- Email: [email protected]
News on patent, trade mark and design databases on the internet
World Patent Information 24 (2002) 241–242 www.elsevier.com/locate/worpatin
News on patent, trade mark and design databases on the Internet As usual quite a number of new sites and developments have appeared on the web. The problem, of course, is that each must be searched (and known about) separately. Britain has extended its coverage in Esp@cenet’s single authority file (at http://gb.espacenet.com/) of the 1977 Patents Act publications. It lacks ECLA classification and abstracts in its extended coverage, but does include links to entries in its status database. Canada now has a database of registered or expunged copyrights from October 1991 at http://strategis.gc.ca/ cipo/copyrights/jsp/search.jsp. Belgium has placed PDFs of each of its patent gazette issues from September 1998 to September 2001 at http:// mineco.fgov.be/redir.asp?loc=/organization_market/ intellectual_property/patents_collection/home_fr.htm. I came across this site purely by accident once as, for some strange reason, there is no link to it from the Belgian Patent Office site. Benelux now has its trade mark database available at http://bbmweb.jouve-hdi.com/SearchMaskMain.asp. This system has since 1971 replaced the national trade marks for The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The European Court of Justice’s intellectual property cases are now listed and linked to in what looks like a useful site constructed by the UK Patent Office at http:// www.patent.gov.uk/about/ippd/ecj/index.htm. Finland’s utility model gazettes from the beginning of 2002 are appearing at http://patinfo.prh.fi/julkaisut/ hyodyllisyysmalli/2002/luettelo.asp. I may have missed earlier announcements but I see that Germany now has priced designs and trade mark databases on the web, both hosted by Wila and entirely in German. The designs database GeschmachsmusterWEB contains registration details from 1988 for both German national and Hague Agreement designations of Germany. The trade marks database DEMASWEB includes all German registrations since 1894. The site also features their patent and utility model PATOSWEB database which has main claims as well as bibliographic details searchable from 1968 (Offenlegungsschriften and Auslegeschriften) or 1980 (Patentschriften) or 1983 (Gebrauchsmustern), with a drawing from 1980. They can be accessed through http://www.ipr-village.com/ index_ipr.html. Hungary has placed its search reports in downloadable format at http://www.mszh.hu/English/db/hpat/ekutjel. html. PII: S 0 1 7 2 - 2 1 9 0 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 3 8 - 8
Italy has always been a problem area for patent documentation. Esp@cenet provides some material including applicant names, filing details and sometimes copies of the specifications, but not titles or classifications. The Fildata company is the only body to make any effort to index their data. The Made in Italy provides applicant name and title access to the last six months of patents and designs at http://www.fildata.it/servizi.html. There is also their site at www.fildata.it/ricerca.html which provides similar access to utility models from 1990. Japan has also been a problem for patent searchers, partly because of the language and the sheer amount of material but also because of the many similar numbering sequences. The patent office has however made great efforts to provide English language access to their publications through their http://www.ipdl.jpo.go.jp/ homepg_e.ipdl site. A new addition has been a concordance to numbers for patents and utility models at http://www.ipdl.jpo.go.jp/Tokujitu/tjbansakuen.ipdl?N0 000=116. It covers patents from 1921 and utility models from 1913. Another new Japanese database is the Patent & Utility Model Gazette at http://www.ipdl.jpo.go.jp/Tokujitu/ tjsogodben.ipdl?N0000=115. It also has an English language search page. It permits searching by known patent or utility model numbers from 1922 to gain access to PDFs of the specification. This includes corrected versions, but it appears that you have to know that there is such a version, as the code (such as H for a corrected patent specification) is required. These sequences have their own number ranges anyway. I must admit I had some difficulties in using this database. Jersey has put a database of its designs up on the web, at http://www.judicialgreffe.gov.je/databases/designsdb/ searchform.asp. The island (like Guernsey) retains its own intellectual property system apart from the UK. Thanks to Aleksandr Belinskiy I have heard that Kazakhstan has placed its gazette since 1993 on the web at http://www.kazpatent.kz/publiz.htm. Korean Patent Abstracts, an English-language site, has moved to a new URL at http://211.173.78.101/kpa/main. jsp. Its coverage is of Korean-origin ‘‘A’’ specifications from 2000 and ‘‘B’’ from 1979, although only up to September 2001 (‘‘A’’) and October 2000 (‘‘B’’). Drawings are included and it now has legal status information. IFI has launched a Business Method Patents Database, the first of its kind. This subscription database offers
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News on patent, trade mark and design databases on the Internet / World Patent Information 24 (2002) 241–242
enhanced indexing. Information on it (and access) is given at the http://www.ificlaims.com/bmp.html site. Although the site does not say so it is presumably limited to American material. Lastly, the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute Resolution Policy web site at ICANN’s http://www.icann.org/udrp/ site includes cases on domain name disputes. To save time keyboarding in these URLs, remember that most if not all will be listed on the patents links
pages at the British Library’s Patents Information home page, which has the alias http://www.bl.uk/patents.
