Stephen Adams Information Sources in Patents 3rd completely revised edition De Gruyter Saur 6613
Contents i List of Figures "List of Tables iseries Editor's Foreword f'preface to Second Edition 'Preface to Third Edition xiii xiv xvii xxi xxv 'ipart I: Patent processes and documentation 1 Principles of patenting. 3 Legal Processes - 3 Defining a patent 4 The concept of priority " 5 The historical examination process for patents 6 The development of deferred examination and early publication 9 A typical sequence in modern patent examination 10 Patents as Information Tools 12 Language of publication 12 Patents as accessible documents 14 Patent families - 15 Bibliographic Standards and the Form of a Patent Document 19 Special Document Types 22 Alternative forms of intellectual property (IP) rights 23 Patent amendments and corrections 24 Patent-related protection mechanisms 25 28 ;2 The European Patent system 31
viii Contents 3 4 5 EP Patent Documents - Centralised and Nationalised Procedures Formal examination and search report Unexamined publication Grant publication Post-grant publications Post-grant translations and the London Agreement Other post-grant events European Classification Databases and Database-Specific Aspects Relationships with the European Union The effect of European Regulations and Directives The Community Patent The United States patent system Historical Aspects Recent Law Changes US Patent Documents Application procedure Examination, early publication and grant Post-grant activities Databases and Database-Specific Aspects The US Patent Classification The Japanese patent system History of Japanese Patents Japanese Patent Documentation and Recent Law Changes Normal progress to grant Japanese Bl publications The importance of utility models Databases and Database-Specific Aspects The Japanese Patent Classification and Indexing Systems The Patent Co-operation Treaty Background to the PCT System PCT Documentation Databases Covering the PCT System 34 35 35 37 37 38 42 43 44 46 46 47 48 49 49 52 52 52 54 58 61 65 67 68 68 70 70 72 73 74 78 79 80 80 80 91 97
Contents ix National patent systems of the G7 countries 99 Introduction 99 Canada 99 Historical aspects and current law National patent documentation 99 101 Databases and database-specific aspects 101 France 103 Historical aspects and current law 103 National patent documentation 104 Databases and database-specific aspects 105 Germany 107 Historical aspects and current law 107 National patent documentation Databases and database-specific aspects 108 11.0 Italy 114 Historical aspects and current law National patent documentation 114 115 Databases and database-specific aspects 117 United Kingdom 118 Historical aspects and current law 118 National patent documentation 121" Databases and database-specific aspects. 123 124 The BRIC nations, Asia and regional patent systems 125 Introduction 125 Brazil 125 Historical aspects and current law 125 National patent documentation 127 Databases and database-specific aspects 128 Russian Federation 129 Historical aspects and current law 129 National patent documentation 131 Databases and database-specific aspects 131 India 134 Historical aspects and current law 134 National patent documentation 135 Databases and database-specific aspects 138 China 139 Historical aspects and current law 139 National patent documentation 140 Databases and database-specific aspects 145 Other Asian Countries 147 South Korea 147
x Contents Taiwan 148 Regional Patent Systems 149 The Eurasian Patent Office 150 Africa - ARIPO and OAPI 152 The Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) 154 Future developments in regional patent systems 157 157 Part II - Databases and search techniques 159 8 Patent guides and libraries 161 General Directories and Reference Works 161 United Kingdom Patent Libraries 162 United States Patent Libraries 163 German Patent Libraries 163 The European PATLIB Network 164 Japanese Patent Libraries 164 Chinese Patent Libraries 165 166 9 National and international patent information sources Paper Sources 167 168 Optical Disk (CD-ROM, DVD) 168 Integrated Disk-Internet Products Via Mimosa 172 Proprietary Electronic Databases Derwent World Patent Index (DWPI) 174 (Thomson-Reuters) 174 Patent Citation Index (PCI) (Thomson-Reuters) 185 PlusPat, FamPat (Questel) API Encompass and WPAM (Questel) 186 187 INPADOC PFS and Open Patent Services (EPO) Pharm (Questel) 188 190 Other Thomson-Reuters products 191 IMS Patent Focus (IMS Health) GeneSeq (DGENE) 192 192 Chemical Abstracts / Marpat (CAS) MMS (Questel) 193 196 SureChem (Macmillan) 197 Public Internet Sources 197 National patent office websites 197 Patent Office portal sites _ 198 Controlled-Access Internet 202 Password- or account-based systems Encrypted systems 203 209
