EuropeanPatent Office

Les outils de recherche brevet

Paul SchwanderOEB, La Haye

EuropeanPatent Office

Les outils de recherche brevet

1. La recherche documentaire à l'OEB

2. Les activités Information Brevets

3. Utilisation des outils gratuits sur Internet

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The EuropeanPatent Office

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What was search like?

• Reading the patent

application• Assessing the relevant

technical fields: classification

symbols.• Retrieving the relevant

“groups” from “pigeon hole”

shelves.• Browsing through the groups.• Selecting the best

documents to be cited in the

search report.

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What it meant for Documentation

•Maintenance of a huge classified

paper collection:• Acquiring paper collections.• Maintaining and classifying

them.

•Maintenance of an up-to-date

classification scheme:• Classifying all incoming

documents.• Maintaining a classification

scheme: deletion and addition

of new classes.

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The patent paper collection

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The paperless move

• A huge enterprise that

took more than a

decade.• Replacing the paper

environment by an

electronic environment.• Re-thinking and re-

building our work

process and habits.• Documentation issues

were central in this

process.

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Classification

• Major investment resulting in a unique classified collection: more than 130 000 subdivisions.

• This system allows instantaneous access to documents relating to one of these 130 000 subdivisions.

•Some examples:• Quantum Cryptography:

H04L9/08Q, 142 documents.• Heated steering wheels:

B62D1/06B, 318 documents.• Conductive polymers:

H01B1/12, 3724 documents

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How do we access the data: EPOQUE

• EPOQUE: integrated tool

to perform searches− Standard query

language− Access to internal and

external databases

• Viewer: to display and

peruse all the information

available: bibliographic,

text and image data

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Special cases: biotechnology and chemical formulae

• Specific tools to access this information.

• Specific procedure to file this type of patent applications.

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Database Acquisition Policy

Bibliographic data: acquire the

bibliographic data for all patent

documents published in the

world.

Full-text: provide examiners with

the searchable full-text of all

available unique patent

documents in an official language

Abstract: acquire an English

language abstract of all patent

documents published in the

world.

Image: acquire the image of

every patent document published

in the world.

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Front-file Timeliness (Bibliographic data as per 9/07/2004)

In advance/On time

≤1 month delay

≤3 months delay

≤1 year delay

>1 year Delay

AT,BR,CH,CZ,DE,EE,EP,FI,FR,GB,HU,IE,LT,NL,NZ,PL,RO,SE,SI,US

AU,BE,BG,CA,CN, DK,ES,GR,JP,SK,WO

EA,HK,HR,IL,LU,MC,NO,PT,RU,SG,ZA

EG,ID,IT,KR,MD,OA,TJ,TR,TW

AL,AP,AR,BA,CU,CY,IN,KE,LV,MA,MK,MN,MT,MW,MX,MY,PH,VN,YU,ZM,ZW

Unchanged Improvement WeakeningLEGEND:

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Some figures (Sept. 2004)

• 180 million of records in the 80 databases available to examiners internally.

• 15.4 million abstracts available in DOCDB and PAJ, also via esp@cenet®

• 14 Million patent full-text records.

• 46 Million patent images in the EPO digital library also available via esp@cenet®.

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Data correction: a contribution to the knowledge based economy

• Bibliographic data:

800 000 corrections per

year• Citation data:

200 000 corrections per

year

EPO Databases

Quality

Non-Patent Literature

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NPL Citations per EP search report

0,37 0,360,38 0,41

0,47

0,11

0,16

0,21

0,26

0,31

0,36

0,41

0,46

0,51

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

NPL Citations in EP search reports

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The top "NPL" fields

EPO Databases

Quality

Non-Patent Literature

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The growing importance of full-text databases

EPO Databases

Quality

Non-Patent Literature

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Information Brevets à l'OEB

The EuropeanPatent Office

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Principal Directorate Patent Information

• 1991 EPO taking over INPADOC.

• All EPO publications activities.

• Distribution-Promotion

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PATLIB

• A network of European Patent Libraries.

• In 1995: 116 centres; by 2004: 301.

• Annual event, common standards

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Other patent information highlights

• Databases: INPADOC,

Japanese patent,

CD-ROM, Internet

services, etc.

• Major annual event in

the field of patent

information: EPIDOS

Annual Conference.

