Tuesday, 29 October 2001
- New
Website for Philippines Intellectual Property Office
The Philippines Intellectual Property Office now has a new website.
Among the additions is the ability to search Philippine trademarks. "The
Philippine Trademark Online Search System (PhilTM O-SEARCH) enables you to conduct a
simple and user-friendly search on the IPO’s trademark (TM) database containing
114,565 registered and pending trademark records". Click here to visit the website, or here to conduct a trademark
search.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Monday, 29 October 2001
- Switzerland
- New Design Law
News from the Swiss IP Office indicates that the new Swiss Design Law (available in german pdf
format) which will go into force July 1, 2002 was passed October 5, 2001 and published
in the October 16, 2001 issue of the 'Bundesblatt' (publication of federal legislation).
The Geneva Act of July 2, 1999 to the Hague Act regarding the international registration
of industrial designs will also come into force. For further information visit the Swiss IP Office website.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- Update Notice from USPTO Regarding Mail
"As has been previously announced, non-trademark communications
mailed from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) before October 20, 2001,
were routed through the U.S. Postal Service's Brentwood Sorting Station in Washington,
D.C., where workers are diagnosed as having contracted anthrax. On October 22, 2001, the
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) advised us that it was highly unlikely that mail passing
through the Brentwood postal facility was contaminated and poses any threat. It is our
understanding that the CDC continues to reevaluate risks associated with transmission of
mail. For the most current information on mail safety, please contact the official
websites for CDC and the U.S. Postal Service".
Posted by Rodney Cruise
Friday, 26 October 2001
- Derwent
Polymer Indexing Training
Derwent Information Americas will be conducting a course on How to Search
Derwent's Polymer Indexing. "Derwent's Polymer Indexing - Derwent has created a
powerful indexing system to help you find patents on polymers with particular structures,
modifications, preparation, properties and uses. Searching by indexing routinely finds
relevant patents that are otherwise not retrievable. This course will teach you what is
covered by the indexing, and how to use it". Derwent recommned that searchers
who commonly need to find patents on polymers for their technical information or legal
information content and subscribe to Derwent's Polymer Indexing should attend. I don't
have any dates for this seminar as yet but I am sure that if you contact Donald Walter,
Manager, Customer Training at Derwent Information Americas (telephone 703 519 5820 fax 703
519 583) or at Don.Walter@derwentus.com he
will be happy to give you the details.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Thursday, 25 October 2001
- PATOLIS-e
and Questel-Orbit Team Up for the Americas
David T. Dickens the Director, Patent Business for Questel-Orbit has advised that
Questel-Orbit will now distribute PATOLIS-e in the Americas. "Last October, at
the 2000 EPIDOS meeting, PATOLIS and Questel*Orbit announced their agreement to distribute
PATOLIS-e, an online service with the world's largest collection of Japanese patents and
utility models in English, throughout Europe. This year at the 2001 EPIDOS meeting,
PATOLIS and Questel*Orbit announced that distribution has been expanded to include the
Americas". To find out more about PATOLIS-e visit the Questel-Orbit website.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- USA - USPTO, Anthrax and Mail
Just posted on the USPTO
website - "In response to inquiries that the Office has received from its
customers, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has obtained reassurance
from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) about the safety of mailings from the
USPTO". If you want to read the full notice, click here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- United
Kingdom - Free Trade Marks Registry Seminars
The UK Patent Office
will be holding free seminars over the coming months in Birmingham, Leeds, London, Glasgow
and Newport. Topics that will covered include
- an update on examination practice;
- an update on extension of time requests in inter partes proceedings and evidence before
the Registrar;
- discussion on possible changes to opposition proceedings, and
- a question and answer session on the future of examination on relative grounds.
The first two of these free seminars will take place in November. 22 November 6.30 pm at
Birmingham - The Crowne Plaza Hotel and 27 November 6.30 pm Leeds at the Hilton National
Hotel. Furhter information can be found on the UK Patent Office website.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Wednesday, 24 October 2001
- AlphaPatent
Update
AlphaPatent have begun charging for documents delivered via email
however their delivery via web page feature is still free. The fee for patent documents
that are delivered via email is now US $2.50 per patent document. For further information,
visit AlphaPatent.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Tuesday, 23 October 2001
- Notice from the President of the European Patent Office dated 19
October 2001 concerning the incidents of 11 September 2001 in the USA
From the European Patent Office website: "For those applicants and
representatives who have their place of business or domicile in New York, NY, I have given
instructions that, until further notice, communications under Rules
85a and 85b EPC and Rules 16bis and 58bis PCT will not be issued,
with the result that periods of grace will not begin to run. Decisions on the interruption
of proceedings will be made on a case-by-case basis. Those applicants affected will be
asked to outline the circumstances which prevent or prevented them from adhering to the
time limit concerned. Applicants and representatives who can provide evidence of an
interruption in the mail service within the meaning of Rule 82.2 PCT are kindly asked to
do so as soon as possible. Full assistance will also be given with replacing files or data
which have been destroyed". The full text is available here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- Revisit - Patent Providers Inc - Electronic File Histories
Last Friday I reported on a new Electronic File History service by Patent Providers Inc. I
also ordered their "demo CD" the same day. Well, I am pleased to say that
the CD ROM arrived today. From Arlington, VA, USA to Melbourne, Australia. Great service!
