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On problem areas in training specialists in the field of patent information in the USSR
B. A. Matkin,
Deputy
Chairman,
The USSR State Committee
for Inventions
and Discoveries,
Moscow
On problem areas in training specialists in the field of patent information
Summary
in the USSR
The article describes the system of patent education set up in the Soviet Union. The specific features of the patent information system available for national economy specialists, which stem from planned nature of the socialist economy, its specialization into branches of industry and distribution of productive forces over the vast territory of the country, are responsible for particular organizational forms of training in the field of patent information. The article stresses the key role of the USSR State Committee for Inventions and Discoveries supervising specialized educational establishments which train and upgrade the expertise of patent specialists for many branches of national economy. It points out the necessity of instructing specialists directly involved in development of novel equipment and technology in fundamental principles of the patent science. Further, an outline of curricula offered for training patent specialists isgiven. The contents and structure of the ‘Patent Information and Documentation’ course gives an idea of the advantages of a judicous combination of theory and practical skills in the use of patent information.
L’article decrit le systeme de formation en mat&e de brevets pratiqui en URSS. 11met en relief le fait que les particularites spicifiques du systeme de l’information brevets offert aux specialistes economistes, qui, elles, decoulent de la nature planifiee de l’economie socialiste, de sa specialisation en branches industrielles et de la distribution des forces productives sur le vaste espace du pays, sont responsables des formes particulieres de l’organisation de la formation dans le domaine de l’information brevets. L’article souligne le role-cli du Comite d&at pour les Inventions et les Decouvertes en URSS en ce qui concerne la supervision des etablissements speciaux de formation qui enseignent et perfectionnent l’expertise des specialistes en brevets dans de nombreuses branches de l’economie nationale. 11 accentue la nicessite de familiariser les experts directement engages dans le developpement des nouveaux Cquipements et technologies sur les principes de la science de brevets. En outre, les curricula offerts pour la formation des spicialistes en brevets sont esquisses. Le contenu et la structure du tours sur 1’Information et la Documentation Brevets donnent enfin une idee sur les avantages d’une combinaison judicieuse entre la theorie et les competences pratiques quant a l’usage de l’information brevets.
Der Aufsatz beschreibt das in der UdSSR eingerichtete System fiir Patentausbildung. Die spezifischen Eigenheiten des den volkswirtschaftlichen Spezialisten zuganglichen Patentinformationssystems, das sich aus dem Planungscharakter der sozialistischen Wirtschaft, der Spezialisierung in Industriebranchen und der Verteilung der produktiven Krafte fiber die weite Ausdehnung des Landes herleitet, sind verantwortlich fiir die besonderen organisatorischen Formen der Ausbildung im Bereich der Patentinformation. Der Aufsatz unterstreicht die Schliisselrolle des Staatskomitees der UdSSR fur Erfindungen und Entdeckungen in der Uberwachung der spezialisierten Ausbildungsanstalten, welche die Sachkompetenz der Patentspezialisten vieler Branchen der Volkswirtschaft schulen und verbessern. Er weist auf die Notwendigkeit hin, die direkt in der Entwicklung neuer Ausriistungen und Technologien tatigen Fachleute in den Grundlagen der Patentwissenschaft zu unterweisen. SchlieRlich werden die Curricula skizziert, welche fur die Ausbildung von Patentspezialisten angeboten werden. Der Inhalt und die Struktur des Patentinformationsund -dokumentationskurses gibt eine Vorstellung iiber die Vorteile einer sorgfaltigen Kombination von Theorie und praktischen Fahigkeiten im Gebrauch von Patentinformation.
150
World
Patent
Information
2 (1980)
No. 4
Matkin
- Training
of specialists
in the USSR
Introduction Optimized handling and dissemination of the flows of patent information which absorbs details of every scientific and technological breakthrough giving rise to development of novel equipment and technology on the basis of international division of labour is at present indispensable for the acceleration of scientific and technical progress. The use of patent documentation for the purposes of technical development calls for direct participation of specialists highly qualified in science and engineering on the one hand and in patent matters on the other hand. Conversely, training of specialists in the field of patent information for various national economy branches, as applied to specific conditions of the Soviet Union, requires consideration of the organizational structure of the existing system of patent information, types and carriers of information, methods and means of information handling and use in the process of production of novel equipment and technology. The organization philosophy and forms of patent information activities in the USSR have been taking shape ‘under the influence of several major factors. The principle of centralized handling of the patent information flow is thought to be best suited for the planned economy of this country, its branched structure where production is specialized to an extremely high degree. At the same time, the distribution of the national productive forces throughout the vast expanse of the country necessitated a decentralized system to satisfy the needs of consumers of information.
