Communications

WorMPatenfInformotton,Vol 10, No 1, pp 45-51, 198s Pergamon Orbtt InfoLme Prmted m Great htarn

Inc

although hcences will be avatlabie as of right after five years Copying necessary for a spare part (e g motor vehicle parts) to fit or match IS permitted The ehtor welcomes contrtbuttons to this sectlon

UNITED KINGDOM A Bill to reform copyright, designs and patent law was published on 30 October 1987 Speakmg at a press conference to Introduce the B111.Mr Kenneth Clarke. Mnuster of Trade ‘and Industry, unherlmed Its importance m the government’s overall strategy to achieve a more competmve and open market m whmh enterprises can flourish He said that the CopyrIght, Designs and Patents B111wtll provide a new framework of rntellectual property law, particularly m the fteld of copynght and designs, which will stand the U K m good steaz for many years to come It &kes account of the very latest developments m modern technoloav and will make the intellectual prop&iy system more accessible and relevant to the needs for Brmsh busmess The Bill, he said, will encourage creatlvny and enterprise and the growth of fair competition The mam changes affectmg patent law are Patent htlgatlon ~111be made simpler and cheaper by grvmg a County Court Jurisdzctlon over patent and design matters instead of, as at present, the High Court Pharmaceutical patents are removed from the scope of the ‘hcence of right provzslons of the Patents Act 1977 to nromote research and development ’ of new medlcmal products The exclusive right of registered patent agents to act for mventors and _other anphcants m dealing with the Patent Office IS io be abohshed However, a register of qualified patent agents ISto be retamedand only those on the register will be able to call themselves ‘patent agents’ Existing restrrctions on mlxed practices (e g of patent agents and venture capttal advisers) will be reiaxed The Bill, m addition, reforms and restates the law of copyright, provides a new form of legal protection for designs and establishes a framework of civil law for the protection ofperformers Some of the mam provisions are Measures to combat copyright piracy are Improved by provision for unhmlted fines and/or up to two years lmprlsonment for making or dlstrtbutmg mfrmgmg copies of copyrlght materlal Investment and competmon m design are to be encouraged by a new protection, desrgn right, by which ortgmal designs are protected against copying for ten years

Recording of radio and televlslon programmes for education purposes IS permitted without copyright clearance Copyright protectlon of computers satellite broadcasts 1s to be extended

and

Authors and film directors are to have the right to be ldentrfied on then works and to object to any unJust]fIed modifications The fraudulent use of a trademark IS to be made a crimmal offence, pumshable by an unhmlted fme, and up to ten years rmprtsonment to deter counterfeltmg of goods The proposal to impose a levy on blank tapes has been abandoned by the government and Mr Clarke announced that tt has been decided not to ‘hive off the Patent Office The BllI was mtroduced m the House of Lords on 17 November and IS expected to have gone through all Its stages by the summer of 1988 Efflclency of Information

Drsseminatron

of Patents

The team conducting an efficiency scrutmy on drssemmatlon of patent mformatlon, Jointly established by the Department of Trade and Industry, the Office of Arts and Llbrarres and the British Library, has Issued its report entitled ‘Review of the Arrangements for the Dlssemmatlon of Patents InformatIon’ The mam recommendattons are as follows (1) The national patent collection should stay with the sclentlflc and technical literature at the SRIS (11)The major provmclal patent collectlons are necessary for the benefit of small and medium sized firms, but many of the smaller collectlons are unnecessary, the collections which are retained need highly motivated hbrartans to promote them (III) A cheaper method of prmtmg U K patents can generate savings more than suffrclent to cover the cost of copies for the Patents Information Network hbrarles wtthout necessartly putting up patenting fees (IV) Simultaneous productlon of microfiche would make the overseas exchanges of patent documents, which SRIS should take over, cheaper (v) The SRIS foreign patent collectlons should be able to cover Its full costs by operating as a busmess with higher charges and improved services for its mainly commercial customers (VI) The public faclhtles of the Patent Office should JoIn with the SRIS to form a new National Patent Information Centre 48

The British Library and the Patent Office now have the Job of drawmg up action plans based on the recommendations nnd submlttmg these to the sunervlsmg minister, Mr John Butcher, ParlIamentarT Under-Secretary of State for Industry, by 31 December 1987 Science Reference (SRIS)

and Informatron Serwce

On 1 September 1987 the Computer Search Service was renamed the Online Search Centre to reflect the accepted ternlinology m the lnformatlon profession The Online Search Centre has five searchers each of whom has expertise tn one or more areas of science and technology and 1s experienced m usmg a variety of online host systems

