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Grace Baysinger |
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Swain Chemistry & Chemical Engineering
Library |
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Stanford University |
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graceb@stanford.edu |
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What is a patent? |
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Why search patents? |
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Where can you search patents? |
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How do you order a patent? |
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Additional Resources |
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A patent is a legal agreement between the
inventor and the government that |
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secures to the owner the right to exclude others
from making, using or selling the claimed invention for a period of time in
the granting country |
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discloses the invention in exchange for this
right |
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A patent is a form of property known as
intellectual property. It can be
licensed, sold outright, exchanged, or even given away. |
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Patent protection usually lasts for 20 years. |
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CAN: |
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a process |
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a machine |
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a manufactured product |
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a composition of matter |
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CANNOT: |
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inventions useful solely in the utilization of
special nuclear materials or atomic energy for atomic weapons |
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laws of nature |
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physical phenomena or scientific principles |
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abstract ideas |
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purely mental processes |
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mathematical algorithms |
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Rules governing what is “patentable” vary
slightly from one country to another. |
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In Europe,
biological material isolated from its natural environment or
produced by a technical process may be the subject of invention even if it
previously occurred in nature.
However, the human body or human genes cannot be patented. Computer program products could be
patentable if they resulted in additional technical effects, which went
beyond the “normal” physical interaction between software and hardware
associated with running the program. |
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In the USA, one can patent a computer program,
an animal and a variety of plants.
This is not so in other countries, although alternative protection
may be obtained in some cases through Registered Designs or the laws of
Copyright. |
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In order to be patentable, an invention must be: |
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new or novel |
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non-obvious |
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have utility |
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Types of patents: |
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Utility |
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constitutes the greatest portion of patents |
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Plant |
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for asexually reproduced new plant varieties |
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Design |
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for the ornamental design of articles having a
practical utility |
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An inventor or organization (the patent
assignee) files a patent application in each country which patent
protection is sought. |
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Each country’s patent office puts the
application through an examination process to determine if the invention
meets the country’s criteria for a patent. |
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If the invention disclosed in the application
meets the country’s criteria for a patent, the patent is granted and the
inventor has patent protection in that country. |
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In each patent office that an application is
filed, an Application Number and an Application Date are assigned to the
document. |
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The first filing application is considered the
Priority Application and the date of this application is the Priority
Application Date. |
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As an alternative to filing multiple
applications at individual country patent offices, applications seeking
international coverage may make an initial single filing to one or both of
two organizations: |
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World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) |
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Publishes unexamined application, initiates
search report, and submits application and search report to national
offices of the designated countries.
Does not grant patents. |
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http://www.wipo.int/pct/en/index.html |
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European Patent Office (EPO) |
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Examines and issues patents. EPO granted patent is valid in
designated states. |
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http://www.european-patent-office.org/ |
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Many countries publish patent applications
and/or granted patents. It is
through these publications that the information in a patent document is
made public. |
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Countries vary in the stage(s) of a patent
document that is published, and when this occurs. Based on the initial publication time, countries are
considered either |
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Fast-publishing countries |
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Slow-publishing countries |
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Fast-publishing countries |
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Patent Application (typically 18 months after
the priority application is filed) |
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Granted patent (sometime later) |
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Examples:
Australia, Belgium, Canada, EPO, France, Germany, Japan, United
Kingdom, WIPO |
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Slow-publishing countries |
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Publish only the granted patent approximately 24
months or more after the priority application is filed |
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Examples: Austria, Israel, Switzerland, United
States |
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Note: All U.S. patent applications filed on or
after 11-29-00 are published by the PTO about 18 months after the filing
date. |
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All of the published patent applications from
various countries and the subsequently granted patents on an invention are
commonly referred to as patent equivalents. Bear in mind, they are not true
equivalents. Each patent-issuing
authority may have different regulations for filing and a different
interpretation of the invention. |
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Each group of patent equivalents make up a
patent family. Members of a
closely-related patent family have a common priority application number and
date. |
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These family members are usually included in a
single record in the online database. |
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Extended patent family members typically result
