Introduction to Patent Information

Introduction to Patent Information IPR for Researchers EPO Patent databases: a valuable source of information for students, scientists and researchers Geert Boedt Online Products and User Support Ljubljana 27 May 2009

The European Patent Organisation European Patent Organisation European Patent Office Administrative Council The executive body The Office's task is to examine European patent applications. The legislative body Important functions: to adopt the budget to approve the President's actions in implementing the budget to amend the Implementing Regulations and Rules relating to Fees to amend certain parts of the European Patent Convention in specific circumstances The Administrative Council consists of delegates from the member states.

Our mission As the patent office for Europe, we support innovation, competitiveness and economic growth across Europe through a commitment to high quality and efficient services delivered under the European Patent Convention.

The European Patent Convention The European Patent Convention (EPC) provides the legal framework for the granting of European patents via a centralised procedure establishes the European Patent Organisation 1973 Diplomatic Conference in Munich signature of the EPC by 16 countries 1977 Entry into force of the EPC in 7 countries - marked here below as follows

35 member states Austria Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Malta Monaco Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey United Kingdom European patent applications and patents can also be extended at the applicant's request to the following states: Albania Bosnia-Herzegovina Serbia Status: May 2009

Structure President Presidential area Alison Brimelow Directorates-General Operations Thomas Hammer Operational Support Peter Vermeij Appeals Peter Messerli Administration Brian McGinley (ad interim) Legal/ International Affairs Wimvan dereijk (ad interim) Search Substantive Examination Opposition Patent Administration Quality Management Information Management Appeals Personnel General Administration Language Service European and International Affairs International Legal Affairs and Patent Law Legal Services European Patent Academy Status: January 2009 Patent Information

Number of staff Munich 3 629 5119 in search examination and opposition (76 %) The Hague 2 659 Berlin 276 Vienna 117 Brussels 4 Total 6 685 Status: December 2008

Staff from 32 different countries Status: December 2008

Locations Headquarters Munich Isar building Munich PschorrHöfe The Hague Vienna Berlin Brussels

What is patent information?

Different points of view Patent Information Products

Patent Information What is it? Patent information is the name given to the technical information you find in patent documents, plus any legal and business-related information about them. Patent information is vital to a broad range of professions, from technical developers and researchers to legal advisers and business strategy managers. By looking at patent documents you add certainty to your business decisions.

Patent Information Why use it? Find out what already exists and build on it Keep track of who s doing what Avoid infringing other people s patent rights More: http://www.epo.org/patents/patent-information/about.html

Applications of Patent Information Prior art/state-of-the art Novelty / patentability Technology watch/competitive intelligence Legal status Freedom to act

Applications of patent information Finding Partners Finding technical directions Making Sound R&D Project proposals Exploiting R&D Project results

Why PATENT Information? First publication sometimes the ONLY publication Large resource (65 million documents EPO) Growing Rapidly 220,000 EP in 2007 1.66 Million worldwide in 2005! 3 applications every minute

Why PATENT Information? Rigorously classified 70,000 IPC classes 140,000 ECLA classes

Disclosure of the invention The European patent application shall disclose the invention in a manner sufficiently clear and complete for it to be carried out by a person skilled in the art. (Art 83 EPC, see e.g. www.epo.org)

Why does patent information exist? Patentapplication Granted patent Patent information

The procedure in 10 steps 1. Inventor has a new idea to solve a problem 2. Inventor writes down idea 3. Drafting of application, representation? 4. Filing of application (National, EPO,WIPO,...) 5. Publication of the Patent Application 6. Search and examination 7. Rounds of arguments 8. Grant - Refusal Patent Specification 9. Opposition - Revocation (?) 10. Post grant, National Validation

Why is patent information offered? There are many different patent granting procedures, e.g.: Registration procedures (no examination) Procedures with limited search Procedures with search and examination ALL of the different procedures foresee the publication of the application documents

Patent information is... A fundamental building block of every patent system A direct outcome of the patent granting procedure The grant of an IP right is part of a deal between the applicant and the public: Public is made available complete information about the invention Inventor or owner gets a territorial exclusive right limited in time

Publications

How is patent information produced? Normally, documents of a patent application will be published 18 months after the first filing After granting the text is published a second time in its edited final form

The European patent grant procedure Publication of patent application and search report Filing the application Examination on filing / formalities examination Search Publication of application and search report

The European patent grant procedure Filing the application Examination on filing / formalities examination Search Publication of application and search report Substantive examination (grant of patent or refusal of application) Further publication of granted patent

The European patent grant procedure Filing the application Examination on filing / formalities examination Search Publication of application and search report (Publication of amended patent) Substantive examination (grant of patent or refusal of application) Opposition (in some cases)

Questions to be answered with patent information Technical Which solutions exist for a technical problem? Is my invention patentable? Legal Do I infringe someone s patent or am I free to use it? What technologies are my competitors developing? Business Who s strong in a (new) technology field?