U.K. ‘Wealth from Science’ - Conference at the Queen Ehzabeth II Centre, Westminster, London, 16 November 1987 Thrs conference for some 400 mvttee\, wd\ Jointly sponsored by the Patent Office and the five Research Councils its purpose W&S to provide a forum for industry and the academic community, together wnh other mterested parties such as fmanclers and sources of venture capital, to consider the factors bedrmg on the successful exploitation of umversny and polytechmc research through technology transfer and otherwlse Such exploitation IS assuming everlncredsmg Importance, and this IS reflected m the Whne Paper ‘Intellectual Property and Innovation’; the settmg up of the new Advlsorv Council on Science and Tcchnology (ACOST), and the new Centre for Exploitable Areas of Science and Technology (CEST) In addltlon, the recent removal of the first option to explott funded dcademic research from the Brmsh Technology Group made this conference especially opportune The conference wds opened by the Rt Hon Kenneth Baker, Secretary of State for Education and Science, and the morning sessions were charred by Sir Franctc Tombs, Chan’mdn of ACOST and of Rolls Royce plc The first session was devoted to ‘Oncdmpus Companies and Science Parks’ wnh^papers frdm Professor John Ashworth (Vice Chancellor, Satford Umversltv) and Dr John Bradfield (Trtmty College, Cambridge) second morning session related to ‘Methods of Exploltatlon’, led by Professor John Cadogan (British Petroleum plc) and Mr Anthony Gray (Cogent Ltd)

The

The afternoon sessions were chaned by Professor Bill Mitchell (Chanman of the Heads of Research Councils), and the first was concerned with ‘Brokerage and with contnbutlons from Dr Finance’, Charles DesForges (The Research Corporation Ltd) and Mr Ian Harvey (British Technology Group)

49

Communications

The final session was given over entirely to Mr John Fatrclough (Chtef Sclenttftc Advtser, Cabmet Office), who spoke on ‘The Role of Government’, and a successful, sttmulatmg and enJoyable conference was wound up wtth a summartsmg contrrbutlon from Mr Robert Jackson MP, Parhamentary Under-Secretary of State wtth spectal responstbthty for htgher educatton and sctence

TELESYSTEMES QUESTEL The name of the French Trademark Ftle INPI-MARQUES was changed from 7 December to F MARK and to search It 1s now necessary to enter FI MARK New features avatlable m the file are left-hand truncatton of Trademark names and hmttatton of search by the number of letters, dtgtts or characters making up a Trademark The INPI-4F database has been reloaded on Questel Plus under the new name CIB It contains the full text m French of the 4th edttton of the Internatronal Patent Classtficatton

RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS

54% by

Of the 20443 hbrary and mformatton professtonals who responded to the 2956 satd that CD-ROM question, technology was currently used by them at work, 1903 more satd they would have CD-ROM avatlable by the end of 1987 This puts the base number of users by year end 1987 at 4859, or 24% of those responding Another 2605 satd they wtll have CDROM by the end of 1988,1233 by 1989, and 1471 m 1990, brmgmg total users to 10 168 or 50% of all respondents All the respondents were members of national professtonal hbrary or mformatton assoctattons The data was gathered wtth the co-operation of the American Library Assoctatton and 20 parttctpatmg assoctattons and soctettes The CD-ROM data has been collected to comptle the twm dtrectortes CD-ROM- Current Usersand CD-ROMPotentzal Users Btographtcal data whtch was also collected from 43 000 hbrary and mformatron professtonals ~111 be pubhshed m the forthcoming Dzrectory ofLtbrary andZnformatlon Professronals by Research Pubhcattons If the 20 443 responses are representattve of the Library market place, one out of every two professtonals will be a CD-ROM user by 1990

Research Pubhcattons (RP) has announced an agreement with the World Intellectual Property Orgamzatton (WIPO), whereby RP has been appomted exclustve sales agent m the United States (nonexclustve elsewhere, except Japan) for prmt pubhcattons from the Patent Cooperatton Treaty (PCT) Begmnmg 1 January, 1988, three pubhcattons - PCT Gazette, PCT Apphcant’s Gmde and PCT Treaty and Regulattons ~111be dtstrtbuted by Rapid Patent Service, a dtvtston of RP Current subscrtpttons as well as backftles ~111be available m French and Enghsh The PCT Gazette provides summartes of Internattonal Patent Apphcattons, mcludmg tttles and abstracts, drawmgs, full btbhographtc data and Indexes to apphcants and classtflcatton codes The PCT Treaty and Regulattons contams all regulatrons, amendments and changes to the Patent Cooperatton Treaty It IS a fully updated edttton and replaces the ortgmal verston The PCT Apphcant’s Gmde provtdes m-depth procedural detatls for filing mternattonal Patent Apphcattons Included are admnnstrattve mstructlons and reproductble fthng forms New Directories Show CD-Rom Increase 54% in 1988!