from |
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complex relationships such as multiple, yet at
least one common, priority applications from different countries |
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relationships resulting from divisions,
continuations or continuations-in-part |
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A database producer may create additional
records to capture any new information that may be reported in these family
members |
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The Basic Patent is typically the first family
member identified for abstracting and indexing into a database. |
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The term has no legal meaning; the basic for one
database producer may not be the basic for another producer. |
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Important source of scientific information |
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Avoid duplication of effort |
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Survey the state-of-the-art |
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Trace the development of technolgy |
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Find solutions to technical problems |
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Keep abreast of licensing opportunities |
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Important source of business information |
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Identify competitors and monitor their
activities |
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Assess the strength of other companies |
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Help identify potential gaps in the marketplace |
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Headhunt or identify the experts |
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Make sure no-one is infringing on your patents |
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Patents are the largest single source of
technical information in the world, providing a unique and vast library of
technical and research information. |
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An average of one million new patent
applications are filed every year. |
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Over 70% of scientific information contained
within patents is not published anywhere else. |
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Patent Databases |
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National |
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International |
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Subject Databases |
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Biotechnology Abstracts |
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Chemical Abstracts |
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U.S. Patent and Trademark Office |
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http://www.uspto.gov |
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All U.S. patent applications filed on or after
November 29,2000, are published by the PTO about 18 months after the
application filing date. |
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Patent applications are published every
Thursday. |
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The text of U.S. -issued patents and published
patent applications is available online from the PTO’s website, both in
searchable full-text format or as images of the actual patent document. |
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Databases containing U.S. patent information are
also available from commercial vendors. |
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Updated weekly, Derwent Innovations Index (DII)
contains over 10 million basic inventions and 22 million patents from 40
patent-issuing authorities, going back to 1963. |
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The value of clarity - Derwent Information
analyzes, classifies, abstracts, and applies sophisticated alpha-numeric
indexing codes to patent documents for all new inventions |
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Easy searching - the intuitive user interface |
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Key drawings and images - to illustrate the
invention’s novelty |
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Patent Citations - ability to link directly to
other relevant patent documents |
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Patent titles re-written to make them more
meaningful and easier to understand. |
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Bibliographic information summarizes the history
of the patent application, including details of where and when the
invention was patented. |
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Clear and concise abstract prepared, detailing
claims & disclosures, and highlighting main uses & advantages of
the technology. |
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Key drawing or diagram added from patent to
illustrate key components of the invention. |
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Subject experts apply a sophisticated system of
indexing that enables comprehensive searching. |
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Concise Patent Family table created,
representing global coverage of invention sought by the Patent Assignee. |
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Use upper, lower, or mixed case letters |
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Enter words and phrases without quotation marks |
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Separate two or more terms by Boolean operators |
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AND, OR, NOT |
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Use SAME to search terms within the same
sentence |
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Use quotation marks around words AND, OR, NOT,
or SAME where these terms are not acting as search operators |
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Use parentheses to group compound Boolean
statements |
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Wildcard Truncation |
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* = Right and internal, represents any number of
characters, including no characters |
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? = represents a single character |
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General Searches |
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Topic (titles and abstracts |
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Assignee (company names and/or codes) |
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Inventor |
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Patent Number |
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International Patent Classification |
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Derwent Class Code |
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Derwent Manual Code |
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Derwent Primary Accession Number |
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Cited Patent Searches |
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Cited Patent Number |
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Cited Assignee |
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Cited Inventor |
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Cited Derwent Primary Accession Number |
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Most patent-issuing authorities issue more than
one document for a patent. These sequential documents often keep the same
number, so they are distinguished by adding a letter immediately after the
number. |
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Status Code |
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Unexamined
A |
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Examined B |
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Granted C |
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These codes are also given a numerical suffix to
indicate the number of times the specification was published (e.g. A1, B2,
C3). |
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As many applications reach the acceptance stage
before the examined document is published (18 months after filing), the 2nd
publication stage is avoided, and the granted patent document is given the