Patent Information
in the USSR
These basic principles have been built into the State System of Patent Information (SSPI) established in this country. The acting Statute on SSPI governs the normative foundation of patent information activities in this country and is aimed at providing favourable conditions for all organizations, plants, scientists and experts by offering easy access to patent information. The organizational structure of SSPI comprises patent information services and organs on the national, territorial and branch levels. They are engaged in a coordinated effort to collect, process, store, retrieve and distribute patent information. The USSR State Committee for Inventions and Discoveries (referred to as Committee hereinafter) is in charge of national information agencies such as the AllUnion Research Institute of Patent Information (VNIIPI), the Polygraphic Industrial Enterprise ‘Patent’
(both members of the ‘Poisk’ scientific and Industrial Association) and the All-Union Patent and Technical Library (VPTB). These agencies collect, store and furnish centralized processing of the world patent information flow, as well as disseminate it in the form of printed matter, microforms and magnetic tapes. They also offer library information services to users of patent information. Decentralized services in various regions of the country and branches of national economy are advanced by the institutes within the Republics of the Union, interindustry territorial scientific and technical information centers and the industry subbranch or problem oriented leading organizations of various ministries. Over 100 territorial scientific and technical information centers located in the capitals of the Union Republics and other large cities operate in this country. More than 30 of these have now compiled basic patent collections each amassing from 7 to 10 million patent documents. Research organizations of ministries, e.g. leading subbranch bodies or problem oriented units (totalling about 1 250), build up more complete collections in their specific research and development fields. A total of 6 000 patent information services function within the framework of organizations and industrial enterprises of national economy. The employ over 90 per cent of the patent information specialists in the country working in close cooperation with research and development teams. Branch units and services are, as a rule, charged with patent studies in their specific fields of research and development, supplying patent information to such developments at all stages - from inception to serial production, including assistance in drawing up applications for inventions and so forth. Composition and depth of both the basic patent collection and the patent files of leading regional organizations of ministries complement one another to meet the needs of all organizations located in the region. The total number of invention specifications accumulated in territorial and branch patent stockpiles amounts to 480 million, which are resorted to yearly by about 1.5 million specialists from all branches of the national economy. Modern computers are increasingly used to cope with the above listed operations of processing, retrieving and distributing the patent information. Apart from purely information oriented organs and units, the Committee framework includes the AllUnion Center for Patent Services (VTsPU) with subsidiaries in majour cities. The staff of the Center render, on a commercial basis, assistance to enterprises and organizations in compiling application materials, exe-
World Patent Information 2 (1980) No. 4 Matkin - Training of specialists in the USSR
151
cution of patent search, patent clearance examination, preparation of documents for patenting abroad and so on. The large amount of effort exerted to set up the State System of Patent Information resulted in the establishment of a wide spread patent information network of regional branch patent documentation depositories affording favourable conditions for patent research in the process of developing novel objects of machinery and technology. Specialists also have to make use for the same purposes of the data contained in some other publications, in particular, in the patent associated literature. Stockpiling of such literature is also the concern of patent information services andunits. This gives one a certain idea of the level of requirements set to the majority of specialists in the field of patent information. Apart from profound knowledge of patent documentation in general, they should also have some engineering training sufficient for holding a qualified dialogue with developers in specific problem areas pertaining to concrete research and development efforts. Patent information specialists should be acquainted with the fundamentals of the computer art, and its capabilities, be able to formulate tasks for information computer support of projects, be aware of the organizational structure of the State System of Patent Information to efficiently utilize patent files of this System. It stands to reason that qualified and purposeful use of patent documentation, and various patent information publications, methods and means of processing this documentation cannot be realized without a well thought out training system and refresher courses involving not only patent specialists but also a wide contingent of scientists, engineers, innovators and managers. The planned nature of the national economy in the USSR quite definitely tells on the process of evaluation of the potential effect of invention. It is vital for the socialist society that as development of a project goes on protection is granted not only for inventions whose potential is evident and can be realized within a short time, but also to those technical ideas which are not immediately realizable in terms of direct savings, although they are in fact prerequisites for future breakthroughs in other branches of the national economy. This premise explains the advisability of specialized training of both patent experts and specialists directly involved in the development of novel technology.
