. C) Field Combination
A more targeted search using
specific search criteria in
any search fields (e.g. Title,
Abstract, Description, etc.)
can be performed using this interface.
1. Select the field/s of interest using the arrow of the drop-down
menu;
2. Use the AND/OR boxes to add or include fields;
3. Select the language in which you would like to perform the
search. 11 languages are available;
4. Select the collection/s you are interested in and
5. Hit the search button.
16. D) CLIR
CLIR stands for Cross Lingual Information Retrieval and will
allow you to search a term or a phrase and its variants in
Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese,
Russian or Spanish by just entering the term(s) in one of those
languages in the search box.
Search Box
17. 1. Enter your query in the search box
2. Select the language of your query.
3. Select the “Expansion mode”:
a. SUPERVISED will allow you to select the technical
domain associated with your query and the variants
relevant to your query.
b. AUTOMATIC will generate the results immediately
without any further user input.
4. Decide on the balance between PRECISION and RECALL for
your query. If you favor RECISION, an expanded query will
be built in order to retrieve only the most relevant results at the
risk of missing some results. If you favor RECALL, an
expanded query will be built in order to retrieve the largest
possible number of accurate results, but also allowing the
possible retrieval of a large number of irrelevant results.
18. 2. EKASWA
EKASWA is India’s first patent database hosted by Technology
Information and Forecasting Council (TIFAC). As a first step in
this direction a Patent Facilitating Centre (PFC) was set up by
Department of Science and Technology under Technology
Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) in
1995.
The patent search involves three levels.
1. A bibliographic report on patents granted/published in
US, Europe, PCT and India are provided to the client.
2. Providing the abstracts of the relevant patents as requested by
the client.
3. Providing full text document of the patents.
19. The patent search services can be availed free of cost by
universities, academic institutions, Govt. R&D institutions and
government departments.
EKASWA –A, EKASWA –B AND EKASWA- C
20. How to SEARCH ?
The search allows queries to be formed using "+" , ","
,"#", and "*" options.
Use of And (+) option :
e.g. "microwave + oven": retrieves all records about microwave
ovens.
Use of Or (,) function:
e.g. "Laser, beam" retrieves records either having laser alone or
beam alone or having both. For records having both laser as
well as beam, use "laser + beam".
21. Use of bracket [ ] option: (Works only in Title Field) :
e.g."Laser+ [carbon monoxide, infra red]" looks for carbon
monoxide lasers as well a infrared lasers.
Use of wildcard option:
e.g. use " * " for plural. In the Title field, the keyword "lamp*
" locates lamps as well as lamps.
Use of Not (#) option: (Works only in Title Filed):
e.g. microwave# [oven, antenna] locates all those records
which contain microwave without oven or antenna.
22. The above Tips for Searching is the same to all three
EKASWA-A, EKASWA-B and EKASWA-C. But the
difference is given below:
EKASWA –A = Patent applications filed in India as published in
the issues of the Gazette of India (Part III, Section 2) from
January 1995 onwards.) (January 1995 to December 2004)
EKASWA –B = (Patent applications notified for opposition in
the Gazette of lndia (Part III, Section 2) published from January
1995 onwards.) (January 1, 1995 to December 2004)
EKASWA- C = (Patent applications published in official journal
of patent office published from January 2005 to June 2007)
23. 3. EPIDOS-INPADOC
EPIDOS-INPADOC is complete database under the National
Informatics Centre (NIC). It is one of the most comprehensive
database on the Patent Bibliography. This database is known as
EPIDOS (European Patent Information and Document Service).
European Patent Office (EPO) publishes this database. EPO has
been receiving the bibliography of all the patents filed and
granted in approximately 71 countries since 1968. It contains
over 33 millions references from 1968 onwards. Almost 3
millions references are added each year. We live in the age of the
Information Technology (IT). The universal acceptance of the
power of IT to transform and accelerate the development
process, especially in developing economies is indisputable.
24. Unique Field
Search
Combined
Field Search
Simple
Search Combination
of Fields
Equivalent
Search
25. Tips on Simple and Equivalent Search :
Application Number (AN)
This is Patent Number 15 characters long e.g. 196600006608137
Applicant's Name (AN)
The name of one or more persons or organizations which are
registered as proprietor of a patent application. The applicant can
also be the inventor. One keyword each box.
Inventors (TI)
The name of the person(s) who is/are registered on patent
application as the inventor(s). One keyword each box.
26. International Classification (IP)
The International classification(s) the patent has been placed
under. To search for International Class G06F 19/00, you can
search G06F0190000.
Patent Number (PN)
Is unique number assigned by respective patent office to a
granted application filed by inventor/applicant. E.g. us6012891.
Title (TI) Title of the Patent.
Equivalent Patent Search
Same Patent published in other countries with same priority.
Select publishing country from the list in Equivalent Search and
enter the patent no.
27. 4. Canadian Patents Database (CIPO)
The Canadian Patents Database, which is maintained by the
Canadian Intellectual Property Office, contains more than two
million Canadian patents and published applications from 1869
to the present. This database lets you access 92 years of patent
descriptions and images. You can search, retrieve and study more
than 2,110,000 patent documents. Full-text images are available
from 1920 onward. Recent improvements include a few aesthetic
changes to the search interface and the inclusion of a
representative drawing (if available) displayed in the
bibliographic record. In addition, as of January
29, 2010, abstracts in both English and French are available for
applications field under the PCT.
31. C) Boolean Search
Type the words or phrases you want to search in one or all text
entry areas. Select the patent fields to be searched with the
selector to the right of each entry area. When using both
areas, choose the logical operator (OR or AND). You can get
the text field definitions or you can view example queries .
34. Conclusion :
Despite the advantages of patent documents as an information
sources, they are still an underutilized information source for
research and development, particularly in non-industry settings.
During the last decade, commercialization of research and
scholarly work in the sciences has been increasing significantly.
Therefore, the library needs to adopt a more systematic
approach to patent information support to the users.
35. References :
Baillie, Jim. (2002). Introduction to Patent Searching, Retrieved
August 29, 2012, from Boston Public Library, General Reference
Department. Web Site:
Euro.ecom.cmu.edu/program/law/08…/Patents/PatentSearching.pdf
Patent Facilitating Center (n.d.). Retrieved on September 1, 2012 from
http://pfc.org.in/fac/fac.htm
What is INPADOC-EPIDOS? (2010). Retrieved September 4, 2012 from
http://patinfo.nic.in/
Patent Scope (WIPO) (n.d.). Retrieved September 6, 2012 from
http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/index.jsp
Canadian Intellectual Property Office (n.d.). Retrieved September
9, 2012 from http://brevets-patents.ic.gc.ca/opic-
cipo/cpd/eng/introduction.html