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Meetings and conferences
World Patent Information, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 47-50, 1989. Pergamon Orbit InfoLine Inc. Printed in Great Britain.
Meetings and Conferences 12th International Online Information Meeting (London, 6-S December 1988)
The 12th International Online Information Meetine was held on 6-8 December at Olyipia, London. The Exhibition attracted the usual large number of exhibitors, with the general stands on a lower flodr and an ipper floor devoted to CD-ROM exhibitions. The exhibitions in general showed a heavy emphasis on CD-ROM systems, particularly in the publication and business information fields. So far as patent information is concerned, the main exhibitors were as usual Derwent, Pergamon Orbit InfoLine and Telesystemes Questel. Derwent and Telesystemes were advertising and demonstrating their newly-developed Markush - DARC structural search svstem. This system contributes a consideiable breakthrough in the ability to search Markush type structures. At present, the files sk’archable by the ne& system only go back to 1986: earlier files still have to be searched by the fragmentation code system. Telesyitemes ouestel were also advertising DARC-Chemlink. the new PC softw&e allowing query phrasing on a microcom uter for searching CAS Registry and In Kouse private files. Pergamon concentrated on the Pergamon Compact Solution, the CD-ROM information system. leaving the search service for patents etc. to the &bit Search Service staid. The U.K. Patent Office stand demonstrated its Search and Advisory Service (SAS) which provides access to technical and commercial information in patent and trademark databases combined with the benefit of the expertise of the Office’s examining staff. In the Conference sessions the main interest in the patent and trademark area was in Conference Room 1 on Thursday 8 December in a session on Patent and Trademark Searching. The session was very ably chaired Iby Mr P. A. Higham of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, who pointed out that this was the first time at the Online conference that a special session had been devoted to patent and trademark matters. There were three speakers, the first being Mr M. Hill, President of the FID (International Federation of Documentation) and former Director of the British Library Science, Reference and Information Service (SRIS). speaking on the subject ‘Informatibn Fr&‘Patenti - an Overview of Recent Activities’. He emphasized the importance of patent documents as sources of technical information, most of which is not repeated elsewhere. They were in a standardised form, classified in detail, which made
access to the information very easy. Increasing attention was being paid to citation searching but care had to be taken in inter reting the results which could be mls.P eading. The number of patent documents published each year was enormous and moves were afoot, e.g. in Japan, to publish them on CD-ROM. This had problems, mainly due to lack of standardization? and he forecast a move to 12 inch optical discs. He wondered whether the next step will be electronic transfer of documents. An outstanding problem was the lack of use of patent information in developing countries. The second speaker, Mr C. Jonckheere, of the EPO, The Netherlands, spoke on ‘The Automation Plan of DGI of the EPO’. At the EPO the examiners perform 70,000 searches per year and the average search involves consultation of 1000 documents. To assist in this task a huge automation program is under way costing 300 million DM which basically involves a bibliographic and text system, an image system and a personal system. The EPOQUE (EPO Query Service) is developing one query language, based on Questel Plus, for internal and external databases and a personal database. The svstem will cover data format conversion,.cross-file searching and downloading. It will be completed in mid-1990. The BACON system, involving the capturing on magnetic tape in facsimile image of the backfile documents covering EP, WO, FR, DE, GB and CH documents will be completed in 1990. Complementing this, a pilot project JIMA (Japanese Images) of capturing 1,400,OOOJapanese English language abstracts will be completed in 1989. The Personal system will provide each examiner with his own workstation, comprising an IBM PS/2 computer, which will enable him to access all the databases and type his own search reports. The ELFOS electronic file operating system, situated in the receiving section, will enable the facsimile capture of incoming ap lications on magnetic tape for use of D e 1 at the Hague and DG2 in Munich and will be operative in May 1989. All of the computerized systems are supplementary systems and the paper file will remain the main search tool for the forseeable future. The final talk was delivered by Dr K. Suhr, Director of Documentation at BASF AG, on the title ‘Recent Trends in Information Management’. He pointed out that database searches have to be upgraded by manual effort. Over the years, by careful information management, the searching in the chemical area had been vastly improved, with high precision and high recall. Very encouraging trends were the trilateral cooperaGo; between the U.S., Japanese and EPO offices to improve the access to their files and negotiations between the EPO and INPADOC to imnrove their services. The patent inforr&tion market is small and a large number of competing hosts was not desirable, but neither was a monopoly by one firm. The ideal from the users point of view would 47
be a small number of large complementary databases, with only slight overlap, serving different comm&iti& of user% User groups should explain in detail their needsand’analyse and driticise the services available. A welcome development would be for user organizations to become the partners of th< service suppliers and a small steD in this direction had been the formatioh 2 years ago of the Online Users and Producers of Patent Information (OLPI). WIPO PCIPI Committee
Executive
Coordination
The Executive