Contents xi 10 11 12 The non-patent literature for the patent searcher Legal Background to Non-Patent Literature Use Open-Access Journals Internet Disclosures Reference Guides Source Indexes Special Library Sources Subject Guides Reviews Tertiary Literature Other Forms Of Literature Grey literature Theses Traditional Knowledge (TK) Conference literature and technical standards Technical disclosure bulletins Conclusion ' Common search types (I) - Alerting searches Standard Bulletins In-House Strategies Specialist Suppliers Common search types (II) - Patentability and freedom-to-operate searches The Patentability Search The Infringement Search 211 212 212 215 216 217 218 218 219 220 221 223 223 224 225 226 227 227 228 231 231 235 236 237 237 241 244 13 Common search types (III) - Portfolio and legal proceedings searching The Portfolio Search Validity and Opposition Searching 245 245 247 249 14 Sources for legal status searching What is 'Legal Status'? Services from patent offices Multi-country coverage sources Commercial sources for legal status 250 250 252-261 266 268
List of Tables Table 1 : Some multi-lingual patent publishing authorities 13 Table 2 : Key WIPO standards for bibliographic control of patents. 19 Table 3 : Some commonly occurring national and regional codes 20 Table 4 : Some important INID codes 21 Table 5 : Membership of the European Patent Organisation 32 Table 6: Translation requirements of European Patents after the London Agreement :. 39 Table 7 : European Patent publication stages 42 Table 8 : Summary of current (2011) EPO document codes 43 Table 9 : European Patent databases 45 Table 10 : Publication milestones in US patent history 50 Table 11 : US application number series codes 53 Table 12 : US publication sequence 55 Table 13 : US Re-issue publications 59 Table 14 : Summary of current US KD codes 60 Table 15 : Redundant US KD codes 60 Table 16: United States patent databases 63 Table 17 : Japanese Imperial Era and calendar dates 69 Table 18 : Japanese patent publication stages and number formats 71 Table 19 : A Japanese accelerated examination process in chronological order.; ; 72 Table 20 : Japanese utility model publication stages and number formats 73 Table 21 : Japanese patent databases with English content 75 Table 22 : Selected Japanese-only patent sources 76 Table 23 : Subject coverage of PAJ 77 Table 24 : Changes in PCT numeration > 82 Table 25 : PCT kind-of-document codes 86 Table 26 : Member states of the PCT, as of 31st August 2011 87 Table 27 : Publication language breakdown. under the PCT, 2008 and 2010 r. 93 Table 28 : PCT databases 95 Table 29 : Canadian patent databases 102
List of Tables xv pble 30 fable 31 iable 32 le 33 liable 34 [Gable 35 table 36 ptble 37 feble 38 pble 39 liable 40 le 41 ]>ble 42 ple 43 Kable 44 pable 45 pcable 46 (table 47 liable 48 r Nable 49 jable 50 itable 51 [.Table 52 -Table 53 Table 54 Table 55 ' Table 56 ^ Table 57 Table 58 Table 59 Table 60 Table 61 Table 62 Table 63 French patent databases 106 German Intellectual Property Right numbering codes 109 German KD codes and sequences 110 German patent databases Ill Italian province codes 115 Italian patent databases:. ;... 117 Typical GB grant sequence 122 Application process for Supplementary Protection Certificate in the UK 123 United Kingdom patent databases 124 Brazilian number formats 1971-date. ; 127 Brazilian patent databases 128 Russian patent databases 132 Indian application, publication and grant numbers 137 Indian patent databases 138 Chinese numbering series 1985-date (patents) 142 Examples of Chinese patent numbering in use... 142 Chinese numbering systems 1985- date (utility models) 143' Examples of Chinese utility model numbering in use.. 143 Chinese-language abbreviations for document types 144 Chinese patent databases 146 EPO disk-based products 170 Test disks / discontinued series 171 A selection of non-epo disk-based products 171 Chemical Patents Index (CPI) sections 175 Non chemical sections of WPI 176 Country coverage for selected multicountry databases 179 Example CPI Manual Code hierarchy... 184 Example Chemical fragmentation code hierarchy 184 Pharm country coverage 191 Main DEPATISnet country coverage 201 PatentScope national country coverage (excluding PCT) 202 Total Patent full-text sources 203 Delphion file content 205 Country coverage of WIPS service 207
xvi List of Tables Table 64 Table 65 Table 66 Table 67 Table 68 Table 69 Table 70 Table 71 Table 72 MicroPatent full text availability 208 The Thomson Reuters range of patent current awareness products 232 Bentham Science "Recent Patents in..." journals 234 Selected Asian legal status registers 260 INPADOC PRS coverage as of 2011 - unique content in italics ;...263 PatentScope coverage of PCT national phase entry - unique content in italics 265 Suppliers of patent analysis and visualisation software tools 273 IPC revision periods 278 Variations in classification for members of the same patent family 281