I have had a chance to test fun the "demo CD" electronic file
history and I'd thought I'd let you know some of my thoughts on it. The CD auto
loads and provides a opening web page with links to the file history (which is contained
in one large 300+ page PDF file). It also has links to the cited documents. In
this particular case they are in TIFF format but I suspect they could also be in PDF or
even searchable PDF. A handy addition is the AlternaTIFF and Adobe Acrobat viewer
software included on the CD. As you probably can guess I did not need to install them as
that software is well and truly part of my system already. Once inside the PDF file
history, I first checked the searching capability. It was quick and appeared to work
well, even though it was scrolling through 300 + pages. As many of you will already
know, the copy quality of USPTO documents is not always high, but the documents appeared
OCR quiet well. There are usual thumbnails for each PDF page but there is also a
very useful bookmark listing which allows you to locate the appropriate section of the
file. I also tested the quality of the print, and the 300dpi scans appear to produce
faithful reproductions. Overall, the CD-Rom product is a useful tool,
particularly when you require basic document searching capabilities or simply can not
carry the entire hardcopy file around. If you want to investigate whether
this is a service you may utilise, I recommend that you take advantage of the Demo CD.
You can visit the Patent Providers Inc. website
here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- Automated
Patent Valuation
Valuation of patents is one of those areas where I am happy to
avoid. So many factors need to be taken into account, not to mention the cost of obtaining
the valuation. The truth is that more and more organisations are seeking such valuation of
patents, be it for licensing, sale, purchase or seeking venture capital. Well one
relatively new service that provides a unique form of valuation is the Automated Patent
Valuation service available at www.PatentValuePredictor.com. This "allows a user to select
patents and then instantly obtain valuation reports on the patents. The report provides
the nominal size of the patent protected market and the valuation of the patent. This
service can be used to objectively and rapidly value a patent portfolio of a company".
To find out more about this service visit their website or view there
recent press release.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- IP
MENU Mega Update
IP MENU has updated the following - IP Country Resources - Singapore, IP Caselaw, IP Document Delivery, IP
Auctions, IP Software, IP Training, IP Translations, IP Menu
Links Back, IP Firms - USA
- Virginia, IP Firms - USA
- Missouri, IP Firm - Australia,
IP Firms - India, IP Firms - Lebanon, IP Firms - Malaysia and IP Firms - Singapore.
Posted by Simon Ware, Rodney Cruise & Matthew Downing
Monday, 22 October 2001
- Information Analysis System - New Patent Analysis Software
I recently came across this information relating to some new analysis software
coming out in the near future. The software is from WinsLAB Co. Limited of Korea and
distributed "in the West" by Image Applications Limited. "INAS
(Information Analysis System) is a software tool for automatically extracting patent
information from free and commercial searches into a self-contained database. INAS can
then be used to interrogate the data, mine down to abstracts, claims or description etc.
and present the data in text or visually stunning graphical form for easier analysis. The
patent information may be derived from PatSee downloads from free databasaes such as
Esp@cenet, JPO, USPTO etc. or from commercial searches from Micropatent and Derwent".
For more information, visit the Image Applications website here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- Australia
- AUSTLII - LAW VIA THE INTERNET 2001
IP Menu was launched at the AUSTLII - LAW VIA THE INTERNET Conference a few years ago. Now the
2001 Conference is almost upon us. The "Law via the Internet 2001" Conference
will take place at the University of Technology, Sydney from the 28-30 November, 2001.
Registrations are open now, for more information click here.
"Law via the Internet 2001 will feature over forty speakers from around the world and
is the leading conference concerning the access of law online". Full program details
are available here. For more information visit the AUSTLII website.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- Derwent Seminar - Get ahead of your competitors using patent intelligence
Derwent will be holding a free seminar in Italy "to help you maximise
your innovation process" on 16 November 2001, Milan, Italy
"Did you know that:
- Approximately two thirds of all patents published around the world have engineering
content?
- Over 80% of information disclosed in patents is not published elsewhere?
- Over 70% of companies spent money on R&D only to find the technology was already
protected by a competitor's patent?
When it comes to making business critical decisions can you afford not to know? Derwent
Information, provider of the largest value-add patent database in the world, invites you
to a FREE half-day seminar to help you access this unique data source: get ahead of your
competitors technically, strategically and innovatively. A complementary lunch will also
be provided". To find out more, visit the Derwent website here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Friday, 19 October 2001
- Patent Providers Inc - Electronic File Histories
As noted on the PIUG list, Patent Providers Inc have a
new Electronic File History product. You can get a file history in high resolution PDF format
(300 dpi), with thumbnails, bookmarks, and also being fully searchable - all on a
CDROM. They say their File Histories are the lowest price in the IP industry, and
they do look like great value. If you utilise file histories in your line of work,
check Patent Providers Inc out at their website, where
you can order a demo CD. Yes, I have ordered one today!
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- Delphion - Improve
Your IP Research Web Seminar - Free
Delphion are running a FREE 90-minute Web Seminar so you can "Learn How to
Put Delphion’s New Tools to Work For You!". If you are a Delphion user or
planning to become one, I suggest you take advantage of this free seminar on Tuesday,
October 23, 2001 at 9am (USA - Pacific), 10am (USA - Mountain), 11am (USA - Central), 12pm
(USA - Eastern), 5pm (UK), or 6pm (Europe). To register online, click here.
Topics to be covered include:
- Quick, Patent Number, Boolean & Advanced Search Methods
- The Delphion Integrated View
- Work Files, Snapshot, Data Extract and PDF Express
- Text Clustering, Patent Lab
- Saved Searches and Alerts
- Derwent and Prior Art Searching
- Code Browsing
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Thursday, 18 October 2001
- The Ig Nobel Prize for Man who Patented the Wheel!