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Les outils de recheche gratuits

esp@cenet®

The EuropeanPatent Office

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Some facts and figures about esp@cenet®

• Service introduced in 1998.

• European Patent Organisation tool.

• Third version released in 2003 considering user needs and ergonomics.

• New features added: INPADOC data access, etc.

• Weekly:• 920 000 searches• 55 000 users

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Lesson 1

Usually, a prior art search

boils down to a combination

of concepts defining the

subject you are looking for.

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Landing gear prerotat*

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B64C25/40

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Patent Classification

C12N15/82A

Further divided in 30 fields in ECLA

C C12C12N C12N15

70 000 subgroups

8 Sections

Class

Subclass

Main group

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B64C25/40

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B64C25/40

389 Patents !

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Classification = Searched subject

268 PATENTSclassified inB60R21/18

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77 PATENTSclassified inE05B19/22

Classification = Searched subject

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79 PATENTS79 PATENTSclassified inclassified inA61J9/02A61J9/02

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244 PATENTSclassified inB62D1/06B

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42 PATENTSclassified in B26B21/46

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Lesson 2

The easiness of a prior art

search is proportional to the

number of documents

relevant to your subject that

are contained in the

searched collection.

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The more the easiest

A manually

rechargeable

cellular phone

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Example

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First attempt

X

XXX

XX

XXX

XXX

XX

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Further attempt

X

XXX

X

XX

XXX

XX

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Lesson 3

Using free patent search

tools is not necessarily

more cost effective than

using fee based databases.

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The limits of free patent databases

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esp@cenet

EP1241930 

A method of forming an adhesive force includes

removing a seta from a living specimen, attaching the

seta to a substrate, and applying the seta to a surface

so as to establish an adhesive force between the

substrate and the surface. The seta is applied to the

surface with a force perpendicular to the surface. The

seta is then pulled with a force parallel to the surface

so as to preload the adhesive force of the seta.

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Derwent

AB - WO200149776 NOVELTY - An adhesive force is formed by removing seta from living specimen. The seta is attached to a substrate and applied to a surface to establish an adhesive force between substrate and surface.

- DETAILED DESCRIPTION - INDEPENDENT CLAIMS are also included for (A) a method of fabricating an adhesive microstructure comprising fabricating an array of shafts and

forming spatula on the array of shafts; and (B) a fabricated microstructure comprising a shaft and an array of spatula formed at an end of the shaft. Each spatula includes curved segment of a sphere at spatula terminal end. The shaft is less than 500 mu m long, and has a diameter of 0.01-0.1 times its length. The array of spatula is less than 10 mu m wide.

- USE - The method is for forming an adhesive force for use in e.g., micro-manufacturing, micro-manipulation, and microsurgery applications. The adhesive force can also be used in manipulating retinal prosthesis implants, and pick and place of silicon wafer or disk drive components. It can also be used as clutch mechanism in micro-machines. It can also be used in insect trapping, tape, robot feet or treads, glove/pads for climbing, gripping e.g., clean room processing tools, micro-optical manipulation, micro-brooms, micro-vacuums, flake removal from wafers, optical removal of individual particles, climbing, throwing, and sticker toys, press-on fingernails, silent fasteners, substrate to prevent adhesion on specific locations, broom to clean disk drive, post-it notes, band aids, semiconductor transport, and clothes fasteners.

- ADVANTAGE - The formed adhesive force is greater than the cumulative force of the applying and the pulling steps of the forming method. The

removing step is analogous to cutting hair, thus allowing the gecko to harmlessly regenerate its seta. The seta is easily harvested without sacrificing the living specimen.

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Special search tools: when the concept approach fails

• Biotech

• Chemistry

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Lesson 4

Specific patent searches are sometimes best

conducted using both the information available

on the Web and in patent databases.

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Patent m2a

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Lesson 5

Absence of evidence is no

evidence of absence

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Absence of evidence

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New developments in this field

• INPADOC based on the Open Patent Service

• RSS technology (news feed) for technology

watch.

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INPADOC datahttp://www.ipnewsflash.com/family.php

us4000000

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RSS Newsfed for patents

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Conclusion

• Use free tools for:

• Introductory state of the art

searches• Basic bibliographic

searches• Basic Technology watch• Specific legal statutory

information

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Further reading

SimplyPatent.com

EuropeanPatent Office

Merci pour votre attention

pschwander@epo.org

Paul SchwanderOEB, La Haye03-11-2004