Coordination Committee held its third session in Geneva on 13-16 December 1988 under the chairmanship of Mr L. Biarklund (Sweden). Twentvone memb&s of the‘ Comm&ee wece represented and four organizations were represented by observers. Messrs M. Voegtel and J. Stillger, representatives of the office of the Federal Republic of Germany, gave a detailed presentation of the automation plans of their office, including a description of their EMIR system (EDP microfilm integrated retrieval) by which the office has already replaced l-million paper search file do&me& by computer accessible 16-mm microfilm in 3M cartridges. The representatives of France. Sweden and the United Kinedom announced that their offices wouih make presentations of their respective automation plans at the next session of the committee. The Committee accepted 10 revision reauests for inclusion in the IPC revision p’rogram. Five questions formulated by the FID relating inter aliu to the information market: were referred to the PCIPI itself for a policy decision as to whether thev fell within the scope of PCIPI activities. A further proposal by the FID concerning the use of bar codes on microfiches resulted in the decision that the matter should be studied by the Working Group on General Information (GIG). A further new task, based on a proposal submitted by the International Association of Producers and Users of Online Patent Information (OLPI), was entrusted to the GIG with the title ‘Conduct a study, e.g. by means of a survey, on training courses and awareness programs on patent information that have taken place in member states of the PCIPI’. The decisions and recommendations made bv the GIG at its second session in Octobkr 1988 were reviewed. Minor amendments to WIPO Standard St.9 (INID codes) were agreed, and revised‘ texts were agreed for Standards St.11 (minimum indexes in Patent Gazettes) and St.13 (numbering of patent applications). The Committee noted an oral report by the secretariat on the work of the Working Group on Search Information, and expressed great satisfaction at the efforts of the Working Group to complete as manv IPC revision Droiects as possible for inchsion of the re&l&g ameidments in the fifth edition of the IPC. Clearer instructions were issued to the Working Group for their task relating to the selec-
Meetings
48
tion of patent documents exemplifying the problems emphasized in paragraphs 59-61 of the Guide to the IPC. The recommendations of the ad hoc Working Group on Management Information on the structure and content of Annual Technical Reports were endorsed, along with the recommendation to hold an Advanced IPC seminar in autumn 1989 on the ‘Use of hybrid systems in the IPC’. The Committee expressed itself in favour of some form of coordinated IPC revision projects in respect of problems cutting across a large number of areas of the IPC, and invited suggestions from offices as to what problems could be dealt with in this way. In relation to the project on experience in the use of computerized search systems, the Committee noted with appreciation, the comparative study on the use of chemical, electrical and mechanical databases by the U.S. office. As the best way of initiating further work on this project, the Committee decided to organize a seminar of experts. A draft agenda for such a seminar will be prepared for discussion at the next Executive session in June 1989. The International Bureau was congratulated on the preparation of an excellent background paper on the subject of optical storage means for patent documents. In view of the urgent need for action on matters such as standardization and sharing of exnerience in the use of software for reading, searching, extraction,, etc., the Commtttee agreed to establish an ad hoc Working Group on Optical Storage of Patent Information, and scheduled Its first session for 6-8 March 1989. The need for annual technical reports in connection with trademarks and designs will be discussed at the next session after preparation of a document thereon by the International Bureau. A decision on the setting up of an ad hoc working group on automatton was deferred.
and Conferences
The Working Group agreed that an international coonerative effort in reclassifving patent documents according to the currenT edition of the IPC was not iustified for the time being, ih view of developments in computerization. The International Bureau was requested to undertake a survey of the reclassification work according to the fifth edition of the IPC which had been done or would be undertaken, and to find out whether data base vendors would be interested in obtaining reclassification information. It was agreed to recommend to the PCIPI Executive Coordination Committee that an advanced IPC Seminar be held in the autumn of 1989 on the subiect. ‘Use of hybrid systems in the IPC’: In relation to the subject of patent statistics for technological assessment and forecasting. the Inte&ational Bureau was request& to oreoare for inclusion in the WIPO Pat&t *Information and Documentation Handbook, a survey entitled ‘Publications
of patent offices dealing with patent statistics useable for technological assessment and forecasting’. Patent offices were requested to send samples of their statistical publication to the International Bureau. Permanent Committee on Industrial Property Information (PCIPI) Working Group on Search Information Second Session (Geneva, 21 November to 2 December 1988)
The PCIPI Working Group on Search Information (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Working Group’) held its second session in Geneva from 21 November to 2 December 1988. The following 12 States and one Organization, members of the Working Group, were represented at the session: Denmark, Finland, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Japan, Soviet Union, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America, European Patent Office (EPO). The following items were dealt with: ZPC Revision Proiects Curried Over Ifrom I
The PCIPI Working Program for the 1988-1989 biennium was reviewed and revised. WIPO PCIPI Ad Hoc Working on Management Information
Group
The Working Group held its second session in Geneva on 12-14 December 1988. Twenty-one members of the Working Group were represented and four organizations were represented by observers. Mr E. De Bundel (EPO) acted as chairman. revised report form and questionnaire on the use of WIPO Standards was approved. It was agreed that the existin IPC Revision Concordance List neede f revision for the fifth edition of the IPC and that a feasibility study of work and costs involved in preparing a cumulative concordance list, covering the different revisions of the IPC, should be undertaken. A
1987 The Working Group dealt with the five mechanical and chemical IPC revision projects still pending. Of those projects, four belong to the mechanical field and one to the chemical field. Amendments were agreed to in respect of subclass B 01 J, relating to ‘catalysts.’ Other ZPC Revision Projects on the Program for the Z988-1989 Biennium
The Working Group dealt with another 26 IPC revision prolects on the pf;ts~ for the 1988-1989 biennium. B projects, 24 belong to the mechanical field and two to the chemical field.