Educational Establishments of the USSR State Committee for Inventions and Discoveries The State system of patent comprises two establishments 152
education supervised
in this country by the CommitWorld Patent lnfomarion
tee: the Central Institute for the Improvement of Professional Skill among Managing Personnel and Specialists in the National Economy in the Field of Patent Activity (TsIPK) and the Advanced State Courses for the Improvement of Professional Skill among Managing Personnel and Engineering Technical and Scientific Personnel in the Field of Patent and Inventive Activity (VGKPI). The TsIPK has at its disposal training and consultation centers in some large cities of the country. It also holds permanent post graduate courses focusing, in particular, at training specialists of advanced qualification in such fields as ‘technical cybernetics and information theory’ and ‘operational research and system analysis’. The Institute has three departments: a daytime sixmonth course where students have to temporarily discontinue their work, a nighttime course where they study after work hours, and a correspondence course. The two latter courses last for two years without interruption of the main employment. Graduates of the Institute receive diplomas of patent specialists of top qualification. Students admitted to the Institute are selected by ministries and departments from among the managerial staff and national economy specialists who have completed their university or college education. Preference is given to persons who have practical experience in inventive activities, patenting or licensing and to the graduates of the abovementioned Advanced Courses (VGKPI). Students of the daytime department continue to receive their salaries paid at the places of their basic employment. Students of the night and correspondence departments enjoy a ten-day paid annual leave for taking examinations and writing theses. Graduates of the Institute who were successful in meeting the requirements of the training programs and curricula and in defending their theses are awarded qualifications of ‘patent specialists’ certified by diplomas. The Institute has six chairs: - economics and organization of inventive activity; - scientific and technical examination of protectable subjects; - patent information and retrieval systems; - system analysis and patent research ; - patenting and licensing; - inventor’s and patent law. Training programs and curricula of the chairs offer a wide spectrum of knowledge needed for a patent specialist, including package solutions of patent information problems pertaining to objects of novel equipment and technology. The 2 (1980)
dynamic No. 4
advance Matkin
of the national
- Training
of specialists
economy
in
in the USSR
the USSR and the ever increasing role played by novel equipment and technology in promoting this process call for building up the rate of training of patent specialists. The overall output of specialists with higher patent education has jumped up to 1 800 graduates in 1979 as compared to 264 graduates in 1969. In the ten years of its existence the Institute turned out 14 000 graduates. The other educational establishment supervised by the USSR State Committee for Invention and Discoveries is the Advanced State Courses for the Improvement of Professional Skill among Managing Personnel and Engineering Technical and Scientific Personnel in the Field of Patent and Inventive Activity (VGKPI). The Courses have been set up somewhat earlier (1964) than the TsIPK and as the time went on developed their own curriculum, forms of training, organization and methods of instruction. The Courses accept persons who are graduates of colleges and secondary schools and currently employed as managers of enterprises or their branches, tecbnologists, engineers, or innovators of various branches of industry. Courses are normally held at enterprises or in research institutes in order to tightly tie up the training process and practical work of students in the chosen field. The Courses also have three types of training: daytime department where temporary discontinuation of the main employment is required, night and correspondence departments. Curricula of the departments provide for study of patent science fundamentals. About one third of the training hours is allocated to patent information and its practical application. In general, the training programs and curricula are aimed at imparting knowledge and practical skills upon students with a view to make it fairly easy for them to find their bearings in the fundamentals of inventive, patenting and licensing activities through competent use of patent information. The Courses are self-supporting and have no regular, permanently employed lecturers. Classes are run by experienced staff of the Committee, local organizations, college professors and instructors of specialized technical schools. Undoubtedly, the Courses are the most populartype of training of its kind. In 1979 alone almost 9 600 specialists have upgraded their expertise in the field of patent activity there.
Other Types of Training In addition, courses of patent information and fundamentals of patent science are delivered in the National Economy Academy and many colleges throughout the country. The basic text book, i.e. the ‘Patent Science’, World Patent
Information
2 (1980)
No. 4
Matkin
- Training
written by the leading specialists has been widely circulated and is used now in all higher educational establishments. Public organizations also participate in training patent specialists. Thus, for example, the All-Union Society of Inventors and Innovators (VOIR) alone sponsors 47 public patent science institutes with 13 subsidiaries and 30 consultation and instruction centers. Hundreds of technologist oriented series of lectures are delivered by patent specialists at enterprises and design offices at the initiative of the All-Union Society ‘Znani’ (Knowledge) and other scientific and technical associations. Lectures on the fundamentals of patent information are also delivered in the All-Union Center for upgrading the expertise of information service personnel (IPKIR). An obligatory course of ‘Patent Information’ is included into the curriculum of the yearly program for specialists from developing countries sponsored by UNIDO-UNESCO in the National Institute of Scientific and Technical Information. Textbooks for this course are furnished in English, French and Spanish. The TsIPK Institute and similar organizations in socialist countries coordinate their curricula and exchange students on a regular basis.
