Annual Technical Report 2004 on Patent Information Activities submitted by United Kingdom (SCIT/ATR/PI/2004/GB)
Where URLs are requested below, it is preferred that either URLs which are likely to remain stable over time (three years or more) are provided, or home (main) page URLs are provided with a short explanation of how to access the corresponding information.
The term "patent" covers utility models and Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs). Offices which issue design patents should report their design patent information activities in their Annual Technical Reports on Industrial Design Information Activities.
I. Evolution of patent activities
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[The surge in applications for patents relating to electronic commerce activities which resulted from the dot com boom means we are now refusing an increasing number of applications because methods for doing business as such are not patentable under the law.
Small organic compounds continue to dominate in the field of pharmaceutical patents where the prime targets are still cancer, heart disease, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and anti-inflammatory therapies. However, activity has been influenced by world events such as the emergence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the threat of anthrax poisoning. In the related field of biotechnology there has been a notable drop in applications for per se gene inventions. This may be a consequence of the Office's published Examination Guidelines for Biotechnological Inventions which gives applicants a greater understanding of the current requirements for industrial applicability and inventive step for such inventions. On the increase is the number of applications based on gene silencing and Ribonucleic Acid interference (RNAi) technology.]
This is the same entry as that for 2003. The corresponding statement for 2004 is not yet available.
II. Matters concerning the generation, reproduction, distribution and use of primary and secondary sources of patent information
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(1) Paper
A-Documents
These are prepared by an outside printer. The front page is compiled by downloading bibliographic data (ASCII with special characters) from the corporate database OPTICS to the Internet for collection by the external printer. The data is composed using XICS (Xerox Integrated Composition System), a bespoke system of Xerox. The abstract text, typed or scanned, is added, and any abstract drawings are scanned and merged to finalise the front page. The finished page is added to the rest of the specification and reproduced. The finished documents are then scanned onto CD on a weekly basis for the EPO (WIPO Standard ST.33). The publishing cycle is 5 weeks.
B-Documents
These are prepared by an outside printer. The front page is compiled by downloading bibliographic data (ASCII with special characters) from the corporate database OPTICS to the Internet for collection by the external printer. The data is composed using XICS (Xerox Integrated Composition System), a bespoke system of Xerox. The finished page is added to the rest of the specification and reproduced. The finished documents are then scanned onto CD on a weekly basis for the EPO (WIPO Standard ST.33). The publishing cycle is 5 weeks.
(2) CD-ROM
In association with the EPO, we publish GB A-documents on CD-ROM on a fortnightly basis, ESPACE-UK. The CD-Rom collection covers the years 1979 to date, i.e. for GB serial numbers in excess of 2,000,000.
In conjunction with the EPO and the IP Offices of Belgium, Switzerland, Holland, Luxembourg and Portugal, an ACCESS-EUROPE CD-ROM containing the bibliographic data of published BE, CH, LU, NL and UK applications is produced on a monthly basis.
[N.B. This product changed to ESPACE ACCESS EPC in January 2005 and now covers all Member States data.]
(3) Patents and Designs Journal
Official notices and selected bibliographic data relating to UK patent applications and granted patents are published in the official weekly electronic newspaper called the Patents and Designs Journal on the date of publication. The Journal appears on the Patent Office website in PDF format, at www.patent.gov.uk/patent/notices/journals/2004.
(4) ESPACENET, EPOQUE etc
The full text, drawings and bibliographic data of all published UK patent applications and granted patents is published on the EPOQUE system soon after the domestic publication date. Esp@cenet is a free internet service which contains a number of different patent collections including all GB applications published since 1978 (http://gb.espacenet.com/).
Main types of announcements of the Office in the field of patent information
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The office has a DVD and CD-ROM collection containing published/granted US, WO, EP and GB documents on CIMS (Consolidated Imaging System), which can produce paper copies of documents for use in the office.
The office has a classified paper collection of GB documents, with some WO and EP documents classified on the UK Key between certain dates. However this collection has been frozen and is in the process of being disposed of, in favour of online retrieval using EPOQUE.
Word processing and office automation
The Patent Office uses Microsoft Windows NT4 which provides an integrated and extensive network of applications that are available to all staff. All staff have their own personal workstation on which numerous applications are available. Word processing can be carried out using Word Perfect 8 or Word XP; Powerpoint and Excel are also available; all classification keys used by the examining staff (UK Key, ECLA, ICO, IPC, USPC and Japanese F- and FI-Terms) are accessible, as are office notices, manuals, search tools including access to online databases, internal and external telephone directories, translation software, management and administration information etc. There is also a corporate mainframe database (OPTICS), a Paradox database (PAFS) for recording file movement data and examining group statistics, and automated production of search and examination reports using the PROSE system. The office intranet contains a very large collection of essential information for staff, including search and classification tools.
Copies of US, EP, WO and GB documents cited in the search reports are produced by the in-house centralised printing system (CIMS) for supply to applicants, and in addition this system has been extended to enable the ad hoc ordering by staff of any types of patent documentation from CIMS, direct from their desktop. All staff have access to the Internet and to the office intranet and have their own e-mail (via Groupwise 5.5) and official e-mail address.
(New) techniques used for the generation of patent information (printing, recording, photocomposing, etc.)