The 2001 IgŪ Nobel prizes were awarded in a ceremony on 4 October
2001 at Harvard University. This year my home town (Melbourne, Australia) can lay claim to
an "IgŪ Nobel" award. John Keogh, a fellow patent attorney, patented the wheel
using IP Australia's new
Innovation Patent. He has now been awarded an "Ig Nobel Prize"
by Harvard University in the US. He shares the prize with the Australian patent office, IP Australia, which granted him
Innovation Patent 2001100012. You can visit the IgŪ Nobel website or
download a copy of the Innovation Patent (PDF, TIFF) from the IP MENU website.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- United
Kingdom - Private Member's Bill - Patents Act 1977 (Amendment) Bill
The UK Patent Office is
seeking the views of the public, business and IP professionals with respect to a Private
Member's Bill introduced by Mr Ian Liddell-Grainger MP. Entitled "Patents Act
1977 (Amendment) Bill" the proposed legislation would amend the Patents Act 1977
to enable a court to award exemplary damages in an action for infringement of a patent.
The UK Patent Office advise that the Bill has not yet been published, "so for the
moment the only formal indication of the content of the Bill is as given above. However,
we understand from Mr Liddell-Grainger that the Bill will be very short and will seek to
modify section 61 of the Patents Act 1977 by giving the court the discretion to award
exemplary damages if that is necessary to provide justice in all the circumstances of the
case. His concern is to help patent owners, especially SMEs, enforce their patent rights
and provide a deterrent to potential infringers". If you are interested in
commenting on this bill before the scheduled second reading on 2 November visit the UK Patent
Office site for contact details for Mr Jeff Watson.
Posted by Simon Ware.
- WIPO
AND ROSPATENT SIGN COOPERATION AGREEMENT
"The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Russian
agency responsible for intellectual property will intensify their collaboration to promote
intellectual property in Russia and the region. In signing a Framework Agreement of
Cooperation, WIPO and the Russian Agency for Patents and Trademarks (Rospatent) sealed a
commitment to boost human resources development in the field of intellectual property in
the region. The Agreement was signed by WIPO Director General Dr. Kamil Idris and Mr.
Alexander Korchagin, Director General of Rospatent, at WIPO Headquarters in Geneva on
October 12, 2001". Full details of the Press Release from WIPO are available here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- DialogSelect and Intranet Toolkit Enhanced with New Content & Improved
Alerts
Dialog have announced some content and service enhancements to their
DialogSelect(sm) and Dialog Intranet Toolkit products. "Dialog Intranet Toolkit
enables knowledge professionals -- such as corporate librarians, marketing professionals
and Intranet managers to create customized sites within their Intranets that make
Dialog-accessible databases and files directly available to professionals throughout an
enterprise". If you would like to read more, visit the Dialog website to read
the Press Release.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Wednesday, 17 October 2001
Tuesday, 16 October 2001
- CAS
Registry File on STN - Updated With Physical Property Information
Eric Shively from Chemical Abstracts Services has advised that
the CAS Registry File on STN now includes calculated physical property data. This can be
data be searched and displayed. "This includes information for over five million
single-component organic molecules. With this new content, chemists and information
professionals will be able to explore the compound diversity in REGISTRY for drug-like
molecules." There are 8 new calculated properties and their roles in determining
the drug-like nature of a compound are: pKa; Number of Hydrogen Donors and Number of
Hydrogen Acceptors; Freely Rotatable Bonds; Molecular Weight; Molar Solubility; and logP
and logD. "These physical property values were calculated using CAS connection
tables and software developed by Advanced Chemistry Development, Inc. (ACD), Toronto,
Canada, a leader in the field of physical property prediction". To find out more
visit the CAS website.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- Derwent Training - USA/Canada
Derwent Information has announced their US/Canadian training schedule.
Descriptions of the courses they are offering can be found here. If you are
interested in attending, or if you have any questions, you can contact Derwent USA via email, by fax 703 519 5838 or register online.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- EPIDOS News - Edition 03/01
The latest edition of EPIDOS News is now available online from the EPO website.
Included are the following articles
- US patent documents from document number 1 onwards
The esp@cenetŪ worldwide service now includes all United States patent documents from
document number US 0000001 onwards.
- Patent families, parts 3: INPADOC
Issue 2/2001 of EPIDOS News included an article on how patent families, or
"equivalents", are used within esp@cenetŪ. These articles, the last in the
series, look at patent families in the INPADOC and Derwent databases.
- Patent families, parts 4: Derwent
Issue 2/2001 of EPIDOS News included an article on how patent families, or
"equivalents", are used within esp@cenetŪ. These articles, the last in the
series, look at patent families in the INPADOC and Derwent databases.
- Japanese FI classification and F-terms now available in English
A feature of Japanese patent documentation is the FI and F-term classification system
developed by the Japanese Patent Office (JPO). Since April 2001, it has been possible to
search Japanese patent literature using FI classification and F-terms in English.
- Patent information at the UK Patent Office
Patent information has been high on the UK Patent Office's priority list for many
years. As host patent office of this year's EPIDOS Annual Conference, and one of the
leading patent offices in Europe, it kindly agreed to contribute an article on its patent
information activities.