standardization of the expression ‘per se’ throughout the IPC and the avoidance of the term ‘invention’, for the sixth edition of the IPC (to be published in 1994 and to enter into force on 1 January 1995). Selection of Patent Documents as Training Examples The Working Group made a prelimi-
narv selection of natent documents to be used as training examples, in order to illustrate the problem of classifying in function-oriented places or in application places in the IPC. OLPI (International Association of Producers and Users of Online Patent Information)
The third meeting of OLPI was held on 3-4 November 1988, at BASF Aktiengesellschaft, Ludwigshoften; attended by representatives from Atochem, BASF, Bertelsmann Information Service, the British Library, Chemical Abstracts Service, Derwent Publications, Duphor BV, the EEC, Handelskammer (Hamburg), INPADOC, the Patent Documentation Groun, the Patent Office of the F.R.G.. Pergamon Orbit InfoLine, Polyresearch Service. the U.K. Patent Office and WIPO.‘The first day of the meeting was devoted to sessions of the two Working Groups, followed on the second day by a plenary session. The first Working Group enjoyed a relaxed brainstorming session devoted to the problems of increasing public awareness of the value of patent information and of training potential users, with an examination of the various roles which could be played by national and international patent offices, commercial organizations and universities. A number of interesting ideas were put forward which generated a lively discussion during the plenary session. The second Working Group’s discussions were based on a paper by Mr F. Jakobiak (Atochem) which comprised three main topics. (a) Zndexing systems. A number of automatic indexing systems were considered, and it was agreed that the working group would study their application to patent databases. (b) Standardization. Attention was mainly directed to the problem of standardizing data elements and search qualifiers for online databases in the light of the general draft standard for online databases (ISO/DIS 8777), and a paper by Mr Higham concerned with standardization for patent databases.
The Working Group discussed the work to be undertaken for the insertion of references to application places in’ the function-oriented classes F 16 and G 05.
(c) New technology. There was a discussion of the problems encountered in the use of computerized search systems and a survey of the increasing use of optical media; and it was agreed that both of these important topics merited the continuing attention of the Working Group.
Standardization of Expression in the ZPC The Working Group discussed the
Mr P. Higham (WIPO) presented a paper, ‘Standardization of Online Search
Znsertion of References and G 05
in Classes F 16
Meetings
of Patent Databases’, which contained proposals for the standardization of the formats of the basic biblio raphic data elements and search qua11.a ers used in the input of a search query. It was agreed that the roposals were realistic and that the Wor K.mg Group would endeavour to produce firm recommendations based on the paper for submission to online hosts in 1989. During the plenary session, which was chaired by Dr C. Suhr (BASF), Messrs H. Bank (EEC) and F. Jakobiak presented reports of the activities of the Working Grouts which were followed bv full and lively’discussions. Mr Bank presented an educational video ‘The Patent Office: Tomorrow’s Information Today’, which was commissioned by the EEC, and was generally considered to provide a successful introduction. Dr Suhr also nresented his paper ‘OLPI: A New Organization and its Purpose’, which he gave at the 15th INPADOC User Meeting in Se tember 1988. Finally, Mr M. Vogtel PGerman Patent Office1 gave an interesting account of the recent A“ congress held in”Munich. It was generally considered that the meeting had been very successful and that the OLPI had now agreed on a clear course of useful future action. There was a very professional and friendly atmosphere throughout the meeting, and the organization and hospitality provided by BASF were excellent. The next two meetings will be hosted by Telesystemes Questel and INPADOC, respectively and will take place in Sophia Antipolis on 6-7 April, and in Vienna on 2-3 October. These meetings will have the same format as the present one, viz. working group meetings on the first day and a olenarv session on the second dav. since this arrangement was found to be very successful in practice. Any organization which is interested in participating in the activities of OLPI will be welcome. All enquiries should be directed to the Secretary: Mr Jeremy Sergeant, Secretary OLPI, Derwent Publications Ltd, Rochdale House, 128 Theobalds Road, London WClX 8RP, U.K. (Tel.: 01-242 5823). 24th FID/PD Meeting (SRIS, London, 27-28 October 1988)
The meeting opened by discussing the ever crowing and striking nroblem of uatent bublica?ions and &ims in the dhemical area which have excessively broad disclosures. Hereby, some hundred or thousand compounds are being claimed, most of which will never be uroduced in the end. Those applications’ or patents permit neither reasonable documentation nor research work and cannot urovide any clear definition of the scope ofprotection. The WIPO is to be addressed in this respect and to be given some advice for corrective measures, maybe by asking users for multiple search fees. The second topic that came up was the subject of the use and advantage of CD-ROM and the considerable interest undoubtedly rising with prices falling.
