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Cooperation programmes
PATLIB 96. a supplement to World Patent Information. Vol. 19 (1997) © 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ud. All rights reserved Pages 75-76
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6.5. Cooperation Programmes C. Pandolfi, EPO, Vienna There are some important aspects to note in the cooperation programmes that the EPO is trying to arrange. In the time available, I will concentrate on the most important topics of particular interest here.
PATLIB network Last year, 10 new centres joined - Innsbruck and Leoben (Austria), Kassel (Germany), Llanera, Oiartzun and Santiago de Compostela (Spain), Newport (UK), Thessaloniki and Heraklion (Greece) and Centre d'lnformation (Monaco). This brings the total number of centres up to 126 in Europe, which is comparable to the USA and Japan.
The first concerns access to online services and databases. This field is one of continuous evolution and there have been several changes since we spoke last year. You have already heard about the changes to the EPO register. There have been a number of modifications made and the new register will be a very different search tool. You will no longer be restricted to searching application, priority and/or publication number. There will be four search criteria and the user friendliness of the new register will be very different.
We also published an updated PATLIB directory which is a useful tool for tracing colleagues, contact persons and telephone numbers. If you do not have the directory, you can find it on the Internet. This additional service was added last year. The Internet was chosen because is readily accessed and because it is possible to provide some pages which are available only to you. Accessible only by password, the PATLIB pages provide information on patent information centres in Europe.
There are other EPO databases and one can ask what is the mode of cooperation between the national offices and the EPO which makes such continuous evolution possible. The national offices of the member states and the offices of the WIPO members provide raw data to the EPO. Two things are required, the first is the constitution of the database and the standardisation of the data, the second is the bilateral agreement between the offices and the EPO.
Training programme Almost 200 people received training in Vienna during 1995 and over 280 people were trained at other locations. The training in Vienna concentrated on the use of CD-ROM (46%), and the use of the Register (26%); the training at other locations concentrated on the use of EPOQUE (73%).
Every year we try to enlarge and improve the databases and last year more national offices joined the system and started to supply data for the EPO databases. We signed bilateral agreements with Belarus, Moldavia, Israel, Norway, the Philippines and Vietnam. This brings the number of patentissuing authorities in the patent-family database up to 61 while the number of authorities in the legal-status database rose to 18 with both Sweden and Italy joining in 1995.
National patent information framework programme The cooperation programmes of the national offices were certainly successful, although there were some aspects which could be improved. However, some national offices found that it was necessary to devote more effort and more funding to special national problems. A little more flexibility was requested and so the programme started last year to meet this need and to allow the implementation of special individual projects.
The patent family service receives some 22,000 documents each week covering all technical fields. It provides standardisation of applicants' names and checking of the IPCs. There is a total of 23 million documents in the database. An additional system available to national offices and related centres is the EPOQUE access program which is a complete search tool providing access to many databases using a single end-user search engine. EPOQUE has been available for a few years now and its use has grown, but it is not an easy system to use. However, with the training provided it can give excellent results.
Of course, these are projects requested and run by the national offices but, when required and when necessary, we can, if asked, give our support to such endeavours. Already a number of projects are in the implementation stage in a number of countries and these will be developed during 75
76
PATLIB 96 Proceedings
1996. Infonnation about such projects can be obtained from the national offices. In general, these projects are concerned with trying to integrate new technologies such as CD-ROM, the Internet, networks, etc., to give the best possible solution to infonnational needs.
Changes in contacts at the EPO in Vienna Nigel Clarke and Pierrette Holtzritter will be responsible for the PATLIB centres; Jane Brown will be responsible for training and Christoph Machwirth for the EPOQUE access programme.
~pergamOD
6.5. Cooperation Programmes C. Pandolfi, EPO, Vienna There are some important aspects to note in the cooperation programmes that the EPO is trying to arrange. In the time available, I will concentrate on the most important topics of particular interest here.
PATLIB network Last year, 10 new centres joined - Innsbruck and Leoben (Austria), Kassel (Germany), Llanera, Oiartzun and Santiago de Compostela (Spain), Newport (UK), Thessaloniki and Heraklion (Greece) and Centre d'lnformation (Monaco). This brings the total number of centres up to 126 in Europe, which is comparable to the USA and Japan.
The first concerns access to online services and databases. This field is one of continuous evolution and there have been several changes since we spoke last year. You have already heard about the changes to the EPO register. There have been a number of modifications made and the new register will be a very different search tool. You will no longer be restricted to searching application, priority and/or publication number. There will be four search criteria and the user friendliness of the new register will be very different.
We also published an updated PATLIB directory which is a useful tool for tracing colleagues, contact persons and telephone numbers. If you do not have the directory, you can find it on the Internet. This additional service was added last year. The Internet was chosen because is readily accessed and because it is possible to provide some pages which are available only to you. Accessible only by password, the PATLIB pages provide information on patent information centres in Europe.
There are other EPO databases and one can ask what is the mode of cooperation between the national offices and the EPO which makes such continuous evolution possible. The national offices of the member states and the offices of the WIPO members provide raw data to the EPO. Two things are required, the first is the constitution of the database and the standardisation of the data, the second is the bilateral agreement between the offices and the EPO.
Training programme Almost 200 people received training in Vienna during 1995 and over 280 people were trained at other locations. The training in Vienna concentrated on the use of CD-ROM (46%), and the use of the Register (26%); the training at other locations concentrated on the use of EPOQUE (73%).
Every year we try to enlarge and improve the databases and last year more national offices joined the system and started to supply data for the EPO databases. We signed bilateral agreements with Belarus, Moldavia, Israel, Norway, the Philippines and Vietnam. This brings the number of patentissuing authorities in the patent-family database up to 61 while the number of authorities in the legal-status database rose to 18 with both Sweden and Italy joining in 1995.
National patent information framework programme The cooperation programmes of the national offices were certainly successful, although there were some aspects which could be improved. However, some national offices found that it was necessary to devote more effort and more funding to special national problems. A little more flexibility was requested and so the programme started last year to meet this need and to allow the implementation of special individual projects.
The patent family service receives some 22,000 documents each week covering all technical fields. It provides standardisation of applicants' names and checking of the IPCs. There is a total of 23 million documents in the database. An additional system available to national offices and related centres is the EPOQUE access program which is a complete search tool providing access to many databases using a single end-user search engine. EPOQUE has been available for a few years now and its use has grown, but it is not an easy system to use. However, with the training provided it can give excellent results.
Of course, these are projects requested and run by the national offices but, when required and when necessary, we can, if asked, give our support to such endeavours. Already a number of projects are in the implementation stage in a number of countries and these will be developed during 75
76
PATLIB 96 Proceedings
1996. Infonnation about such projects can be obtained from the national offices. In general, these projects are concerned with trying to integrate new technologies such as CD-ROM, the Internet, networks, etc., to give the best possible solution to infonnational needs.
Changes in contacts at the EPO in Vienna Nigel Clarke and Pierrette Holtzritter will be responsible for the PATLIB centres; Jane Brown will be responsible for training and Christoph Machwirth for the EPOQUE access programme.