To view the EPO's EPIDOS News, click here or download the PDF version here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Monday, 15 October 2001
- MicroPatent
- The Top 10
Have you visited the MicoPatent website recently? They have
added a new "Top 10" brochure about their services. One great thing that I noted was
that they will soon be adding GB, DE and CA data to their PatSearch FullText
database. To download a copy of the "Top 10" brochure, click here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- International Patent Information Award Nominations Closing Soon
Nominations are now being accepted for the prestigious 'International Patent
Information (IPI) Award', established to honor the great professionals of the patent
information industry worldwide. Nominations close on 14 December 2001 so if you believe
you know someone who is deserving of this tribute, please get you nomination in. Details
and nomination forms are available from the International Patent Information Award website.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- PATINNOVA and EPIDOS Annual Conference
The PATINNOVA and EPIDOS Annual Conference starts today (15th) and goes to
the 17th of October at the Cardiff International Arena in South Wales. It's aim is to
promote the value of patents and patent information. I would love to be there myself,
however if you can not be there I suggest you visit the conference website here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- Derwent - IP Matters
The latest edition of IP Matters is now live where you can read the
following articles;
- The rise and fall of PC monitor components - what patent information analysis is telling
us (Anna Norman)
- Structural Genomics - with patent law largely untested, successful research has certain
rewards (Nana Aka
- The Creative Economy (John Howkins)
- The value of Intellectual Property, Intangible Assets and Goodwill (Kelvin King)
Subscribing to Derwent's IP Matters is free and you can find details here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Wednesday, 10 October 2001
- WIPO
Outlines its Patent Agenda
This is something that has been sitting in my inbox for a week or
so and I finally got around to reading it. Dr. Kamil Idris, WIPO Director General has launched worldwide consultations
on the development of a strategic blueprint for the future evolution of the international
patent system. The initiative, known as the "WIPO Patent Agenda", results from
the Director General's vision that "WIPO must continue to provide strong
leadership in developing the patent system to facilitate the process of harnessing
creative potential for economic benefit in all countries". To read the full text
of the WIPO Press Release, click here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- Australia
- IP Australia, Europe and the Euro
IP Australia has
introduced new EURO Dollar banking arrangements. IP Australia will commence using Euro
dollars (EUR) as the sole currency for issuing payments and refunds to entities and
individuals of participating European Union member countries. No payments or refunds will
be made from that date in the national currencies of the participating countries.
For further details of the participating countries and further information please see IP
Australia's "New
EURO Dollar Banking Arrangements".
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Tuesday, 9 October 2001
- Patent Re*Search Toolbox
You may remember a while ago an IP News story on Patent Re*Search
Toolbox and the range of patent downloading and analysis software from this Japanese
company. Well, the have recently updated two of their programs.
DIP-J for USP (Ver 2.12) is software which downloads
patent documents from the USPTO Patent Full Text database.You can choose and download necessary documents
among the list of the search result.
- You can download documents by specifying patent
numbers.
- You can get full image by choosing - claims /
description / drawings.
- All pages are concatenated to a milti-page-TIFF file.
DIP-J E'Storage
(Ver 1.42) [estora:ji] is software which downloads patent documents from esp@cenet You can
choose and download necessary documents among the list of the search result.
- You can download documents by specifying patent
numbers.
- You can get text data by choosing - bibliographic /
claims / description.
- You can get full image by choosing - claims /
description / drawings / search report.
- All pages are concatenated to a single PDF file or a
milti-page-TIFF file.
Monday, 8 October 2001
- WIPO Guide To Intellectual Property Worldwide
Many of you may not be aware, but WIPO have a guide to worldwide IP.
This is an excellent resource and provides information on intellectual property by
means of individual country profiles on WIPO Member States. The profiles include basic
legislation, membership of international treaties, administrative structures, governmental
and non-governmental bodies for information and enforcement, educational institutions and
industrial property statistics; useful contact addresses are provided for readers needing
further information. If you have not had a chance to investigate this site, I recommend
that you spend a few minutes there (It has just been updated). Click here to visit the
WIPO site.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- Image
Applications Release PatSee 3.0
Image Applications has released new versions of PatSee Pro (3.0)
and PatSee Lite (3.0). It looks like country coverage has been increased and
functionality has been increased from early versions. It also includes a TIFF file viewer
and concatenator. To check out PatSee or upgrade your versions, visit PatSee at their new website www.patsee.net.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- SurfIP
- A New Look, New Features
It is always great to see IP websites continuing to develop and SurfIP is one of
the best at this. SurfIP have introducing a new look(GUI) and some new features. "It
may look the same in terms of colour and design and it does seem to resemble the previous
SurfIP homepage but the layout and navigation have changed. You will find it easier to
navigate through SurfIP using Global Navigation Menus and Panels, Tabs to help you toggle
between functions and consistent search terms. We've even introduced a New Boolean search
for SurfIP Marketplace. The changes set the stage for quicker search results on both the
SurfIP Research and SurfIP Marketplace. Over and above the usual services, we've also
included additional features such as IP Spotlight, SurfIP News and SurfIP Extraz. Expect
further additions to SurfIP with this new extensible architecture. We've added SurfIP
Services in anticipation of future goodies." To register as a as a Free
Personal Member and use all the available search sources, visit SurfIP today.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- Delphion
Deal - New Features
On October 12th, Delphion is launching new features to their popular
service (Work Files, Snapshot, Data Extract, and PDF Express). As part of their launch,
they are offering a 20% discount on an upgrade or an annual subscription. To find out