Stephen van Dulken The British Library 96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB, UK E-mail address: [email protected]
News on patent, trade mark and design databases on the Internet As usual quite a number of new sites and developments have appeared on the web. The problem, of course, is that each must be searched (and known about) separately. Britain has extended its coverage in Esp@cenet’s single authority file (at http://gb.espacenet.com/) of the 1977 Patents Act publications. It lacks ECLA classification and abstracts in its extended coverage, but does include links to entries in its status database. Canada now has a database of registered or expunged copyrights from October 1991 at http://strategis.gc.ca/ cipo/copyrights/jsp/search.jsp. Belgium has placed PDFs of each of its patent gazette issues from September 1998 to September 2001 at http:// mineco.fgov.be/redir.asp?loc=/organization_market/ intellectual_property/patents_collection/home_fr.htm. I came across this site purely by accident once as, for some strange reason, there is no link to it from the Belgian Patent Office site. Benelux now has its trade mark database available at http://bbmweb.jouve-hdi.com/SearchMaskMain.asp. This system has since 1971 replaced the national trade marks for The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The European Court of Justice’s intellectual property cases are now listed and linked to in what looks like a useful site constructed by the UK Patent Office at http:// www.patent.gov.uk/about/ippd/ecj/index.htm. Finland’s utility model gazettes from the beginning of 2002 are appearing at http://patinfo.prh.fi/julkaisut/ hyodyllisyysmalli/2002/luettelo.asp. I may have missed earlier announcements but I see that Germany now has priced designs and trade mark databases on the web, both hosted by Wila and entirely in German. The designs database GeschmachsmusterWEB contains registration details from 1988 for both German national and Hague Agreement designations of Germany. The trade marks database DEMASWEB includes all German registrations since 1894. The site also features their patent and utility model PATOSWEB database which has main claims as well as bibliographic details searchable from 1968 (Offenlegungsschriften and Auslegeschriften) or 1980 (Patentschriften) or 1983 (Gebrauchsmustern), with a drawing from 1980. They can be accessed through http://www.ipr-village.com/ index_ipr.html. Hungary has placed its search reports in downloadable format at http://www.mszh.hu/English/db/hpat/ekutjel. html. PII: S 0 1 7 2 - 2 1 9 0 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 3 8 - 8
Italy has always been a problem area for patent documentation. Esp@cenet provides some material including applicant names, filing details and sometimes copies of the specifications, but not titles or classifications. The Fildata company is the only body to make any effort to index their data. The Made in Italy provides applicant name and title access to the last six months of patents and designs at http://www.fildata.it/servizi.html. There is also their site at www.fildata.it/ricerca.html which provides similar access to utility models from 1990. Japan has also been a problem for patent searchers, partly because of the language and the sheer amount of material but also because of the many similar numbering sequences. The patent office has however made great efforts to provide English language access to their publications through their http://www.ipdl.jpo.go.jp/ homepg_e.ipdl site. A new addition has been a concordance to numbers for patents and utility models at http://www.ipdl.jpo.go.jp/Tokujitu/tjbansakuen.ipdl?N0 000=116. It covers patents from 1921 and utility models from 1913. Another new Japanese database is the Patent & Utility Model Gazette at http://www.ipdl.jpo.go.jp/Tokujitu/ tjsogodben.ipdl?N0000=115. It also has an English language search page. It permits searching by known patent or utility model numbers from 1922 to gain access to PDFs of the specification. This includes corrected versions, but it appears that you have to know that there is such a version, as the code (such as H for a corrected patent specification) is required. These sequences have their own number ranges anyway. I must admit I had some difficulties in using this database. Jersey has put a database of its designs up on the web, at http://www.judicialgreffe.gov.je/databases/designsdb/ searchform.asp. The island (like Guernsey) retains its own intellectual property system apart from the UK. Thanks to Aleksandr Belinskiy I have heard that Kazakhstan has placed its gazette since 1993 on the web at http://www.kazpatent.kz/publiz.htm. Korean Patent Abstracts, an English-language site, has moved to a new URL at http://211.173.78.101/kpa/main. jsp. Its coverage is of Korean-origin ‘‘A’’ specifications from 2000 and ‘‘B’’ from 1979, although only up to September 2001 (‘‘A’’) and October 2000 (‘‘B’’). Drawings are included and it now has legal status information. IFI has launched a Business Method Patents Database, the first of its kind. This subscription database offers
242
News on patent, trade mark and design databases on the Internet / World Patent Information 24 (2002) 241–242
enhanced indexing. Information on it (and access) is given at the http://www.ificlaims.com/bmp.html site. Although the site does not say so it is presumably limited to American material. Lastly, the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute Resolution Policy web site at ICANN’s http://www.icann.org/udrp/ site includes cases on domain name disputes. To save time keyboarding in these URLs, remember that most if not all will be listed on the patents links
pages at the British Library’s Patents Information home page, which has the alias http://www.bl.uk/patents.
Stephen van Dulken The British Library 96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB, UK E-mail address: [email protected]