Patent information services & products Products and services for Technical information Legal information Business information Entry level service: Additional resources EPO website EPO patent information webpages Training and support East Asian patent information IP webguide Other points of interest

Patent information services & products Products and services for Technical information esp@cenet ESPACE bibliographic data Open patent service

esp@cenet Free access to worldwide patent information via the internet watch new technologies emerge find solutions to your technical problems discover what your competitors are developing find business partners

esp@cenet Known as the "database of ideas", esp@cenet contains bibliographical information on more than 65 million patent documents from more than 80 patent authorities from all over the world, and dating from the early 19th century to today. esp@cenet provides access to: the technical content of documents the commercial and legal status information on European and Euro-PCT applications post-grant and patent family information

esp@cenet The main features include: access to more than 65 million patent documents from all over the world (more than 80 patent-granting authorities) data from 1836 to today tools for searching in specific technical fields (IPC and ECLA) forward and backward citations full document downloads online translation engine new Smart Search tool

ESPACE bibliographic data When results really matter for technology searching and to monitor inventions carry out more complex searches repeat same search regularly download selected data and create own in-house archive customise result screen MIMOSA retrieval software for professional searches included available on optical disc or online via the internet

Open patent services (OPS) The alternative way to retrieve information You can use OPS to create customised patent databases and track patent status changes integrate information into other software packages download large amounts of data. Features free to use bibliographic, family and legal information available in highly categorised XML format plus complete documents in image format SOAP-based easy to set up your own interface (basic programming skills required)

Open patent services (OPS) Delivery of patent information Through a standardised XML interface for access to raw data Based on same data sources as esp@cenet Industry standard Web Services architecture

Patent information services & products Products and services for Technical information Legal information Register Plus and WebRegMT European Publication Server ESPACE legal data esp@cenet legal status and patent family information

Register Plus Procedural and legal status data With Register Plus you can find out if a European patent has been granted or if an application has been refused or withdrawn follow the European procedure for a particular application read, print and download documents in the file (for example, correspondence between the EPO and the applicant). Features various data views, including main data, legal status, event history, citations, patent family, all documents and document filters link to esp@cenet document viewer link to European Publication Server

European Register - www.epoline.org

WebRegMT WebRegMT is the European Patent Office's Register alert service. You can use it to automatically monitor changes to files in the European Patent Register as they occur. The main features are: secure environment access via password or smart card monitoring of up to 1 000 patent applications on-screen display of changes since last log-in e-mail alerts to up to five e-mail addresses choice of which events will trigger a notification import and export lists of documents

WebRegMT

European Publication Server The official source for copies of European patent documents You can obtain copies of European patent applications granted European patent specifications and corrected documents New publications are loaded once a week on publication day (usually Wednesday) at 14.00 hrs CET. Features free of charge document retrieval using either the publication number, application number, publication date, kind code or IPC symbol links to other services such as the European Patent Register, esp@cenet and the WIPO PatentScope service documents can be viewed/downloaded in PDF and XML format.

European Publication Server

ESPACE legal data The perfect legal portable patent library ESPACE BULLETIN If you are interested in the legal status of European patent applications, and you want to be able to search and download this data, then ESPACE BULLETIN is the right product for you. Features: precision searching thanks to more than 70 search fields full downloading of all data monitoring of legal and procedural status of a given European application or patent.

ESPACE legal data ESPACE LEGAL If you are looking for information about the decisions of the EPO Boards of Appeal or if you want to check legal texts such as the European Patent Convention, ESPACE LEGAL is the perfect tool to use. Features complete collection of the decisions of the EPO Boards of Appeal, both published (in the Official Journal of the EPO) and unpublished, from 1978 onwards directory of professional representatives legal texts in HTML or PDF format fully searchable and downloadable designed as an electronic library for patent attorneys

esp@cenet legal status and patent family information With legal status data in esp@cenet you get a clear indication if and where a patent is in force if a patent has been abandoned, has expired, or has changed ownership. You can use patent family searches to find information about the geographical scope of a patent application and the scope of protection another company s patenting strategy the protection being sought by a patent applicant global technological trends equivalent patent applications in other languages.

esp@cenet legal status and patent family information

Patent information services & products Products and services for Technical information Legal information Business information Patent portfolio management with IPscore Patent statistics and patent mapping

Patent portfolio management with IPscore Helping you to set priorities You can use IPscore to examine your company s patent portfolio analyse the value of individual patents align your company s patent strategy with your overall business strategy make the best use of patents as a business tool identify opportunities and risks.

