Patent Documentation Group 1957-2008 Minoo Philipp President Patent Documentation Group http://www.p-d-g.org
Patents are a very important source of technical information Need for abstracts of patent information Need for patent family and legal status information Need for searching patent information Need for reliable and up-to date information Page 2
PDG Companies united to share the burden of patent work Abstracting patent documents Finding equivalents and collating patent families Distributing the information between companies Developing common indexing system Page 3
History 1957 Page 4
History 1957 - The PDG was founded as a working group by 13 international chemical and petrochemical companies to share the task of preparing patent abstracts and indexing the content 1960 - Successful work expanded to include patent information management 1970 - Focus changed to online retrieval and networks 1980 - Activities also cover impact of patent laws on patent information and documentation 2008 - Has 41 multinational companies as members from 8 countries and major industrial sectors Page 5
Purpose and Objectives Cooperation in patent information and documentation Exchange knowledge and experience in all areas relating to patent information Debate, discuss and stimulate improvements and new developments in patent information products Determine and communicate proposals to third parties involved in the field of intellectual property information Page 6
Membership Member companies are actively engaged in industrial R&D and invest considerable funds in R&D Members are significant players in their own industrial sector and have a major presence in Europe Members have an active patent and / or patent information department and have professional staff engaged in patent information activities Members are expected to participate actively in at least one of the PDG Working Groups and other activities such as Annual Members Conference Page 7
Membership development 45 40 35 PDG founded 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 1957 1970 1980 1990 2000 2008 Page 8
Milestones 1969 - PDG became a registered association 1970 - Abstracting of patent specifications discontinued by PDG due to availability of the Derwent Service 1976 - First official PDG Working Group - Networks and Online Retrieval was established 1980 - Working Group IMPACT established 1984 - PDG Statutes amended to enable non-chemical/oil companies to join the PDG 2007 - Celebrated its 50th Anniversary Page 9
Past Successes Our efforts have contributed to major achievements Significant improvements in database content and functionality Introduction of Markush chemical structure searching Availability of fulltext patent databases Launch of patent citation databases Introduction of Left Hand Truncation Online thesauri / dictionaries Legal status databases Page 10
Past Successes cont d Availability of software tools for post processing and patent analysis Introduction of systematic correction procedures at patent offices and vendors Extension of data coverage in Inpadoc Patent publications available on the internet PCT cases entering national/regional phases SPC data: availability and implementation Page 11
PDG-Organisation PDG Annual Conference Main Delegates Secretary General PDG Board PDG WG IMPACT Experts from PDG companies, PTO s, WIPO, Providers, EPI PDG WG Online Networks and Online Retrieval Experts from PDG companies Associated Working Groups Analysis & Visualization Biotechnology Chemical Reactions in Patents Education & Training Fulltext Searching PDG WG PDV Patent Database Vendors Experts from PDG companies PDG WG IMI Internal Management of Information Experts from PDG companies Page 12
PDG Board & Secretary General President: Vice-President: Minoo Philipp (Henkel) Monika Hanelt (Agfa Graphics) Board Members: Mathias Boenig (Boehringer Ingelheim) John Bullen (BP) Anni-Barbara Endler-Jobst (F. Hoffmann-La Roche) Gerold Frers (Siemens) Gerhard Fischer (Syngenta) Werner Fröhling (Volvo) Secretary General: Sandy Mullen Page 13
A Selection of PDG Corporate Members Agfa Graphics DAIMLER Pfizer Akzo Nobel DSM Philips AstraZeneca Eli Lilly Procter & Gamble BASF Evonik Degussa Robert Bosch Bayer F. Hoffmann-La Roche Sanofi-Aventis Beiersdorf GlaxoSmithKline Schering-Plough BMS Henkel Shell International Boehringer Ingelheim IFP SIEMENS BP International Lanxess Solvay Ciba Lyondellbasell Syngenta Clariant International L'Oreal Tetra Pak Cytec Specialty Chemicals Novartis Unilever Volvo Page 14
PDG Board Executive authority of the PDG Five to nine members Elected by the Main Delegates at the Annual Members Conference Tasks of the Board: Implement decisions of Main Delegates made at AMC Define and lead the course of action for the PDG Elect President and Vice President Appoint and supervise the Secretary General Page 15
Annual Members` Conference Authority to decide on official matters concerning the internal organisation of the PDG Election of Board Members Decides on the policy of the PDG with respect to the interaction with information providers, international and national patent offices Distinguished guest speakers are invited Page 16
PDG Working Groups Working Groups are where the project work within the PDG is accomplished At present these are the main working groups ONLINE founded in 1976 IMPACT founded in 1980 PDV founded in 1992 IMI founded in 1994 Page 17
Further Working Groups Analysis & Visualization Biotechnology Chemical Reactions in Patents Education & Training Fulltext searching Page 18
PDG WG ONLINE Mission to exchange knowledge and experience in fields of electronic patent information to maintain close contacts with database producers and suppliers (Derwent, CAS, STN, Questel-Orbit, Thomson-Dialog etc) to encourage and assist information providers in improving the quality of patent information products Page 19
PDG WG ONLINE Actively involved in: Monitoring quality, timeliness and correctness of data in patent databases Assessing chemical structure searching capabilities Checking database content and search features Studying the application of software tools in patent information retrieval Evaluating post processing and statistical analysis tools Page 20
PDG WG IMPACT Mission To ascertain the effect of changes in patent laws on patent information members deal with: How to react to changes Weaknesses in publication process How to smooth out irregularities User-friendly new procedures and tools Page 21
PDG WG IMPACT continued Actively involved in: Impact of patent laws on patent information Quality management at patent offices and vendors Standardisation procedures Patent information policy Closely involved in the implementation of the new IPC Reform IMPACT WG maintains close contacts with WIPO, EPO, the National Patent Offices and commercial vendors Page 22
PDG WG PDV Mission Primarily works towards establishing close relationships with patent information suppliers at a strategic level Deals with: Database content Database quality Information policy Page 23
PDG WG IMI Mission Addresses the highly challenging function of Information Management Organization and tasks of information centres Internal marketing Competitive intelligence Cost-analysis End-user searching and training Page 24
PDG External Activities Annual PDG Forum with the EPO PDG has an observer status at WIPO meetings Sub Advisory Committee before the EPO (SACEPO) Cooperation in several committees and working parties (SCIT, IPC) Contact and cooperation with national user groups and other organizations interested in intellectual property information Page 25
Ongoing challenges The economic impact of IP is becoming more and more significant Need for accurate indexing and abstracts of patent information which truly reflect the actual content of the full specification Need to be able to retrieve specific information located in patents Need for reliable and up-to-date patent information in a language we can understand Need for reliable and comprehensive patent family and legal status information Page 26
Some challenges for the near future How to deal with the hype of supposedlyfree information Cope with the dramatic growth in patent filings from South East Asia Need for English translations of Chinese patents and utility models Education and training of patent information searchers Qualification for professional patent information specialists Maintain our strong relationship with our information providers Continue to strive for a fair partnership between the suppliers and the users Page 27