Training mation
Programs in the Field of Patent Infor-
The chair of patent information and retrieval systems of the TsIPK is the scientific and methodological center dealing with problems of training in the field of patent information. The current training program of the ‘Patent Documentation and Information’ course is intended for 110 training hours. This chair also has a thirty-hour course entitled “Prior Art Determination and Scientific and Technical Prognostication”which is in fact an addition to the main course dealing with practical aspects of the patent information use. Special attention has been paid to elaborate the curricula of the ‘Patent Documentation and Information’ course so as to meet a twofold objective: completeness of the training material contained in the course and its high degree of perceptibility. Completeness depends largely on the inventory of theoretical problems and practical skills to be mastered by the student. Degree of perceptibility is enhanced by the structural logic of the course and optimal proportions of theoretical and supplementary material. The logical and scientific structure of the ‘Patent Documentation and Information’ course has been shaped with a view to specific external links with other branches of knowledge, proper selection of the required
of specialists
in the USSR
153
minimum material in basic and neighbouring fields of science, fixing an adequate sequence of presentation. The model of scientific and technical communications in modern society was taken as the logical model of the course. A fairly balanced presentation sequence was defined in this way, starting from description of information demands of direct users of information to the input of the generated information into the communications system, particularly, into information systems. Further stages expound problems of information processing and delivery to users. Within this framework the logical model of the course becomes a closed system with external connections and a sufficiently precise separation of basic and supplementary subjects. At present the ‘Patent Information and Documentation’ course can be roughly broken down into eight sections: 1. Scientific and technical information system: purposes and tasks. State patent information system as a subsystem of the national system of scientific and technical information. 2. Characteristics of scientific and technical documentation and information flows. The place and role of patent documentation in these information flows. 3. Processes of collection, accumulation, processing and storage of scientific and technical (patent) documentation. 4. Systems and means of patent retrieval. 5. Patent search in the USSR patent documentation files and in the files of other CMEA countries, as well as industrially developed capitalist countries. 6. Methodological fundamentals of qualitative information analysis and synthesis. 7. Information means in the process of development and employment of technical objects. Patent information research. 8. Organization of patent information activities in the USSR and abroad. Practical classes include four subjects: 1. Patent documentation in the USSR and in foreign countries. 2. Information retrieval languages (classification of inventions, description languages, etc.).
154
World Patent
Information
3. Reference and search aids and patent retrieval. 4. Qualitative analysis of patent documentation and the synthesis of new information for the purposes of defining prior art and prognostication. This structure of the course, apart from furnishing theoretical aspects of patent science, aims primarily at inculcating practical skills in using methods and means of patent documentation retrieval upon students. Practical experience in teaching at the TsIPK takes account of professional and other specific background of students accepted for training (specialization, length of service, age, practical skills, etc.). Groups are made up with due regard to these personal qualifications of future students. Moreover, the task is to adapt and transform lectures and practical studies to fit a specific category of students. The logical structure of the course, however, is never upset. The Institute is lately making wider use of ideas and means of programmed training. This combination of teaching principles of patent information science and practical classes seems to be fruitful on the way to further improvement of the teaching process and raising the efficiency of instruction. Professors and teachers of the chair invest a lot of effort into this improvement of the teaching process and its methods. The chair goes on studying still unopened possibilities for wider use of business game methods as applied to patent science tasks. A new three volume textbook entitled ‘Patent Information and Documentation’ was released in 1980. Matters of efficiency and quality of training in the field of patent information, as well as other patent information problem areas, are high agenda items at national scientific and methodological conferences. To sum up it should be pointed out that specialized types of training and upgrading the expertise of national economy specialists in the field of patent information support of novel equipment and technology development accepted in the USSR are definitely growing in importance. Closer consideration given to such specialized types of training by directors of plants and organizations in various branches of national economy contribute to further raise the technical level of research and development.