Patent statistics and patent mapping Analysing and visualising patents in bulk ESPACE products EPO Worldwide Patent Statistical Database

EPO PATSTAT EPO Worldwide Patent Statistical Database PATSTAT use: Weighted inventor (outer circle) 10% difference! 250 200 150 100 50 0 0 20 40 60 80 100 1994-2000 2001-2004 According to first inventor (inner circle) Citation analysis, citation trees Data available: applicant, inventor, application, publication, IPC, priority, legal status,... 85,7 27,5 25,9 26,5 85 2627 88,1 27 80 228,4 229 131 131,1 681 672,8 JP US DE FR IT GB SE Others

Patent maps from commercial tools Patents granted Source: Worldmapper (http://www.worldmapper.org) is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.

Patent maps from commercial tools Income from royalty fees Source: Worldmapper (http://www.worldmapper.org) is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.

Which information for which purpose?

Think lateral! Each patent information product has a specific use! No single product may fulfil every ones need!

esp@cenet Your entry-level gateway to patent information

esp@cenet - access www.espacenet.com

esp@cenet - access http://ep.espacenet.com

How to search and retrieve the relevant documents?

Quick Search

Number search Input of application, publication, priority or NPL reference number (even without country code)

Example Retrieving a document

Retrieving a document

Advanced search

Bibliographic data

Example Searching for an applicant/inventor

Searching for an applicant/inventor

Searching for an applicant/inventor in your own language

Example Searching with technical keywords

Searching with keywords

Utilising the Classification System(s)

Search in European Classifications

A closer look at search results.

Result list

Document - Bibliographic data

Document - Description

Document - Translations

Document - Claims

Document - Mosaics

Document - Original document

Citations

New features - launched on 28 October 2008

Smart Search

Export Hit Lists

Download Page Restrictions Lifted

Extension to My Patents List My patents list can now store up to 100 documents

Patent information services & products Products and services for Technical information Legal information Business information Additional resources EPO website EPO patent information webpages Training and support East Asian patent information IP webguide

EPO Website www.epo.org

EPO Patent Information Website http://www.epo.org/patents/patent-information.html

Training & Support Website www.epo.org Helpdesk info@epo.org espacenet@epo.org training.vienna@epo.org Brochures

Training Classroom training Virtual classroom http://www.epo.org/patents/learning.html http://www.epo.org/patents/learning/pi-training.html http://www.epo.org/topics/ip-events/patent-event-search.html e-learning: PI & esp@cenet assistant http://www.epo.org/wbt/espacenet http://www.epo.org/wbt/pi-tour Recordings http://www.epo.org/patents/learning/e-learning.html

Patent Information Tour http://www.epo.org/wbt/pi-tour/

esp@cenet Assistant http://www.epo.org/wbt/espacenet/

East Asian patent information

IP webguide

National patent offices

World Intellectual Property Organization - www.wipo.int

Patentscope

Reference material Guidelines for Examination: http://www.epo.org/patents/law/legaltexts/guidelines.html European Patent Convention (EPC): http://www.epo.org/patents/law/legaltexts/epc.html Glossary: http://www.epo.org/help/glossary.html National Law relating to the EPC: http://www.epo.org/patents/law/legaltexts/national-law-epc.html Guide for applicants (1&2): http://www.epo.org/patents/grant-procedure/filing-an-application/europeanapplications/guide-for-applicants.html Official Journal: http://www.epo.org/patents/law/legal-texts/journal.html Standard ST.9 (INID codes): http://www.wipo.int/scit/en/standards/standards.htm

Internet links European Patent Office http://www.epo.org Patent information http://www.epo.org/patents/patent-information.html esp@cenet http://www.espacenet.com Register Plus http://www.epoline.org Online Products Forum http://forum.espacenet.com European Publication Server http://www.epo.org/patents/patentinformation/european-patent-documents/publication-server.html EPO Official Publications http://www.epo.org/about-us/publications.html EPO Training general http://www.epo.org/patents/learning.html Patent Information Training http://www.epo.org/patents/learning/pitraining.html Patent Information Tour http://www.epo.org/wbt/pi-tour

The R&D pré-flight check My research & development effort is not a duplication I checked prior art YES -> GO My idea provides a solution to a technical problem Yes -> GO My idea is an improvement on an existing solution YES-> freedom of operation - license? My idea is "capable of industrial & commercial application"? Yes -> GO I am ready to publish my findings check IP potential before ANY publication or demonstration check with Technology (IP) transfer office YES-> GO

Thank you for your attention! Acknowledgements and thanks to all who provided presentation material Geert Boedt EPO Vienna / Patent Information Promotion & Training gboedt@epo.org; training.vienna@epo.org