more, visit Delphion.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- Australia - Melbourne University To Run IP Research Centre
The Australian Government has announced that Melbourne University has been
selected to run a new multi-disciplinary IP research centre. The aim of the centre is to
benefit Australian business by "delivering research to underpin effective IP
policy, develop best commercial practice by firms in the use of IP and promote public
debate on IP protection issues". The Australian Patent Office (IP Australia)
will be responsible for establishing the centre and will provide the AUD$4 million base
funding over four years. To view the full media release, click here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- Coming
Soon - EFilehistory
Jim Turner from Hilltop Consulting has writen to me with what appears to
be a very interesting development. On 1 January 2002, Hilltop Consulting will be launching
a new service called efilehistory (www.efilehistory.com). "EFilehistory.com will
be the premier fee-based file sharing community dedicated to the sharing of Patent and
Trademark documents. It will include a File Sharing Client that will allow for free first
page previews of files before they are downloaded and purchased. You will also be able to
view the file size and page count of documents before download. Firms will be able to sell
any IP documents that they would like through the service. It promises to be an exciting
launch. If you are interested in obtaining more information on this project, and other
projects that Hilltop Consulting is working on, visit our website at www.latpat.com." So far
there is not much more information available, but it is something we will watch with
interest.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Saturday, October 6 2001
- Australia
- Patents Amendment Act 2001
The Patents Amendment Act 2001 was passed by the Australian Parliament on
27 September 2001 and received Royal Assent on 1 October 2001. It will commence on 1 April
2002. "The main objective of this Act is to implement improvements to Australia's
intellectual property system set out in the Government's science and technology policy
statement, Backing Australia's Ability: an Innovation Action Plan for the Future, which
was launched by the Prime Minister on 29 January 2001." You can read the "Patents Amendment Act 2001 Media Release" or visit the IP
Australia News Page for further information.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- AlphaPatent - Proposed New Pricing Model
In the coming weeks AlphaPatent will begin charging for documents
delivered via email. The will continue to support their free
immediate delivery via web page service.The have proposed a plan for users who wish to
receive documents via email. They will register and receive a login ID and password.
Registered users will then be billed periodically on a per-patent-delivered basis.
AlphaPatent are inviting your comments and suggestions. For further information,
visit AlphaPatent.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- Australia -
Olympic Insignia Protection Amendment Act 2001
The Olympic Insignia Protection Amendment Act 2001 implements the
Australian Government's announcement of 24 March 2001 to give the Australian Olympic
Committee (AOC) protection for the expressions 'Olympic', 'Olympic Games' and 'Olympiad'.
This Act was passed by Parliament on 27 September 2001 and received Royal Assent on 1
October 2001. It will commence on 29 October 2001. To find out more, visit IP Australia's News
Page.
Posted by Rodney
Friday, October 5 2001
- Inventive Steps - Newsletter
Phillips Ormonde & Fitzpatrick (the firm behind IP
Menu) has just published their new quarterly newsletter called Inventive Steps.
The newsletter covers intellectual property issues from an Australian and New
Zealand perspective. Articles include:
- Making Use of Innovation Patents
- Proposed Changes to New Zealand Trade Mark Law
- Moral Rights in Copyright Law
- Patenting Business Methods
- Secret Use of an Invention
- Registering Shape Marks
Inventive Steps is free and available online here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- Schreiber
Translations, Inc Awarded Translation Contract by USPTO
Schreiber Translations, Inc
is awarded brand new translation contract by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Schreiber Translations, Inc. was
awarded a five-year contract with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to provide
Human-Assisted Machine Translation services of patents from Japanese and other languages.
Under this brand new contract, STI is responsible for obtaining copies of requested
documents and conducting initial translation using MT (translation software). The
translations will then be edited by qualified linguists to create the final product.
To find out more about Schreiber Translations, Inc, visit their website here. Thanks to Alan Engel of Paterra for the link.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- PATINNOVA / EPIDOS 2001 Update
Daniel Shalloe from the EPO has advised that the EPIDOS Annual
Conference / PATINNOVA website has been updated. The exhibitors' presentations taking
place on 15 October are now listed here, and the Exhibition Guide is now ready and can be viewed here. To find out more you can visit the conference website here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Thursday, October 4 2001
- EPO - Special Search
Programme
The European Patent Office offers a range of special search
services in parallel to its patentability searches performed during the European and PCT
procedures and its searches for national offices. These services enable industry and
patent professionals to access directly the know-how and documentation of the EPO and find
what has been published in, and the patents relating to, a particular technical field. Any
person, or legal entity, may request to use the special search services directly and the
request need not be handled by a professional representative. To find out more, visit the
EPO website for the Special
Search Programme.
Posted by Rodney Cruise
- From
Dreams to Dollars: Protecting and Marketing Your Invention
The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County (USA) is sponsoring the
following FREE program open to the public: "From Dreams to Dollars: Protecting
and Marketing Your Invention" - A seminar for independent inventors on patenting
an invention and strategies for placing a product in the marketplace. Saturday, November
17th 9:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Public Library of Cincinnati 800 Vine St. Cincinnati OH 45202
Main Library - Huenefeld Tower Room - Third Floor Space is limited. "Patenting
Your Invention: Working with the PTO" - Speaker: Mr. Richard Apley Director,
Office of Independent Inventor Programs United States Patent and Trademark Office
Washington, D.C. Invention Marketing Strategies Panel: Mr.James M. Kipling, Esq. Attorney,
Frost, Brown, and Todd LLC 20 years experience at Kenner/Hasbro Mr. Tim Effler Design
Developer and Consultant, S.O.E.D.A. formerly Director of Product Concepts, Kenner Co. Mr.