2 (1980)
No. 4
Matkin - Training
of specialists
in the USSR
Deputy
Chairman,
The USSR State Committee
for Inventions
and Discoveries,
Moscow
On problem areas in training specialists in the field of patent information
Summary
in the USSR
The article describes the system of patent education set up in the Soviet Union. The specific features of the patent information system available for national economy specialists, which stem from planned nature of the socialist economy, its specialization into branches of industry and distribution of productive forces over the vast territory of the country, are responsible for particular organizational forms of training in the field of patent information. The article stresses the key role of the USSR State Committee for Inventions and Discoveries supervising specialized educational establishments which train and upgrade the expertise of patent specialists for many branches of national economy. It points out the necessity of instructing specialists directly involved in development of novel equipment and technology in fundamental principles of the patent science. Further, an outline of curricula offered for training patent specialists isgiven. The contents and structure of the ‘Patent Information and Documentation’ course gives an idea of the advantages of a judicous combination of theory and practical skills in the use of patent information.
L’article decrit le systeme de formation en mat&e de brevets pratiqui en URSS. 11met en relief le fait que les particularites spicifiques du systeme de l’information brevets offert aux specialistes economistes, qui, elles, decoulent de la nature planifiee de l’economie socialiste, de sa specialisation en branches industrielles et de la distribution des forces productives sur le vaste espace du pays, sont responsables des formes particulieres de l’organisation de la formation dans le domaine de l’information brevets. L’article souligne le role-cli du Comite d&at pour les Inventions et les Decouvertes en URSS en ce qui concerne la supervision des etablissements speciaux de formation qui enseignent et perfectionnent l’expertise des specialistes en brevets dans de nombreuses branches de l’economie nationale. 11 accentue la nicessite de familiariser les experts directement engages dans le developpement des nouveaux Cquipements et technologies sur les principes de la science de brevets. En outre, les curricula offerts pour la formation des spicialistes en brevets sont esquisses. Le contenu et la structure du tours sur 1’Information et la Documentation Brevets donnent enfin une idee sur les avantages d’une combinaison judicieuse entre la theorie et les competences pratiques quant a l’usage de l’information brevets.
Der Aufsatz beschreibt das in der UdSSR eingerichtete System fiir Patentausbildung. Die spezifischen Eigenheiten des den volkswirtschaftlichen Spezialisten zuganglichen Patentinformationssystems, das sich aus dem Planungscharakter der sozialistischen Wirtschaft, der Spezialisierung in Industriebranchen und der Verteilung der produktiven Krafte fiber die weite Ausdehnung des Landes herleitet, sind verantwortlich fiir die besonderen organisatorischen Formen der Ausbildung im Bereich der Patentinformation. Der Aufsatz unterstreicht die Schliisselrolle des Staatskomitees der UdSSR fur Erfindungen und Entdeckungen in der Uberwachung der spezialisierten Ausbildungsanstalten, welche die Sachkompetenz der Patentspezialisten vieler Branchen der Volkswirtschaft schulen und verbessern. Er weist auf die Notwendigkeit hin, die direkt in der Entwicklung neuer Ausriistungen und Technologien tatigen Fachleute in den Grundlagen der Patentwissenschaft zu unterweisen. SchlieRlich werden die Curricula skizziert, welche fur die Ausbildung von Patentspezialisten angeboten werden. Der Inhalt und die Struktur des Patentinformationsund -dokumentationskurses gibt eine Vorstellung iiber die Vorteile einer sorgfaltigen Kombination von Theorie und praktischen Fahigkeiten im Gebrauch von Patentinformation.
150
World
Patent
Information
2 (1980)
No. 4
Matkin
- Training
of specialists
in the USSR
Introduction Optimized handling and dissemination of the flows of patent information which absorbs details of every scientific and technological breakthrough giving rise to development of novel equipment and technology on the basis of international division of labour is at present indispensable for the acceleration of scientific and technical progress. The use of patent documentation for the purposes of technical development calls for direct participation of specialists highly qualified in science and engineering on the one hand and in patent matters on the other hand. Conversely, training of specialists in the field of patent information for various national economy branches, as applied to specific conditions of the Soviet Union, requires consideration of the organizational structure of the existing system of patent information, types and carriers of information, methods and means of information handling and use in the process of production of novel equipment and technology. The organization philosophy and forms of patent information activities in the USSR have been taking shape ‘under the influence of several major factors. The principle of centralized handling of the patent information flow is thought to be best suited for the planned economy of this country, its branched structure where production is specialized to an extremely high degree. At the same time, the distribution of the national productive forces throughout the vast expanse of the country necessitated a decentralized system to satisfy the needs of consumers of information.