code C(=granted status)2(=second publication). |
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International Patent Classification System |
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Hierarchical classification system produced by
WIPO |
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Used by patent offices throughout the world |
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Included in DII records since 1970 |
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IPC system covers all areas of technology and is
a useful system that allows searching with greater precision |
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Derwent Classification System |
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Categorizes patent documents using a simple
classification system for all areas of technology |
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Derwent’s subject specialists have consistently
applied this unique classification system to all patent documents since
1970 |
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Provides a uniform and accurate indexing tool to
enable you to effectively clarify ambiguous keywords and broaden or narrow
your Sub/Keyword searches |
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Patent Glossary |
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http://www.derwent.com/patentglossary/ |
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American/British Dictionary |
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http://www.derwent.com/dwpireference/ukdict.html |
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Derwent Standard Abbreviations |
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http://www.derwent.com/dwpireference/abbrev.html |
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Guide to the International Patent Classification
(IPC) |
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http://www.wipo.int/classifications/fulltext/new_ipc/guideeng.htm |
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International Patent Classification. 7th Edition |
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http://www.wipo.int/classifications/fulltext/new_ipc/index.htm |
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Derwent Classification System |
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http://www.derwent.com/dwpireference/classification/index.html |
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Derwent Patentee Codes Lookup Facility (company
names/codes) |
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http://www.derwent.com/dwpireference/discover.html |
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Search Derwent's Coding and Classification
Databases |
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A-M = Chemical Sections |
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P-Q = Engineering Sections |
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S-X = Electrical and Electronic Sections |
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http://www.derwent.com/plweb-cgi/fastweb?TemplateName=search.tmpl&view=classification |
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Derwent Manual Codes Look-Up |
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http://www.derwent.com/dwpireference/cpi_search.html |
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http://www.derwent.com/dwpireference/eng_mc.html |
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Patent Numbers: “Type” or “Kind” Codes |
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http://www.derwent.com/dwpireference/kindcodes.html |
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WIPO Country Codes |
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http://www.derwent.com/dwpireference/wipo.html |
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Patent Authorities Covered by Derwent World
Patent Index |
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http://www.derwent.com/dwpireference/patauth.html |
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Derwent Patent Information - Reference Index |
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http://www.derwent.com/dwpireference/index.html |
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INPADOC (INternational PAtent DOcumentation
Center) contains the bibliographic and family data of patent documents and
utility models of 69 patent issuing organizations including the European
Patent Office and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). In
addition, the legal status data of 35 patent issuing organizations are
included. |
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1968 to the present for patent records |
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1978 to the present for legal status |
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More than 32.6 million records including
national patent families (11/01) |
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More than 53.5 million legal status data in
about 10 million records (11/01) |
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Updated weekly with about 40,000 citations and
30,000 legal status data |
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Available commercially. Expensive to display
legal status info. |
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Provides in-depth coverage of the most current
and leading edge scientific and technical research in the field of
biotechnology, with an emphasis on commercial and industrial applications. |
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Abstracts 1,200 scientific and technical
journals |
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Patents from 40 patent-issuing authorities |
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More than 30% of the records in Derwent
Biotechnology Abstracts are patents |
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Coverage 1982-present |
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Size: 200,000+ records, 16,000+ added annually |
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User aid:
http://www.silverplatter.com/newFieldGuides/btab/ |
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Stanford has site licensed access to this
database. |
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Chemical Abstracts is a comprehensive database
for chemistry and chemical engineering.
Chemical Abstracts Service has covered patents since the first issue
of Chemical Abstracts was published in 1907. The first issue of CA contained 181 patent abstracts, and
patent abstracts made up over 30% of all the abstracts published in volume
1 of CA. Patents now comprise about
18% of the 700,000 abstracts added annually. |
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Patents selected from INPADOC. Only basic patents are incorporated into
CA. |
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In SciFinder Scholar, search by chemical
substance, research topic, or company.
Refine search by limiting results to document type “patent.” |
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Markush chemical structures in patents. |
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Some patent web sites provide free access to
patent documents. Viewing them is
slow as only one page may be viewed at a time. |
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The Swain Library has set up experimental
program to provide PDF versions of standard patents from MicroPatent for
Stanford students, faculty, and staff.
To use this service, please go to: |
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http://library.stanford.edu/depts/swain/2001/libservices2001/docdel.html |
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Selected Resources for Patents, Inventions, and
Technology Transfer |
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http://library.stanford.edu/depts/swain/patent/pattop.html |
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Patent Terminology (from Chemical Abstracts
Service) |
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Used this source to describe patents in this
workshop. |
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http://www.cas.org/training/eseminars/materials/patfamily.pdf |
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What Every Chemist Should Know About Patents |
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http://www.acs.org/portal/resources?id=2f8c04b055fd11d6fd1c6ed9fe800100 |
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Notes