and Conferences
Reports were given on the last session of the Permanent Committee of Industrial Property Information, its Executive Committee as well as reports on the Working Groups on General and Management Information. They have been provided with new organizational rules, to follow a new policy and strategy for their working programs. Among other items, there were recommendations drafted as to the numberinn of natent aunlications as well as to a catchword index relating to WIPO Standards. Drafts had also been made regarding standards for trade marks, service marks and designs. The WIPO has collected various experiences gathered on the use of patent documentation by means of different computerized search systems. The International Bureau is compiling an analysis regarding the use or non-use of PCIPI St&da& by patent offices and is going to examine the reasons for little use of the so-called general purpose standards. FID/PD members raised the euestion whether patent gazettes still retain their importance while patent data are quickIv available bv data banks. Discussions revealed and reconfirmed the continued importance of the kind of document code, especially for citing pur oses. Yet, in any case according to the Committee the old code should remain available afte; introducing the new code. The Committee would welcome standardization of the sequence of the various components of patent applications; it was decided that FID/PD should draft respective recommendations and to send these to the German Patent Office. The bar code to be minted on patent snecifications revealed to be another interesting ooint to the Committee. which suaeested iimplifying it in such a’way as tG_apply a number code for the countries as well. No decision has so far been made as to its position; an early agreement would be very much appreciated by FID/PD. Another draft proposal was that of an implementation of the applicants’ and inventors’ names in patent gazettes, as minimum data. The Handbook, the special purpose of which is to give advice to developing countries as to how to handle computerized data banks, should, according to the Committee, also contain practical information on how to find data banks, information bureaus and offices that do research work. In addition. this Handbook should show education arrangements and search examples. It is the Committee’s constant desire to renresent the views of small and middle size companies, as well as large ones, in order to take into account their special requirements and capacities. PCIPI Working Group on General Information Second Session (Geneva, 17-21 October 1988) The PCIPI Working Group on General Information held its second session in Geneva on 17-21 October 1988. Sev-
49
enteen members of the Working Group were represented at the session: Austria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, German Democratic Republic, Germany (Federal Republic of), Japan, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Soviet Union, S ain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kin om, United States of America, EPO. l+ID, INPADOC and the Patent Documentation Group (PDG) were represented bv observers. The Working Grou discussed the question of whether in ! ormation should be collected and made centrally available concerning the abandonment of PCT internatiozal applications either before or during the period when they enter the national phase, noted that the said information was available in, or was already published by, a significant number of offices, and that INPADOC was ready, in principle, to receive and record in its database the said information. The Working Group requested the International Bureau to ask members of the PCT Union whether or not thev would be ureuared to exchange the said informahon’ with INPADOC, and if they were so prepared, to indicate the exact information that would be made available. The Working Group discussed and agreed upon amendments to WIPO Standard St.9 (recommendation concerning bibliographic data on and relating to - atent documents. INID Codes) to WIPO g tandard St.11 (recommendation on the minimum of indexes to be inserted in Official Gazettes or published in association with Official Gazettes), and to WIPO Standard St. 13 (recommendation for the numbering of patent applications). The Working Group discussed a revised draft of WIPO Standard St.16 (Standard Code for the Identification of ‘Different Kinds of Patent Documents) prepared by the International Bureau and agreed upon the text thereof. The Working Group requested the International Bureau to prepare the Appendix to the revised standard which should give for all offices publishing patent documents the kind of document code appropriate to those publications in accordance with the wording of the revised standard. In general, the Appendix should contain codes for all kinds of patent documents that had been published in the past but which were no longer published. The Appendix should also indicate the old kind of document code used bv offices for those publications. The Working Group again underlined the basic principle that any new code used to identify a patent document published by an office should not have been used in the uast bv that office to identify a different kind of patent document published by it. The Working Group discussed a draft of a new standard which would give INID codes for industrial designs and agreed that the proposed new standard should give codes for bibliographic data published on industrial design documents and/or given in announcements in official gazettes, that it should cover both industrial designs and models. and that snecial attentionvshould be paid to the concord-
50
ante of code numbers between those relating to industrial designs and those relating to patents and to trademarks. The Working Group also discussed the following subjects: the Printing of Bar
Meetings and Conferences Codes on the Front Pages of Patent Documents, a Handbook of Computerized Patent Information Databases, Needs of Developing Countries in respect of the WIPO Journal of Patent Associated Lit-
erature (JOPAL), a Catch-Word Index to WIPO Standards and Recommendations, Technical Periodicals for Developing Countries, and the Use of WIPO Standards and Recommendations.