calculates that users wtll Increase the end of 1988

Use to

A recent survey by Research Pubhcattons of hbrary and mformatton professtonals shows that CD-ROM 1s fast becommg an accepted technology The survey conducted m the summer of 1987 m conJunctton with another project,

The Dnectorles of CD-ROM Survey Respondents are avatlable m two volumes Vol 1 CD-ROMCurrent Users A directory of 4859 current users m the hbrary and mformatton professton (arranged by state, by employer) $950 00 Vol 2 CD-ROM Potentral Users 1988-1990 A dnectory of 5309 potential users m the hbrarv and mformatton urofesston (arranged by year, by state, by’ employer) $950 00 Both dtrectorles (a 15% saving)

are available for $1600 00

The twm dlrectortes will be helpful to hbrarres and mformatton centers who would hke to network with other CDROM users m then geographtcal area and or experttse The dtrectortes will also help those who are Interested m accessmg the current and potenttal CD-ROM market The CD-ROM Dtrectortes may be ordered from Research Pubhcattons, 900 Armour Drive, Lake Bluff, IL 60045, U S A

OLPI (International Association of Producers and Users of Online Patent Information) The first meetmg of OLPI was held on 5 and 6 November 1987 at BASF Akttengesellschaft, Ludwtgshafen, attended by

representattves from the American Petroleum Instttute, BASF, Bertelsmann Informatton Service, the EEC, Derwent Pubhcatrons, INPADOC, Polyresearch Service, Telesystemes Questel, the Patent Office of the Federal Repubhc of Germany, the U K Patent Office, the Patent Documentatton Group, WON Netherlands Assoctatton for Patent Informatton. the World Intellectual Pronertv Orgamzatron (WIPO) and World Phtek Znformatton Dr Claus Suhr. Prestdent of OLPI, chatred the meettng, and, m openmg, emphasrsed that OLPI provtded a unique opportunity to use the experience of industry and producers and users of online patent mformatton for the benefit of the pubhc It provtded a forum m whtch all stdes could attempt to work towards soluttons of problems or, where this was not completely achtevable, compromtse posmons whrch would ease these problems OLPI was an expertment and tt would take ttme for its impact to be felt A survey of onhne patent databases was nresented bv Mr P A Htgham (WIPO), gtvmg general details of exrstmg patent databases. their coverage. and hkelv future developments He also-outhned questtons whtch needed answermg before users could agree a long term strategy for development of patent computer search systems, whtch could be setzed upon and sertously considered by the producers or senders of such systems These questtons covered (a) Whether there was a general need to extend the coverage of computer search systems back m ttme, and m respect of country coverage (b) Does full text search have sufftctent advantages to warrant extenston? (c) Is there a long-term need for access to mdtvtdual sets of opttcal drsc Images of patent documents as an alternattve to online transmisston from a central store? (d) Questtons of arrangements for efftctent cross-file searchmg, stmphficatton and standardtzatton of command languages, database language problems Followmg general dtscusston of these matters, the dectston was reached to set up two workmg groups for more detatled mvesttgattons Working Group I has a general mandate covering (a) the problem of mcreasmg public interest m patent mformatton, and (b) problems affectmg patent for Thud World Countrtes

mformatton

TOPICS for immediate constderatton ~111 cover educatton m patent mformatton for schools and management m Industry, pubhctty, the use of patent mformatron m mdustrtal settmgs, and constderatton of why m the Thud World so httle IS made of patent mformatton Workmg Group II has a mandate covermg mdexmg and retrieval of patent mformatton and pubhcatton procedures and data commumcatlon Issues m patent mformatron management, and Its toptcs for rmmedtate constderatlon are (I) a study of front-end systems command language for retrieval,

and

50

Communications

(II) the role of text and language components in patent information retrieval,

Remaining titles m the series will be developed over the next few months and price details will be announced soon

