European Patent Office Les outils de recherche brevet Paul Schwander OEB, La Haye

European Patent 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

3 A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits The European Patent Office

4 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. A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

5 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. A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

6 The patent paper collection A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

7 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. A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

8 Classification Major investment resulting in a unique classified collection: more than subdivisions. This system allows instantaneous access to documents relating to one of these subdivisions. Some examples: Quantum Cryptography: H04L9/08Q, 142 documents. Heated steering wheels: B62D1/06B, 318 documents. Conductive polymers: H01B1/12, 3724 documents A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

9 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 A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

10 Special cases: biotechnology and chemical formulae Specific tools to access this information. Specific procedure to file this type of patent applications. A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

11 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. A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

12 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,T J,TR,TW AL,AP,AR,BA,CU,CY,IN,KE,L V,MA,MK,MN,MT,MW,MX,MY, PH,VN,YU,ZM,ZW Unchanged Improvement WeakeningLEGEND: A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

13 Some figures (Sept. 2004) 180 million of records in the 80 databases available to examiners internally million abstracts available in DOCDB and PAJ, also via 14 Million patent full-text records. 46 Million patent images in the EPO digital library also available via A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

14 Data correction: a contribution to the knowledge based economy Bibliographic data: corrections per year Citation data: corrections per year EPO Databases Quality Non-Patent Literature

15 NPL Citations per EP search report A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

16 The top "NPL" fields EPO Databases Quality Non-Patent Literature

17 The growing importance of full-text databases EPO Databases Quality Non-Patent Literature

18 Information Brevets à l'OEB The European Patent Office A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

19 Principal Directorate Patent Information 1991 EPO taking over INPADOC. All EPO publications activities. Distribution- Promotion A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

20 PATLIB A network of European Patent Libraries. In 1995: 116 centres; by 2004: 301. Annual event, common standards A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

21 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. A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

22 Les outils de recheche gratuits The European Patent Office A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

23 Some facts and figures about Service introduced in European Patent Organisation tool. Third version released in 2003 considering user needs and ergonomics. New features added: INPADOC data access, etc. Weekly: searches users A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

24 Lesson 1 Usually, a prior art search boils down to a combination of concepts defining the subject you are looking for. A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

25 A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

26 A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

27 Landing gear prerotat*

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29 B64C25/40

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31 Patent Classification C12N15/82A Further divided in 30 fields in ECLA C C12 C12N C12N subgroups 8 Sections Class Subclass Main group A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

32 B64C25/40

33 B64C25/ Patents !

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36 Classification = Searched subject 268 PATENTS classified in B60R21/18 A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

37 77 PATENTS classified in E05B19/22 Classification = Searched subject A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

38 79 PATENTS classified in A61J9/02

PATENTS classified in B62D1/06B A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

40 42 PATENTS classified in B26B21/46

41 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. A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

42 The more the easiest A manually rechargeable cellular phone A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

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45 Example A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

46 First attempt X X X X X X X X X X X X X X A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

47 Further attempt X X X X X X X X X X X X A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

48 Lesson 3 Using free patent search tools is not necessarily more cost effective than using fee based databases. A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

49 The limits of free patent databases A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

50 EP 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. A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

51 Derwent AB - WO 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 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. A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

52 Special search tools: when the concept approach fails Biotech Chemistry A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

53 Lesson 4 Specific patent searches are sometimes best conducted using both the information available on the Web and in patent databases. A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

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61 Lesson 5 Absence of evidence is no evidence of absence A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

62 Absence of evidence A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

63 New developments in this field INPADOC based on the Open Patent Service RSS technology (news feed) for technology watch. A l'OEB Information Brevets Les outils gratuits

64 INPADOC data us

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67 RSS Newsfed for patents

68 Conclusion Use free tools for: Introductory state of the art searches Basic bibliographic searches Basic Technology watch Specific legal statutory information

69 Further reading SimplyPatent.com

European Patent Office Merci pour votre attention Paul Schwander OEB, La Haye