Meetings and Conferences 12th International Online Information Meeting (London, 6-S December 1988)
The 12th International Online Information Meetine was held on 6-8 December at Olyipia, London. The Exhibition attracted the usual large number of exhibitors, with the general stands on a lower flodr and an ipper floor devoted to CD-ROM exhibitions. The exhibitions in general showed a heavy emphasis on CD-ROM systems, particularly in the publication and business information fields. So far as patent information is concerned, the main exhibitors were as usual Derwent, Pergamon Orbit InfoLine and Telesystemes Questel. Derwent and Telesystemes were advertising and demonstrating their newly-developed Markush - DARC structural search svstem. This system contributes a consideiable breakthrough in the ability to search Markush type structures. At present, the files sk’archable by the ne& system only go back to 1986: earlier files still have to be searched by the fragmentation code system. Telesyitemes ouestel were also advertising DARC-Chemlink. the new PC softw&e allowing query phrasing on a microcom uter for searching CAS Registry and In Kouse private files. Pergamon concentrated on the Pergamon Compact Solution, the CD-ROM information system. leaving the search service for patents etc. to the &bit Search Service staid. The U.K. Patent Office stand demonstrated its Search and Advisory Service (SAS) which provides access to technical and commercial information in patent and trademark databases combined with the benefit of the expertise of the Office’s examining staff. In the Conference sessions the main interest in the patent and trademark area was in Conference Room 1 on Thursday 8 December in a session on Patent and Trademark Searching. The session was very ably chaired Iby Mr P. A. Higham of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, who pointed out that this was the first time at the Online conference that a special session had been devoted to patent and trademark matters. There were three speakers, the first being Mr M. Hill, President of the FID (International Federation of Documentation) and former Director of the British Library Science, Reference and Information Service (SRIS). speaking on the subject ‘Informatibn Fr&‘Patenti - an Overview of Recent Activities’. He emphasized the importance of patent documents as sources of technical information, most of which is not repeated elsewhere. They were in a standardised form, classified in detail, which made
access to the information very easy. Increasing attention was being paid to citation searching but care had to be taken in inter reting the results which could be mls.P eading. The number of patent documents published each year was enormous and moves were afoot, e.g. in Japan, to publish them on CD-ROM. This had problems, mainly due to lack of standardization? and he forecast a move to 12 inch optical discs. He wondered whether the next step will be electronic transfer of documents. An outstanding problem was the lack of use of patent information in developing countries. The second speaker, Mr C. Jonckheere, of the EPO, The Netherlands, spoke on ‘The Automation Plan of DGI of the EPO’. At the EPO the examiners perform 70,000 searches per year and the average search involves consultation of 1000 documents. To assist in this task a huge automation program is under way costing 300 million DM which basically involves a bibliographic and text system, an image system and a personal system. The EPOQUE (EPO Query Service) is developing one query language, based on Questel Plus, for internal and external databases and a personal database. The svstem will cover data format conversion,.cross-file searching and downloading. It will be completed in mid-1990. The BACON system, involving the capturing on magnetic tape in facsimile image of the backfile documents covering EP, WO, FR, DE, GB and CH documents will be completed in 1990. Complementing this, a pilot project JIMA (Japanese Images) of capturing 1,400,OOOJapanese English language abstracts will be completed in 1989. The Personal system will provide each examiner with his own workstation, comprising an IBM PS/2 computer, which will enable him to access all the databases and type his own search reports. The ELFOS electronic file operating system, situated in the receiving section, will enable the facsimile capture of incoming ap lications on magnetic tape for use of D e 1 at the Hague and DG2 in Munich and will be operative in May 1989. All of the computerized systems are supplementary systems and the paper file will remain the main search tool for the forseeable future. The final talk was delivered by Dr K. Suhr, Director of Documentation at BASF AG, on the title ‘Recent Trends in Information Management’. He pointed out that database searches have to be upgraded by manual effort. Over the years, by careful information management, the searching in the chemical area had been vastly improved, with high precision and high recall. Very encouraging trends were the trilateral cooperaGo; between the U.S., Japanese and EPO offices to improve the access to their files and negotiations between the EPO and INPADOC to imnrove their services. The patent inforr&tion market is small and a large number of competing hosts was not desirable, but neither was a monopoly by one firm. The ideal from the users point of view would 47
be a small number of large complementary databases, with only slight overlap, serving different comm&iti& of user% User groups should explain in detail their needsand’analyse and driticise the services available. A welcome development would be for user organizations to become the partners of th< service suppliers and a small steD in this direction had been the formatioh 2 years ago of the Online Users and Producers of Patent Information (OLPI). WIPO PCIPI Committee
Executive
Coordination
The Executive