Patent Information
in the USSR
These basic principles have been built into the State System of Patent Information (SSPI) established in this country. The acting Statute on SSPI governs the normative foundation of patent information activities in this country and is aimed at providing favourable conditions for all organizations, plants, scientists and experts by offering easy access to patent information. The organizational structure of SSPI comprises patent information services and organs on the national, territorial and branch levels. They are engaged in a coordinated effort to collect, process, store, retrieve and distribute patent information. The USSR State Committee for Inventions and Discoveries (referred to as Committee hereinafter) is in charge of national information agencies such as the AllUnion Research Institute of Patent Information (VNIIPI), the Polygraphic Industrial Enterprise ‘Patent’
(both members of the ‘Poisk’ scientific and Industrial Association) and the All-Union Patent and Technical Library (VPTB). These agencies collect, store and furnish centralized processing of the world patent information flow, as well as disseminate it in the form of printed matter, microforms and magnetic tapes. They also offer library information services to users of patent information. Decentralized services in various regions of the country and branches of national economy are advanced by the institutes within the Republics of the Union, interindustry territorial scientific and technical information centers and the industry subbranch or problem oriented leading organizations of various ministries. Over 100 territorial scientific and technical information centers located in the capitals of the Union Republics and other large cities operate in this country. More than 30 of these have now compiled basic patent collections each amassing from 7 to 10 million patent documents. Research organizations of ministries, e.g. leading subbranch bodies or problem oriented units (totalling about 1 250), build up more complete collections in their specific research and development fields. A total of 6 000 patent information services function within the framework of organizations and industrial enterprises of national economy. The employ over 90 per cent of the patent information specialists in the country working in close cooperation with research and development teams. Branch units and services are, as a rule, charged with patent studies in their specific fields of research and development, supplying patent information to such developments at all stages - from inception to serial production, including assistance in drawing up applications for inventions and so forth. Composition and depth of both the basic patent collection and the patent files of leading regional organizations of ministries complement one another to meet the needs of all organizations located in the region. The total number of invention specifications accumulated in territorial and branch patent stockpiles amounts to 480 million, which are resorted to yearly by about 1.5 million specialists from all branches of the national economy. Modern computers are increasingly used to cope with the above listed operations of processing, retrieving and distributing the patent information. Apart from purely information oriented organs and units, the Committee framework includes the AllUnion Center for Patent Services (VTsPU) with subsidiaries in majour cities. The staff of the Center render, on a commercial basis, assistance to enterprises and organizations in compiling application materials, exe-
World Patent Information 2 (1980) No. 4 Matkin - Training of specialists in the USSR
151
cution of patent search, patent clearance examination, preparation of documents for patenting abroad and so on. The large amount of effort exerted to set up the State System of Patent Information resulted in the establishment of a wide spread patent information network of regional branch patent documentation depositories affording favourable conditions for patent research in the process of developing novel objects of machinery and technology. Specialists also have to make use for the same purposes of the data contained in some other publications, in particular, in the patent associated literature. Stockpiling of such literature is also the concern of patent information services andunits. This gives one a certain idea of the level of requirements set to the majority of specialists in the field of patent information. Apart from profound knowledge of patent documentation in general, they should also have some engineering training sufficient for holding a qualified dialogue with developers in specific problem areas pertaining to concrete research and development efforts. Patent information specialists should be acquainted with the fundamentals of the computer art, and its capabilities, be able to formulate tasks for information computer support of projects, be aware of the organizational structure of the State System of Patent Information to efficiently utilize patent files of this System. It stands to reason that qualified and purposeful use of patent documentation, and various patent information publications, methods and means of processing this documentation cannot be realized without a well thought out training system and refresher courses involving not only patent specialists but also a wide contingent of scientists, engineers, innovators and managers. The planned nature of the national economy in the USSR quite definitely tells on the process of evaluation of the potential effect of invention. It is vital for the socialist society that as development of a project goes on protection is granted not only for inventions whose potential is evident and can be realized within a short time, but also to those technical ideas which are not immediately realizable in terms of direct savings, although they are in fact prerequisites for future breakthroughs in other branches of the national economy. This premise explains the advisability of specialized training of both patent experts and specialists directly involved in the development of novel technology.