(III) a study systems,

Other industries are being investigated and much work has been carried out on the aerospace industry

of patent

office

(iv) pubhcatlon procedures relating thereto,

retrieval

and standards

(v) the special problems affectmg chemical areas m online retrieval, (VI) a review of previous above areas

EPO the

work done m the

There was a very cooperative atmosphere throughout the meeting and BASF were very generous m their &pply of faclhtles and hosmtalitv There 1s a need to broaden the mimbershlp of OLPI and any orgamsatlon Interested should contact the Secretary, Mr Jeremy Sergeant, Secretary Derwent Pubhcatlons Ltd , OLPI, Rochdale House, 128, Theobalds Road, London, WClX 8RP, (Tel 01-242 5823) for further mformatlon

DERWENT Derwent have announced that they plan to revise and refilm the Basic Abstracts Journals on Microfilm for Chemical Patents Index - Section A (Plasdoc) and Section C (Agdoc) As m the case of the refilmed CPI Section B (Farmdoc), the new film will be directly related to all basic entries on the online file and will include any abstracts previously omitted and all the latest relsiued abstracts All pages (frames) will be bhDDed and the bhD count number’ shown al&gslde each frame In addition there ~111be a blip count index on each reel to aid rapid retrieval The Derwent Customlsed Bulletin Service provides subject profiles specially compiled to meet the exact requirements of endusers, particularly m areas of technology that are not easily accessible m the standard range of abstracts, bulletms and Journals Inhouse bulletins are also provided for many subscribers, rehevmg them of the task of preparing such bulletms for circulation Encouraged by the growth of the service, Derwent has decided to investigate an industry-based approach that is, drawing together the relevant abstracts from all Patents services and assembling them mto narrowly-defined profiles each covering a specific aspect of an mdustry Market mtelhgence indicated that the Automotive and Components Industry was m need of such a service to keep staff abreast of developments m this field A list of 15 subject titles was devised with the aid of contacts within the industry and the first eight titles m the series will shortly be offered for sale These are Vehicle Vehicle Vehicle Vehicle Vehicle Vehicle Vehicle Vehicle

Braking Systems Steering Systems Suspenilon Systems Engine Systems Transmission Systems Trim and Hardware Electrlcs - Engine Electrlcs - Excluding Engine

The Admmistratlve Council of the European Patent Orgamsatlon has decided to mark the tenth anniversary of the European patent system m 1987 with a Research Fund mltlally amounting to DM 1 000 000 for an mltlal period of five years The Research Fund alms to promote studies and research on the protection of inventions, m particular by means of patents m Europe, and to encourage researchers from various dlsclphnes to undertake or pursue the study of particular aspects thereof Support from the Fund shall be given m the form of a grant to research mstltutlons or mdlvlduals engaged on research prolects m the Member States of the European Patent Orgamsation (1 e Austria, Belgium, the Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, France, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom) Apphcatlons for support from the Fund may be made from 1 January 1988 and shall be addressed to the President of the European Patent Office The rules governing the Research Fund of the European Patent Orgamsatlon can be supported by Dep 5 2 1, European Patent Office, Erhardtstr 27, D-8000 Munchen 2

INPADOC Report 1987 1 ISyear anniversary At the occasion of the 14th User-Meeting from 7 to 9 October 1987, the 15-year anniversary of INPADOC took place

During 1987, dlscusslons took place with representatives of the European Patent Office, to find possible means of a future, closer cooperation 3 INPADOC-databases from five compute0

onhne avadable

DIALOG, Palo Alto, CA, will offer the INPADOC-files on patents. their famlhes and legal status, from 4 Janudry, 1988 onwards As ORBIT was brought by Pergamon InfoLme, the INPADOC-files were trdnsplanted from London to Washington, and dre searchable under the ORBIT command language The legal status (PRS) file 1s planned for 1 January, 1988 The long-time partner of INPADOC, FIZKarlsruhe, entered an agreement with INPADOC to mount the INPADOC-file5 under STN by the begmnmg of next year PATOLIS-I, the INPADOC-file available m Japan only, through the faclhtles of JAPIO, might be extended by the legal status, but no agreement has been reached until today And last not least, the computer of INPADOC m Vienna offers the various INPADOC-files, online

4 Extensions m the INPADOC-database5 Concerning the PRS-file an extension of the volume of records from 15 703 608 to 18 3518711s to be reDorted The access for Denmark (DK) and fhe United States (US) has been enlarged once again and IS now as comfortable as with the other eight countries For Czechoslowakla (CS) and Cuba (CU) documents of the second publication step have been Implemented, too As to Spain not only the document numbers but also the apphcatlon numbers can be used as search criteria Also m the INPADOCmicrofiches both number ranges are now included