Coordination Committee held its third session in Geneva on 13-16 December 1988 under the chairmanship of Mr L. Biarklund (Sweden). Twentvone memb&s of the‘ Comm&ee wece represented and four organizations were represented by observers. Messrs M. Voegtel and J. Stillger, representatives of the office of the Federal Republic of Germany, gave a detailed presentation of the automation plans of their office, including a description of their EMIR system (EDP microfilm integrated retrieval) by which the office has already replaced l-million paper search file do&me& by computer accessible 16-mm microfilm in 3M cartridges. The representatives of France. Sweden and the United Kinedom announced that their offices wouih make presentations of their respective automation plans at the next session of the committee. The Committee accepted 10 revision reauests for inclusion in the IPC revision p’rogram. Five questions formulated by the FID relating inter aliu to the information market: were referred to the PCIPI itself for a policy decision as to whether thev fell within the scope of PCIPI activities. A further proposal by the FID concerning the use of bar codes on microfiches resulted in the decision that the matter should be studied by the Working Group on General Information (GIG). A further new task, based on a proposal submitted by the International Association of Producers and Users of Online Patent Information (OLPI), was entrusted to the GIG with the title ‘Conduct a study, e.g. by means of a survey, on training courses and awareness programs on patent information that have taken place in member states of the PCIPI’. The decisions and recommendations made bv the GIG at its second session in Octobkr 1988 were reviewed. Minor amendments to WIPO Standard St.9 (INID codes) were agreed, and revised‘ texts were agreed for Standards St.11 (minimum indexes in Patent Gazettes) and St.13 (numbering of patent applications). The Committee noted an oral report by the secretariat on the work of the Working Group on Search Information, and expressed great satisfaction at the efforts of the Working Group to complete as manv IPC revision Droiects as possible for inchsion of the re&l&g ameidments in the fifth edition of the IPC. Clearer instructions were issued to the Working Group for their task relating to the selec-
Meetings
48
tion of patent documents exemplifying the problems emphasized in paragraphs 59-61 of the Guide to the IPC. The recommendations of the ad hoc Working Group on Management Information on the structure and content of Annual Technical Reports were endorsed, along with the recommendation to hold an Advanced IPC seminar in autumn 1989 on the ‘Use of hybrid systems in the IPC’. The Committee expressed itself in favour of some form of coordinated IPC revision projects in respect of problems cutting across a large number of areas of the IPC, and invited suggestions from offices as to what problems could be dealt with in this way. In relation to the project on experience in the use of computerized search systems, the Committee noted with appreciation, the comparative study on the use of chemical, electrical and mechanical databases by the U.S. office. As the best way of initiating further work on this project, the Committee decided to organize a seminar of experts. A draft agenda for such a seminar will be prepared for discussion at the next Executive session in June 1989. The International Bureau was congratulated on the preparation of an excellent background paper on the subject of optical storage means for patent documents. In view of the urgent need for action on matters such as standardization and sharing of exnerience in the use of software for reading, searching, extraction,, etc., the Commtttee agreed to establish an ad hoc Working Group on Optical Storage of Patent Information, and scheduled Its first session for 6-8 March 1989. The need for annual technical reports in connection with trademarks and designs will be discussed at the next session after preparation of a document thereon by the International Bureau. A decision on the setting up of an ad hoc working group on automatton was deferred.
and Conferences
The Working Group agreed that an international coonerative effort in reclassifving patent documents according to the currenT edition of the IPC was not iustified for the time being, ih view of developments in computerization. The International Bureau was requested to undertake a survey of the reclassification work according to the fifth edition of the IPC which had been done or would be undertaken, and to find out whether data base vendors would be interested in obtaining reclassification information. It was agreed to recommend to the PCIPI Executive Coordination Committee that an advanced IPC Seminar be held in the autumn of 1989 on the subiect. ‘Use of hybrid systems in the IPC’: In relation to the subject of patent statistics for technological assessment and forecasting. the Inte&ational Bureau was request& to oreoare for inclusion in the WIPO Pat&t *Information and Documentation Handbook, a survey entitled ‘Publications
of patent offices dealing with patent statistics useable for technological assessment and forecasting’. Patent offices were requested to send samples of their statistical publication to the International Bureau. Permanent Committee on Industrial Property Information (PCIPI) Working Group on Search Information Second Session (Geneva, 21 November to 2 December 1988)
The PCIPI Working Group on Search Information (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Working Group’) held its second session in Geneva from 21 November to 2 December 1988. The following 12 States and one Organization, members of the Working Group, were represented at the session: Denmark, Finland, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Japan, Soviet Union, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America, European Patent Office (EPO). The following items were dealt with: ZPC Revision Proiects Curried Over Ifrom I
The PCIPI Working Program for the 1988-1989 biennium was reviewed and revised. WIPO PCIPI Ad Hoc Working on Management Information
Group
The Working Group held its second session in Geneva on 12-14 December 1988. Twenty-one members of the Working Group were represented and four organizations were represented by observers. Mr E. De Bundel (EPO) acted as chairman. revised report form and questionnaire on the use of WIPO Standards was approved. It was agreed that the existin IPC Revision Concordance List neede f revision for the fifth edition of the IPC and that a feasibility study of work and costs involved in preparing a cumulative concordance list, covering the different revisions of the IPC, should be undertaken. A
1987 The Working Group dealt with the five mechanical and chemical IPC revision projects still pending. Of those projects, four belong to the mechanical field and one to the chemical field. Amendments were agreed to in respect of subclass B 01 J, relating to ‘catalysts.’ Other ZPC Revision Projects on the Program for the Z988-1989 Biennium
The Working Group dealt with another 26 IPC revision prolects on the pf;ts~ for the 1988-1989 biennium. B projects, 24 belong to the mechanical field and two to the chemical field.