Educational Establishments of the USSR State Committee for Inventions and Discoveries The State system of patent comprises two establishments 152
education supervised
in this country by the CommitWorld Patent lnfomarion
tee: the Central Institute for the Improvement of Professional Skill among Managing Personnel and Specialists in the National Economy in the Field of Patent Activity (TsIPK) and the Advanced State Courses for the Improvement of Professional Skill among Managing Personnel and Engineering Technical and Scientific Personnel in the Field of Patent and Inventive Activity (VGKPI). The TsIPK has at its disposal training and consultation centers in some large cities of the country. It also holds permanent post graduate courses focusing, in particular, at training specialists of advanced qualification in such fields as ‘technical cybernetics and information theory’ and ‘operational research and system analysis’. The Institute has three departments: a daytime sixmonth course where students have to temporarily discontinue their work, a nighttime course where they study after work hours, and a correspondence course. The two latter courses last for two years without interruption of the main employment. Graduates of the Institute receive diplomas of patent specialists of top qualification. Students admitted to the Institute are selected by ministries and departments from among the managerial staff and national economy specialists who have completed their university or college education. Preference is given to persons who have practical experience in inventive activities, patenting or licensing and to the graduates of the abovementioned Advanced Courses (VGKPI). Students of the daytime department continue to receive their salaries paid at the places of their basic employment. Students of the night and correspondence departments enjoy a ten-day paid annual leave for taking examinations and writing theses. Graduates of the Institute who were successful in meeting the requirements of the training programs and curricula and in defending their theses are awarded qualifications of ‘patent specialists’ certified by diplomas. The Institute has six chairs: - economics and organization of inventive activity; - scientific and technical examination of protectable subjects; - patent information and retrieval systems; - system analysis and patent research ; - patenting and licensing; - inventor’s and patent law. Training programs and curricula of the chairs offer a wide spectrum of knowledge needed for a patent specialist, including package solutions of patent information problems pertaining to objects of novel equipment and technology. The 2 (1980)
dynamic No. 4
advance Matkin
of the national
- Training
of specialists
economy
in
in the USSR
the USSR and the ever increasing role played by novel equipment and technology in promoting this process call for building up the rate of training of patent specialists. The overall output of specialists with higher patent education has jumped up to 1 800 graduates in 1979 as compared to 264 graduates in 1969. In the ten years of its existence the Institute turned out 14 000 graduates. The other educational establishment supervised by the USSR State Committee for Invention and Discoveries is the Advanced State Courses for the Improvement of Professional Skill among Managing Personnel and Engineering Technical and Scientific Personnel in the Field of Patent and Inventive Activity (VGKPI). The Courses have been set up somewhat earlier (1964) than the TsIPK and as the time went on developed their own curriculum, forms of training, organization and methods of instruction. The Courses accept persons who are graduates of colleges and secondary schools and currently employed as managers of enterprises or their branches, tecbnologists, engineers, or innovators of various branches of industry. Courses are normally held at enterprises or in research institutes in order to tightly tie up the training process and practical work of students in the chosen field. The Courses also have three types of training: daytime department where temporary discontinuation of the main employment is required, night and correspondence departments. Curricula of the departments provide for study of patent science fundamentals. About one third of the training hours is allocated to patent information and its practical application. In general, the training programs and curricula are aimed at imparting knowledge and practical skills upon students with a view to make it fairly easy for them to find their bearings in the fundamentals of inventive, patenting and licensing activities through competent use of patent information. The Courses are self-supporting and have no regular, permanently employed lecturers. Classes are run by experienced staff of the Committee, local organizations, college professors and instructors of specialized technical schools. Undoubtedly, the Courses are the most populartype of training of its kind. In 1979 alone almost 9 600 specialists have upgraded their expertise in the field of patent activity there.
Other Types of Training In addition, courses of patent information and fundamentals of patent science are delivered in the National Economy Academy and many colleges throughout the country. The basic text book, i.e. the ‘Patent Science’, World Patent
Information
2 (1980)
No. 4
Matkin
- Training
written by the leading specialists has been widely circulated and is used now in all higher educational establishments. Public organizations also participate in training patent specialists. Thus, for example, the All-Union Society of Inventors and Innovators (VOIR) alone sponsors 47 public patent science institutes with 13 subsidiaries and 30 consultation and instruction centers. Hundreds of technologist oriented series of lectures are delivered by patent specialists at enterprises and design offices at the initiative of the All-Union Society ‘Znani’ (Knowledge) and other scientific and technical associations. Lectures on the fundamentals of patent information are also delivered in the All-Union Center for upgrading the expertise of information service personnel (IPKIR). An obligatory course of ‘Patent Information’ is included into the curriculum of the yearly program for specialists from developing countries sponsored by UNIDO-UNESCO in the National Institute of Scientific and Technical Information. Textbooks for this course are furnished in English, French and Spanish. The TsIPK Institute and similar organizations in socialist countries coordinate their curricula and exchange students on a regular basis.