Addresses were delivered by Dr Josef Flchte, Vice-President of the Austrian Patent Office, Mr M W Hill. Director of the British Library, Mr Tadashl Honokl, Managing Director of the Japan Patent Information Orgamzatlon (JAPIO), Mr Bradford R Huther, Assistant Commlssloner of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Dr Jacques Marie Mlchel, Vice-President of the European Patent Office, and Dr Arpad Bogsch, Dn-ector General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

As far as Norway (NO) 15 concerned, patent applications which have not yet been published are also entered m the INPADOC-database, now

The number of participants, the world, reached 143

5 CAPRI

from all over

2 New agreement of cooperation On 12 June, 1987, an Agreement of Cooperation with the New Zealand Patent Office was signed and the first supply of machine-readable data reached INPADOC very soon afterwards

Another lmnortant nomt IS the KANJIEmulator T‘hls 1s a irogram developed by INPADOC which enables users without any knowledge of the Japanese language to search legal status mformatlon deriving from the Jananese database PATOLIS through thelr’personal computers

In the years 1986 and 1987, seven new subclasses (750 294 documents), reclassified by the Patent Office of the Federal ReDubhc of Germany, and two new s&lasses (133 270 documents), reclassified by the European Patent Office, were added to the CAPRI Data Base Thus, the CAPRI Data Base now consists of 606 subclasses. reclassified by the German, European and

51

Commumcations

Austrian Patent Office, the complete file and the complete SU-file

JP-

6 Increase m the INPADOC-databases Current data base 5 010 000 dot (atmrox ) Backfde 3 database \ ** ’ 4 233 994 dot Backflle 2 database 3 659 345 dot Backfile 1 database 1 824 829 dot 14 729 000 dot (approx ) CAPRI database 15 286 366 dot Legal status database 18 352 000 ret (approx ) Total 48 366 000 dot /ret (approx

8 Fmanaal sztuatton As m the past years the financial sltuatlon of INPADOC 1s very sound Besides other new projects, the lmplementatlon of three new host contracts will guarantee a prosperous sltuatlon for the near future

WIPO WIPO Patent Fair 1988

and Trademark InformatIon

The World Intellectual Property Orgamzatlon 1s orgamzmg a Patent and Trade Mark InformatIon Fair which will be held at the Palals des Exposltlons et des Congrks (PALEXPO), m Geneva, from Friday 15 April to Sunday 24 April, 1988 )

I UseofINPADOCservlcesbygovernmental mstltutrons The number of INPADOC services subscribed to by Patent Offices and Governmental Instltutlons rose from 683 as of December 1986 to 701 as of December 1987

During the same period and m the same exhlbltlon halls. the 16th International Exhlbltlon of Inientlons and New Techmques (Geneva) will take place That Exhlbltlon last year attracted over 1000 mventlons from 25 countries and was vIsIted by over 100 000 persons The mdustrlal property offices of the countries members of the WIPO Permanent Committee on Industrial Property Information and the European Patent Office

have been mvlted to demonstrate then patent and trademark mformatlon services In addition, the followmg producers and/or vendors of patent and trademark mformatlon have been mvlted to demonstrate their services Bertelsmann Informations Service GmbH. Carl Hevmanns Verlap, Chemical Abstracts Servlck, Chuo Koga& Shuppan Co Ltd , Compu-Mark NV-SA, Derwent Pubhcatlons Ltd , Dialog Informatlon Services Inc , European Space Agency Information Retrieval Service, Fachmformatlonszentrum Chemle GmbH, IFI/Plenum Data Company, Imsmarq AG. Institution of Electrlcal Engineers (INSPEC), InternatIonal Patent bocumentatlon Center (INPADOC), Japan Patent Information Oraamzatlon (JAPIO). Mead Data Central Inte&atlonal, Pergamon Orbit InfoLme Ltd , Questel International, Research Pubhcatlons Ltd , STN Karlsruhe and Thomson and Thomson The admission charge w11l be 8 SWISS Francs covering bo& the Fan and the Exhlbltlon The Fan and the Exhlbltlon will be open to the public from 10 a m to 6 p m on weekdays, and untd 7 p m on Saturdays and Sundays, with a late evening until 10 p m on Thursday 21 April, 1988 Further WIPO

mformatlon

can be obtained

from