standardization of the expression ‘per se’ throughout the IPC and the avoidance of the term ‘invention’, for the sixth edition of the IPC (to be published in 1994 and to enter into force on 1 January 1995). Selection of Patent Documents as Training Examples The Working Group made a prelimi-
narv selection of natent documents to be used as training examples, in order to illustrate the problem of classifying in function-oriented places or in application places in the IPC. OLPI (International Association of Producers and Users of Online Patent Information)
The third meeting of OLPI was held on 3-4 November 1988, at BASF Aktiengesellschaft, Ludwigshoften; attended by representatives from Atochem, BASF, Bertelsmann Information Service, the British Library, Chemical Abstracts Service, Derwent Publications, Duphor BV, the EEC, Handelskammer (Hamburg), INPADOC, the Patent Documentation Groun, the Patent Office of the F.R.G.. Pergamon Orbit InfoLine, Polyresearch Service. the U.K. Patent Office and WIPO.‘The first day of the meeting was devoted to sessions of the two Working Groups, followed on the second day by a plenary session. The first Working Group enjoyed a relaxed brainstorming session devoted to the problems of increasing public awareness of the value of patent information and of training potential users, with an examination of the various roles which could be played by national and international patent offices, commercial organizations and universities. A number of interesting ideas were put forward which generated a lively discussion during the plenary session. The second Working Group’s discussions were based on a paper by Mr F. Jakobiak (Atochem) which comprised three main topics. (a) Zndexing systems. A number of automatic indexing systems were considered, and it was agreed that the working group would study their application to patent databases. (b) Standardization. Attention was mainly directed to the problem of standardizing data elements and search qualifiers for online databases in the light of the general draft standard for online databases (ISO/DIS 8777), and a paper by Mr Higham concerned with standardization for patent databases.
The Working Group discussed the work to be undertaken for the insertion of references to application places in’ the function-oriented classes F 16 and G 05.
(c) New technology. There was a discussion of the problems encountered in the use of computerized search systems and a survey of the increasing use of optical media; and it was agreed that both of these important topics merited the continuing attention of the Working Group.
Standardization of Expression in the ZPC The Working Group discussed the
Mr P. Higham (WIPO) presented a paper, ‘Standardization of Online Search
Znsertion of References and G 05
in Classes F 16
Meetings
of Patent Databases’, which contained proposals for the standardization of the formats of the basic biblio raphic data elements and search qua11.a ers used in the input of a search query. It was agreed that the roposals were realistic and that the Wor K.mg Group would endeavour to produce firm recommendations based on the paper for submission to online hosts in 1989. During the plenary session, which was chaired by Dr C. Suhr (BASF), Messrs H. Bank (EEC) and F. Jakobiak presented reports of the activities of the Working Grouts which were followed bv full and lively’discussions. Mr Bank presented an educational video ‘The Patent Office: Tomorrow’s Information Today’, which was commissioned by the EEC, and was generally considered to provide a successful introduction. Dr Suhr also nresented his paper ‘OLPI: A New Organization and its Purpose’, which he gave at the 15th INPADOC User Meeting in Se tember 1988. Finally, Mr M. Vogtel PGerman Patent Office1 gave an interesting account of the recent A“ congress held in”Munich. It was generally considered that the meeting had been very successful and that the OLPI had now agreed on a clear course of useful future action. There was a very professional and friendly atmosphere throughout the meeting, and the organization and hospitality provided by BASF were excellent. The next two meetings will be hosted by Telesystemes Questel and INPADOC, respectively and will take place in Sophia Antipolis on 6-7 April, and in Vienna on 2-3 October. These meetings will have the same format as the present one, viz. working group meetings on the first day and a olenarv session on the second dav. since this arrangement was found to be very successful in practice. Any organization which is interested in participating in the activities of OLPI will be welcome. All enquiries should be directed to the Secretary: Mr Jeremy Sergeant, Secretary OLPI, Derwent Publications Ltd, Rochdale House, 128 Theobalds Road, London WClX 8RP, U.K. (Tel.: 01-242 5823). 24th FID/PD Meeting (SRIS, London, 27-28 October 1988)
The meeting opened by discussing the ever crowing and striking nroblem of uatent bublica?ions and &ims in the dhemical area which have excessively broad disclosures. Hereby, some hundred or thousand compounds are being claimed, most of which will never be uroduced in the end. Those applications’ or patents permit neither reasonable documentation nor research work and cannot urovide any clear definition of the scope ofprotection. The WIPO is to be addressed in this respect and to be given some advice for corrective measures, maybe by asking users for multiple search fees. The second topic that came up was the subject of the use and advantage of CD-ROM and the considerable interest undoubtedly rising with prices falling.