Mark Reiber, Independent Inventor Flexer Group Ms. Jackie Diaz, Independent Inventor Cooks
InOvation
For registration or more information, contact Tracy Koenig at (513)
665-3359 or Tracy.Koenig@plch.lib.oh.us.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- FICPI - Important
Resolutions
FICPI, the International Federation of
Intellectual Property Attorneys, assembled at its Executive Committee meeting held in
Goodwood Park, England from September 2 to 7, 2001, and passed Resolutions relating
to (a) the implementation of TRIPS in relation to Pharmaceuticals; (b) Prior Art Effect on
Prior Applications; (c) General Principles on PCT Reform; and (d) European Patent
Translations. To view the full text of these Resolutions, please visit the FICPI website (English, French, German).
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Wednesday, October 3 2001
- Swiss
Federal Institute of Intellectual Property - Updates & News
The Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property have updated
their website with some new information, including:
- A list of trademark examination procedures at the Institute of Intellectual
Property is now online and includes a search function (in German, French)
- A News Release: "Patent law does not distinguish between desirable and undesirable
inventions" (in German, French and Italian)
- New Guidelines for Trademark Examinations (in German).
- Report on the First Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic
Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore.
For further information, please visit the Swiss
Federal Institute of Intellectual Property website.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Tuesday, October 2 2001
- Thomson &
Thomson To Deliver Trademark Search Reports In Four Hours
Thomson & Thomson have announced that they will now be offering a services to
deliver Trademark Search Reports in 4 hours or less. "The new 4-Hour Speed It!
Service will be introduced on Monday, October 1 for clients in the U.S. and Canada. The
service offers guaranteed delivery of U.S. Full Availability and U.S. Full Pharmaceutical
search reports in four business hours, using the electronic Inbox feature of Thomson &
Thomson's SAEGIS(TM) online trademark search product". The full press release
can be read here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- New Look &
Functionality For OAMI - ONLINE
OAMI have released a "new-look" OAMI-ONLINE which includes some
significant changes for users. "Together with the revised site look, access
has been improved to commonly consulted sections, and navigation around the site has been
made much easier. Experienced visitors will still be familiar with the underlying content
structure of the site, as can be viewed in the Site Map". One of the more
important changes to CTM-ONLINE is the expanded search options and the inclusion of
opposition information. To find out more about the improved OAMI website, click here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Monday, October 1 2001
- Australia
- A guide to: Trade Marks and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2001 & Trade Marks
Amendment Regulations 2001 (No 3)
The Australian Patent Office (IP Australia)
has released a guide to "The Trade Marks and Other Legislation Amendment Act
2001" (TMOLA Act) and the "Trade Marks Amendment Regulations 2001 (No 3)"
(TMOLA Regulations), which came into force on 19 September 2001. "The provisions they
contain were mostly intended to streamline procedures and remove anomalies and ambiguities
identified since the Trade Marks Act 1995 and the Trade Marks Regulations 1995 came into
operation. There are also provisions which specify procedures for Office handling of trade
marks under the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International
Registration of Marks (the Madrid Protocol)". For more information, please access the
guide at IP Australia by clicking here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Friday, September 28 2001
- USA - Online USPTO
Director Dialog
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is hosting a
online dialog with the Director on Thursday, 4 October 2001 between 12 noon and 1pm ET
(US). For more information, please visit the USPTO
site. Transcripts of previous discussions can be found here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Thursday, September 27 2001
- PIUG - New Appointment
News from PIUG that Ken Koubek of Rodel,
Inc. (a division of Rohm and Haas), has been designated as the new PIUG (Patent Information Users Groups) Membership
Chair. Also on a membership issue, congratulations to PIUG for passing the 500
members mark. If you are not already a member of PIUG and you work in the patent
information area, I strongly recommend that you consider joining. It cost just USD
$20 per year and you will be joining a strong, helpful and friendly global group with a
common interest in intellectual property information. "The Patent
Information Users Group, Inc. (PIUG), the International Society for Patent Information is
a not-for-profit organization for individuals having a professional, scientific or
technical interest in patent information."
To find out more about PIUG, visit their website here.
To join, visit their membership page here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- Theory
of Valuation and Intellectual Property
I have found an interesting new Russian IP website that may be of interest to some
IP MENU readers. "The site Theory of of valuation and intellectual property
includes the results of the scientific researches on several economy problems, published
by the two Scientific Councils founded by the Economy Departament of RAS. Scientific
Council on Economic Problems of Intellectual Property has been created by the Decision
of the Economic Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences from 28.06.01 number 6 for
coordination of scientific and methodical work in the field of economy of the intellectual
property, including: the analysis of a state policy in this area; questions of a
terminology; development of training courses according to the intellectual property; the
analysis of economic aspects of piracy anti-pirate struggle." For more
information, click here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Wednesday, September 26 2001
- United
States of America - USPTO New Fees 1 October 2001
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has announced that it
is adjusting certain patent fee amounts to reflect fluctuations in the Consumer Price
Index (CPI). No trademark fee will be adjusted. For full details of the
changes that come into effect on 1 October 2001, click here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- Canada -
Reviewed Practice for Payment of Fees
A recent decision of the Federal Court of Canada, Dutch Industries
Ltd. and the Commissioner of Patents, Barton No-Till Disk Inc. and Flexi-Coil Ltd. (2001
FCT 879) addresses the consequences of the failure to pay correctly the prescribed fees
within the prescribed time limits. As a result of this decision, CIPO has reviewed its
practices in relation to the reception and handling of fee payments. To find out
more, click here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Tuesday, September 25 2001
- MICROPAT
- Complete Family Reporting Now Available in PatSearch
MicroPatent has announced the addition of the Complete Family
Report to its Family Report options within PatSearch FullText. "This new report
combines the power of full text searching and the full patent-family summary into a
convenient format with a representative abstract for each family.The Complete Family
Report expands the patent family coverage of your search to include all patent family
members. Your hitlist results are sorted into groups of equivalent patents and integrated
with additional patent family members as accessed from Inpadoc. Each patent family
features basic front-page information - including the representative abstract".