Training mation
Programs in the Field of Patent Infor-
The chair of patent information and retrieval systems of the TsIPK is the scientific and methodological center dealing with problems of training in the field of patent information. The current training program of the ‘Patent Documentation and Information’ course is intended for 110 training hours. This chair also has a thirty-hour course entitled “Prior Art Determination and Scientific and Technical Prognostication”which is in fact an addition to the main course dealing with practical aspects of the patent information use. Special attention has been paid to elaborate the curricula of the ‘Patent Documentation and Information’ course so as to meet a twofold objective: completeness of the training material contained in the course and its high degree of perceptibility. Completeness depends largely on the inventory of theoretical problems and practical skills to be mastered by the student. Degree of perceptibility is enhanced by the structural logic of the course and optimal proportions of theoretical and supplementary material. The logical and scientific structure of the ‘Patent Documentation and Information’ course has been shaped with a view to specific external links with other branches of knowledge, proper selection of the required
of specialists
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minimum material in basic and neighbouring fields of science, fixing an adequate sequence of presentation. The model of scientific and technical communications in modern society was taken as the logical model of the course. A fairly balanced presentation sequence was defined in this way, starting from description of information demands of direct users of information to the input of the generated information into the communications system, particularly, into information systems. Further stages expound problems of information processing and delivery to users. Within this framework the logical model of the course becomes a closed system with external connections and a sufficiently precise separation of basic and supplementary subjects. At present the ‘Patent Information and Documentation’ course can be roughly broken down into eight sections: 1. Scientific and technical information system: purposes and tasks. State patent information system as a subsystem of the national system of scientific and technical information. 2. Characteristics of scientific and technical documentation and information flows. The place and role of patent documentation in these information flows. 3. Processes of collection, accumulation, processing and storage of scientific and technical (patent) documentation. 4. Systems and means of patent retrieval. 5. Patent search in the USSR patent documentation files and in the files of other CMEA countries, as well as industrially developed capitalist countries. 6. Methodological fundamentals of qualitative information analysis and synthesis. 7. Information means in the process of development and employment of technical objects. Patent information research. 8. Organization of patent information activities in the USSR and abroad. Practical classes include four subjects: 1. Patent documentation in the USSR and in foreign countries. 2. Information retrieval languages (classification of inventions, description languages, etc.).
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World Patent
Information
3. Reference and search aids and patent retrieval. 4. Qualitative analysis of patent documentation and the synthesis of new information for the purposes of defining prior art and prognostication. This structure of the course, apart from furnishing theoretical aspects of patent science, aims primarily at inculcating practical skills in using methods and means of patent documentation retrieval upon students. Practical experience in teaching at the TsIPK takes account of professional and other specific background of students accepted for training (specialization, length of service, age, practical skills, etc.). Groups are made up with due regard to these personal qualifications of future students. Moreover, the task is to adapt and transform lectures and practical studies to fit a specific category of students. The logical structure of the course, however, is never upset. The Institute is lately making wider use of ideas and means of programmed training. This combination of teaching principles of patent information science and practical classes seems to be fruitful on the way to further improvement of the teaching process and raising the efficiency of instruction. Professors and teachers of the chair invest a lot of effort into this improvement of the teaching process and its methods. The chair goes on studying still unopened possibilities for wider use of business game methods as applied to patent science tasks. A new three volume textbook entitled ‘Patent Information and Documentation’ was released in 1980. Matters of efficiency and quality of training in the field of patent information, as well as other patent information problem areas, are high agenda items at national scientific and methodological conferences. To sum up it should be pointed out that specialized types of training and upgrading the expertise of national economy specialists in the field of patent information support of novel equipment and technology development accepted in the USSR are definitely growing in importance. Closer consideration given to such specialized types of training by directors of plants and organizations in various branches of national economy contribute to further raise the technical level of research and development.
2 (1980)
No. 4
Matkin - Training
of specialists
in the USSR