and Conferences
Reports were given on the last session of the Permanent Committee of Industrial Property Information, its Executive Committee as well as reports on the Working Groups on General and Management Information. They have been provided with new organizational rules, to follow a new policy and strategy for their working programs. Among other items, there were recommendations drafted as to the numberinn of natent aunlications as well as to a catchword index relating to WIPO Standards. Drafts had also been made regarding standards for trade marks, service marks and designs. The WIPO has collected various experiences gathered on the use of patent documentation by means of different computerized search systems. The International Bureau is compiling an analysis regarding the use or non-use of PCIPI St&da& by patent offices and is going to examine the reasons for little use of the so-called general purpose standards. FID/PD members raised the euestion whether patent gazettes still retain their importance while patent data are quickIv available bv data banks. Discussions revealed and reconfirmed the continued importance of the kind of document code, especially for citing pur oses. Yet, in any case according to the Committee the old code should remain available afte; introducing the new code. The Committee would welcome standardization of the sequence of the various components of patent applications; it was decided that FID/PD should draft respective recommendations and to send these to the German Patent Office. The bar code to be minted on patent snecifications revealed to be another interesting ooint to the Committee. which suaeested iimplifying it in such a’way as tG_apply a number code for the countries as well. No decision has so far been made as to its position; an early agreement would be very much appreciated by FID/PD. Another draft proposal was that of an implementation of the applicants’ and inventors’ names in patent gazettes, as minimum data. The Handbook, the special purpose of which is to give advice to developing countries as to how to handle computerized data banks, should, according to the Committee, also contain practical information on how to find data banks, information bureaus and offices that do research work. In addition. this Handbook should show education arrangements and search examples. It is the Committee’s constant desire to renresent the views of small and middle size companies, as well as large ones, in order to take into account their special requirements and capacities. PCIPI Working Group on General Information Second Session (Geneva, 17-21 October 1988) The PCIPI Working Group on General Information held its second session in Geneva on 17-21 October 1988. Sev-
49
enteen members of the Working Group were represented at the session: Austria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, German Democratic Republic, Germany (Federal Republic of), Japan, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Soviet Union, S ain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kin om, United States of America, EPO. l+ID, INPADOC and the Patent Documentation Group (PDG) were represented bv observers. The Working Grou discussed the question of whether in ! ormation should be collected and made centrally available concerning the abandonment of PCT internatiozal applications either before or during the period when they enter the national phase, noted that the said information was available in, or was already published by, a significant number of offices, and that INPADOC was ready, in principle, to receive and record in its database the said information. The Working Group requested the International Bureau to ask members of the PCT Union whether or not thev would be ureuared to exchange the said informahon’ with INPADOC, and if they were so prepared, to indicate the exact information that would be made available. The Working Group discussed and agreed upon amendments to WIPO Standard St.9 (recommendation concerning bibliographic data on and relating to - atent documents. INID Codes) to WIPO g tandard St.11 (recommendation on the minimum of indexes to be inserted in Official Gazettes or published in association with Official Gazettes), and to WIPO Standard St. 13 (recommendation for the numbering of patent applications). The Working Group discussed a revised draft of WIPO Standard St.16 (Standard Code for the Identification of ‘Different Kinds of Patent Documents) prepared by the International Bureau and agreed upon the text thereof. The Working Group requested the International Bureau to prepare the Appendix to the revised standard which should give for all offices publishing patent documents the kind of document code appropriate to those publications in accordance with the wording of the revised standard. In general, the Appendix should contain codes for all kinds of patent documents that had been published in the past but which were no longer published. The Appendix should also indicate the old kind of document code used bv offices for those publications. The Working Group again underlined the basic principle that any new code used to identify a patent document published by an office should not have been used in the uast bv that office to identify a different kind of patent document published by it. The Working Group discussed a draft of a new standard which would give INID codes for industrial designs and agreed that the proposed new standard should give codes for bibliographic data published on industrial design documents and/or given in announcements in official gazettes, that it should cover both industrial designs and models. and that snecial attentionvshould be paid to the concord-
50
ante of code numbers between those relating to industrial designs and those relating to patents and to trademarks. The Working Group also discussed the following subjects: the Printing of Bar
Meetings and Conferences Codes on the Front Pages of Patent Documents, a Handbook of Computerized Patent Information Databases, Needs of Developing Countries in respect of the WIPO Journal of Patent Associated Lit-
erature (JOPAL), a Catch-Word Index to WIPO Standards and Recommendations, Technical Periodicals for Developing Countries, and the Use of WIPO Standards and Recommendations.