To find out more about this new feature from MICROPAT, visit their website here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- PATINNOVA
/ EPIDOS 2001 Update
Daniel Shalloe from the EPO has advised that the EPIDOS Annual
Conference / PATINNOVA website has been updated again with more information about special
events for day visitors. These include (a) A one-day seminar on patents, patent
information, financial support for innovation in SMEs; (b) A series a special
presentations about careers in the patents field; (c) Free admission to the exhibition and
(d) Hands-on training courses on patent information. To find out more you can visit the
conference website here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Monday, September 24 2001
- UK
Patent Office - Notice
The UK Patent Office has issued a notice in relation to problems
that may have occurred due to the terrorist bombings that occurred in the USA on September
11. To view the notice and find out how the UK Patent Office will assist, click
here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- USPTO - International
Trademark Classification Changes
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) issues a final rule
to incorporate classification changes adopted by the Nice Agreement Concerning the
International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of
Marks. These changes will become effective January 1, 2002, and will be listed in the
International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of
Marks (8th ed., 2001), which is published by the World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO). For more inforamtion, click here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Thursday, September 20 2001
- Delphion
- Free 1 Hour Web Seminars
Delphion have announced 2 free one hour web seminars covering the newest
features of Delphion, entitled 'Powering Up with Delphion's New Tools'. Dates:
Tuesday, October 2; Thursday, October 11. Time: 9am US Pacific, 10am US
Mountain, 11am US Central, 12pm US Eastern, 5pm UK, 6pm Europe. To register for
October 2 (click here)
or to register for October 11 (click here).
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Wednesday, September 19 2001
Tuesday, September 18 2001
- WINPAT - IP
Records Management Software
Herbert Kastenhuber from GSI
OFFICE MANAGEMENT GMBH has advised me of their IP Management software called WINPAT. "WINPAT
includes a sophisticated workflow management engine for business process engineering.
WINPAT is a software that handles all aspects of IP and that can be customized to meet
your requirements." If you are interested in finding out more about this
IP Management software, please visit their website here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Monday, September 17 2001
- OAMI - Trademarks
Notice
In view of the recent tragic events in the US, the President
of the OAMI office has issued a communication relating
to time limits. You may view the complete text here.
Posted by Simon Ware.
Friday, September 14 2001
United
Kingdom - Hearings & Litigation Manuals Online
The UK Patent Office have published two important procedures
manuals on their website. The Hearing Officers’
Manual and the Litigation
Section Manual provide "up-to-date reference to proceedings for patent and design
right hearings, incorporating the changes introduced in the reform of civil
litigation".
Posted by Simon Ware.
PATINNOVA
Update
The EPIDOS Annual Conference / PATINNOVA website has been updated to
include speakers' abstracts and CVs. You can visit PATINNOVA here. Thanks to Daniel Shalloe (EPO -
Promotions) for the information.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
MicroPatent - New Data Added
MicroPatent have added 10 years
worth of EP-B patent information to its PatSearch FullText database, extending the
system's full text coverage to include both applied for and granted European documents.
The EP-B files range from 1991 to present. PatSearch FullText also includes granted
EP-A records from 1988, US patents from 1836, US applications from March 15, 2001, WO
documents from 1983 and JP bibliographic information from 1976. To find out more
information including subscription options, click here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- Japan
- Trademark Examination Manual Online
The Trademark Examination Manual is now
available online on the JPO website. "Until now, the Trademark Examination Manual
was only available to JPO examiners for use as examination material to be used in
executing their practical duties. In the view of the need to promote a common
understanding both inside and outside the JPO regarding the administration of practical
trademark examinations in order to promote the smooth operation of the trademark system,
and in response to demands from third parties, the JPO has decided to publicly disclose
the Trademark Examination Manual". The access the manual online in PDF
form, click here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- PatSee
Release Update
PatSee (formerly Lattice) has released an update to both the 'Lite'
and 'Pro' versions of it's PatSee software - Version 2.11 Beta 12. To find out more,
visit PatSee here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Thursday, September 13 2001
- Delphion Adds New
Features
On September 28, Delphion are adding some new features that will enhance
their services. These enhancements include:
- Work Files let you create personalized lists of patents, save
favorites and organize your work. You can refer back to your Work Files any time and use
new tools like Data Extract and Snapshot to leverage your results for better insights.
- Snapshot enables quick analysis of your Result Set or Work Files using bar charts. You
can intuitively assess your search results, prioritize your efforts and refine your
searches even further.
- Data Extract lets you export key bibliographic fields for up to 20,000 patent records.
This enables you to incorporate your search results into a report, or import them to other
applications.
- PDF Express allows you to download multiple patents in batch mode versus opening them
one at a time. You'll receive a self-extracting zip file and a list of the downloaded
patents that you can save to your local drive, with just one simple mouse click.