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The office classifies UK patent applications on the UK Classification Key (Edition W in 2004) and the IPC (7th Edition). The office does not reclassify documents except as a result of a UK Key change.
On 1 January 2004, Edition W of the UK Key came into force. Certain amended parts of the Key were republished and these republished parts together with the unamended parts of Edition V collectively constitute Edition W. Key changes for Edition W have been effected in the following headings:
Heading Detail
B1X Addition of classifying term
B5N Printing error correction - page 10
C4P Addition of new classifying term to reduce deep indexing.
E1D Addition of new classifying terms
E2F Printing error corrections - page 4.
G1H Addition of references out to headings B8T and F2V
H2E Further detail classification
H2J Printing error correction - Page 2
H3A Printing error correction - Page 3
H3T Addition of clarifying notes and deletion of classifying terms overlapping with heading H3P
H4K Addition of new classification marks
H4L Further detail classification; Clarifying amendments.
Coordinate indexing (domestic deep indexing systems, keyword indexing)
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File building and updating of our paper search files classified under the UK Key is centralised. Our UK Key paper search files contain GB A-documents to date, pre-1978 Old Act GB documents, a collection of Irish documents and some other documents as requested by the examiner in charge of a particular heading. These search files also contain frozen collections of US, EP and WO documents within certain date ranges that vary for the headings concerned.
In 2004 we started a process of disposing of some of our paper search files to save space, in view of the widespread use of online searching in respect of our UK patents collection.
Whenever a document is published and is not in a part of our collection that is being disposed of, a spare copy of the document from the printer is sent to the examining group, optionally placed on a search card as required, and then placed in the right box file for the correct UK Key heading(s) and mark(s) that have been applied to the document. These box files are arranged for easy searching.
Our collection of ECLA files (containing US, EP and WO documents classified according to the ECLA key) was frozen some time ago, and virtually all of this formerly very large collection has now been disposed of.
Most of the UK search files are available electronically on our OPTICS database.
Updating
See File building above. Upkeep of search files is carried out centrally by administrative staff, in a process that includes listing (comparing the search file contents with the OPTICS record of what should be on that file).
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Our internal library is in our Newport office and is run by the Documentation Unit. The available collections include GB abridgements/abstracts (including Bennet-Woodcroft), copies of the UK Key, IPC and ECLA, various pamphlets, manuals and other publications, some law reports, name and subject-matter indexes for locating old historic patents, official journals of the UK (Patent and Designs Journal) and of the EPO, magazines for circulations etc. Much of this information is also available on the office Intranet. The collections are located in our main building and are therefore secure.
We have a Front Office in London which is primarily used to help in lodging patent applications. There are facilities for the public, both in that office and in our main Newport office in Wales, where official publications can be obtained and where searching e.g. on the Internet can be carried out.
Collecting, acquisitions, preparation
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The Science Information and Research Service (SIRS) of the British Library, located in St. Pancras, London, houses the national collection of patents, science and technology. It remains administratively separate from the UK Patent Office, and is funded by the UK Government Department of Culture, Media and Sport and by revenue from its services which are heavily used.
SIRS has telephone access to selected examiners in the Patent Office, to help with public enquiries on patent searching.
SIRS and the Patent Office jointly offer support to the PATLIB patent libraries, which consist of SIRS and 14 libraries outside London, open to the public, which hold patent material. The PATLIB libraries collect most patent specifications in CD-ROM format rather than in paper or microform, although some continue to arrive on paper. Over 25 countries patents are covered.
SIRS also continues to offer public access to commercial patent online databases through its Patents Online search service. This is a priced service which handles a number of commissioned searches monthly, mostly for subject searches.
The Patent Office takes part in numerous exchange and grant programmes with other patent offices around the world as in previous years. IP documentation received by the Patent Office is not held by us but by the British Library which provides a national resource for users of this information.
Information services available to the public (including computerized services and search files contained in libraries remote from your Office and patent information posted by your Office on the World Wide Web)
The Patent Office's Search and Advisory Service continues to promote its activities in providing priced non-statutory patent and trade mark investigations. In all, 7370 patent and trade mark-based searches were processed, an increase of about 4.5 % over the previous 12 months. This is a result of considerable growth in trade mark requests and UK award schemes for smaller technologically-oriented companies, such as the Smart scheme which aims to enhance competitiveness by encouraging innovation. The Service is also looking to build on its provision of commercial patentability and infringement searches.
The Patent Office's call centre (Central Enquiry Unit) continues to provide a much needed service to customers, with more than 100,000 telephone calls and emails coming in during 2004. Customer satisfaction is very high.
See Interlibrary lending for details of library services remote from our office.
VII. Matters concerning mutual exchange of patent documentation and information
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Nothing new since the 2003 report.
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| 1. | Classification is allotting one or more classification symbols (e.g., IPC symbols) to a patent application, either before or during search and examination, which symbols are then published with the patent application.
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| 2. | Preclassification is allotting an initial broad classification symbol (e.g., IPC class or subclass, or administrative unit) to a patent application, using human or automated means for internal administrative purposes (e.g., routing an application to the appropriate examiner). Usually preclassification is applied by the administration of an office.
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| 3. | Reclassification is the reconsideration and usually the replacement of one or more previously allotted classification symbols to a patent document, following a revision and the entry into force of a new version of the Classification system (e.g., the IPC). The new symbols are available on patent databases.
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