To find out more about these new services visit Delphion here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Wednesday, September 12 2001
- Derwent
Wins USPTO Contract For Translating Patents Into English
Derwent Information has reported that they have been awarded a
five-year contract from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to provide "Human-Assisted Machine
Translation" of foreign-language patents into English. Derwent will be providing the
USPTO with 'manually-enhanced' machine translations, together with the original foreign
language patent document, for selected patent authorities. For further information, visit
Derwent here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- United
States Patent and Trademark Office - Closed - Effect
"The United States Patent and Trademark Office, as of
approximately 10:30 a.m., September 11, 2001, has been closed for official business as a
result of an order by the Office of Personnel Management. In the emergency situation of
this day, the Patent and Trademark Office will consider September 11 a "federal
holiday within the District of Columbia" under 35 U.S.C. § 21(b). Although normally
the Patent and Trademark Office does not consider days on which the agency is closed for
only part of the day as a federal holiday, it is making an exception for the unusual
circumstances of this date. As a result of the closing of public transportation and
particular circumstances in the immediate vicinity of the Office, parties are discouraged
from coming to the Patent and Trademark Office in order to make filings on September
11.Any action or fee due on September 11, 2001, will be considered as timely for the
purposes of, e.g., 35 U.S.C §§ 119, 120, 133 and 151, if the action is taken, or the fee
paid, on the next succeeding business day on which the Patent and Trademark Office is
open. 37 C.F.R. § 1.6(a)(2) provides that correspondence deposited as Express Mail in
accordance with 37 C.F.R. § 1.10 will be considered filed on the date of its
deposit".
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- Our Thoughts Are With You...
This morning I awoke to the shocking news of the tragedy in the US.
This website is based in Australia, half a world away - but we have had the great
fortune to make many friends with people all around the world. And many, many of
those friends are in the US. This morning all our thoughts are with you in what must
be a very difficult time.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Tuesday, September 11 2001
- GetIPDL - New
Patent Downloading Software
Well, the professional patent searcher is just getting spoiled
these days! Yet another patent downloader is available - GetIPDL. GetIPDL downloads
patent documents from JPO, USPTO, esp@cenet, DEPATISnet and other free patent document
delivery sites. It can download texts and images. It will merge downloaded files into one
file and supports re-downloading, which starts from the first missing page due to
cancellation or bad server response. Apparently, hyperlinks of the downloaded HTML text
are re-linked so that if you browse the downloaded file, most of the hyperlinks will still
be valid. I haven't checked this feature out yet. There are also a number of other
features. What's more the software is "freeware". If you are
interested in trying this software, please visit the GetIPDL website here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Monday, September 10 2001
- Pacific Islands Legal
Information Institute (PacLII)
Regular IP Menu visitors will be familar with AustLII and BaiLII,
two excellent legal information portals, which publish public legal information. Now
AustLII has announced its involvement in the
recent launch of the Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute (PacLII). This is a project undertaken in
association with the University of the South Pacific School of Law. The Pacific
Islands Legal Information Institute (PacLII) is a prototype system produced from data
developed and published by the University of the South Pacific School of Law with
assistance from the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII). To visit PacLII,
click here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- Questel-Orbit
- PlusPat Images Now Available
David Dickens of Questel Orbit has announced that "clipped
images" are now available in the PlusPat database on Questel-Orbit. The approximately
3 million images start in 1975, but some coverage extends the 1950's. Currently,
this will only work with individual PlusPat records. Support for family display
formats is due to be released in October.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- USPTO - Proposed
Rule Changes
"In implementing the provisions of the American Inventors
Protection Act of 1999 related to the eighteen-month publication of patent applications,
the United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) revised the rules of practice
related to requirements for claiming the benefit of a prior-filed application. The Office
is now proposing to revise the time period for claiming the benefit of a prior-filed
application in an application filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), revise the
time period for filing an English language translation of a non-English language
provisional application, and make other technical corrections to the rules of practice
related to eighteen-month publication. The Office is also proposing to make permanent a
temporary rule that amends the rules of practice to include the current statutory
provisions that define when national stage commencement occurs in an application filed
under the PCT". For further information on this US Federal Register
Notice, click here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Thursday, September 6 2001
Wednesday, September 5 2001
- WIPO SME Web
Site
"Have you ever wondered what is "intellectual
property" or what relevance it could possibly have to the creation or success of a
small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)?". This is how the new WIPO SME website begins. The site provides a great
introduction to intellectual property (IP) from the perspective of SMEs. It also
provides information on the possibilities offered by the IP system for improving the
performance and competitiveness or such SMEs. There are sections on "Intellectual
Property for Business" and "Intellectual Property in E-Commerce".
Given the number of talks IP Menu and PO&F do these days to SMEs, this is excellent
resource with loads of potential. If you want to visit the WIPO SME site, click here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
- United Kingdom
Information Booklets
The United Kingdom Patent Office have a
number of publications available for downloading. These publications provide
information on everything from applying for a trade mark to oppositions proceedings to a
journalists guide to intellectual property. You can access the list of trade mark related
publications here, design
information here, and the
patent related publications here.
Posted by Rodney Cruise.
Tuesday, September 4 2001
- Indian
Patent Database Now Online - Ekaswa
This database is hosted by the Patent
Facilitating Centre. It is also available on CD-ROM. The database
includes:
Ekaswa - A Database: Patent applications filed in India from January 1995
Ekaswa - B Database: Patent applications notified for opposition from January 1995.
Searching the database is free, however if you want to look at specific records located in
your search you need to be a registered user. There appears to be a USD$50 annual
subscription. The Patent Facilitating Centre also offer several additional services
include obtaining copies of patent specifications. You can access the Indian Patent
Database and find out more about the Patent Facilitating Centre by clicking here.
Posted by Simon Ware.
Monday, September 3 2001
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