Annual Technical Report on Patent Information Activities in 2023 submitted by IP Australia

Please provide links to your website where the requested information can be found in English, French, or Spanish.  Alternately, you may provide text responses instead of URLs if desired.  If the information is not available on your website in an ATR language, then please provide text.

URLs in responses should meet the following requirements:

I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN PATENT INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Information on the following topics is desired:

Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of patent information activities and expected time frames for their realisation:

IP Australia’s vision is to deliver world leading IP services that are modern, effective, and efficient to ensure all Australians benefit from great ideas, through administration of IP rights. In Australia, the COVID-19 shock saw an increase in the volume of patent filings in Australia to record levels in 2021 and 2022. Applications have since returned to the pre-pandemic trend, as the global economy faces challenges such as persistent inflation, rising interest rates and weak trade growth. IP Australia has continued to provide excellent service to customers, while focusing on critical activities that transform service delivery for the benefit of the IP Rights ecosystem. 

IP Australia’s policy objectives in relation to patents include enhanced education and access to the system for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). We also seek to ensure a clear and efficient system for those seeking patent protection at home and abroad through harmonising legal requirements, simplifying administration, reducing duplication of work in different jurisdictions and ensuring the law in Australia is clear and promotes innovative outcomes. 

More information can be found in our Strategic Corporate Plan https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/about-us/accountability-and-reporting/corporate-plan.

New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks: 

Patents Modernisation Initiative (PMI): In 2023 IP Australia continued with the multiple-year PMI journey to modernise internal Patent systems to make it easier for examination and administration staff to perform their work. A more detailed description of PMI can be found in subsequent sections.  

Innovative and smart examination tools for Patent Examiners: In 2023, IP Australia continued working on several projects for developing new and improving current AI-driven smart examination tools, to further improve the efficiency and quality of patent examination. Descriptions of those smart patent examination tools can be found in the subsequent sections. 

Customer Value Program (CVP): The CVP vision is to ensure all Australians benefit from great ideas by providing world-leading IP-related digital services that are modern, efficient and effective. The CVP aims to transform IP Australia’s internal processes and capabilities and align them to a customer-centric and delivery-focused model. The program has delivered efficiencies for end-to-end IP rights administration and improved engagement and satisfaction for IP Australia’s customers. 

 The Customer Value Program will deliver four key capabilities:  

  1. A modern, practical and informative corporate website ,  
  2. Modern and effective correspondence,  
  3. Streamlined and efficient processes and services for customers, and   
  4.  Digital experience personalisation and maturity. 

Main areas of patent information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year: 

IP Australia’s Patent Analytics Hub published interactive patent analytics reports on artificial intelligence (AI) computing, hardware and applications, and on quantum computing, sensors, communication and applications in 2023. 

Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and registrations with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes: 

Item 

2023 

2022 

2021 

2020 

2019 

National Applications – Direct filing 

8,586 

8,578 

9,026 

8,164 

8,846 

PCT Applications – National phase entry 

22,929 

23,714 

23,383 

21,138 

20,942 

Granted standard patents  

15,573 

16,407 

17,154 

17,776 

17,007 

In 2023, applications for standard patents fell slightly from their levels in 2022. More information on patent filing trends and statistics can be found in the Australian Intellectual Property Report 2024. 

Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.: 

Latest news: https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/news-and-community/news 

Statistics:  https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/tools-and-research/professional-resources/data-research-and-reports 

Australian IP Report: https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/tools-and-research/professional-resources/data-research-and-reports 

Patent Analytics Hub: https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/tools-and-research/Professional-resources/Data-research-and-reports/Patent-analytics 

II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Information on the following topics is desired:

Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) – URLs:

 IP Australia provides information on its website to support applicants filing:

IP Australia also provides further support through the contact centre or online enquiry channels. Applicants are also invited to utilise WIPO information resources, including the PCT Applicant’s Guide. See in particular: 

Availability of the application dossier in electronic form: 

The Patent application dossier is always available via the Patent search system, AusPat. http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/ols/auspat/quickSearch.do 

Classification1, pre-classification2 (if applicable), reclassification activities3; classification systems used (e.g., International Patent Classification (IPC)); matters concerning indexing of patent information: 

IP Australia has been classifying direct filings, Paris Convention route AU applications and PCT applications with International Patent Classification (IPC) for publication.  

Since January 2019 IP Australia has also been classifying Australian and New Zealand originating AU and PCT applications for which IP Australia is the ISA using the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) scheme. CPC and IPC classification is fully integrated with the patent case management system, RIO for Patents Workbench.  

The RIO Classification system utilises an internally built machine learning-based system, Patent Auto Classifier (PAC), to broadly pre-classify classification tasks for distribution to examination sections. Tasks with multiple technology areas are distributed to multiple technology sections in parallel, and examination sections can refer tasks to other sections for further classification as required. The latest version of CPC and IPC schemas are used for classification in the system, and CPC symbols are automatically concorded to IPC symbols. PAC is retrained annually following the IPC scheme update that occurs on 1 January each year. 

The system performs automated administrative CPC reclassification when there is an updated CPC version. For symbols that cannot be reclassified automatically, it flags them for intellectual reclassification. Classifiers use a 'Maintain Classification' function to carry out intellectual reclassification as directed. This function may also be used to otherwise update or correct the classification of an application. 

In addition, RIO Classification was built with the capacity to automatically transfer CPC classified data to the European Patent Office (EPO) patent database when the applications are officially published. In 2023, IP Australia carried out 2771 IPC-only Classifications and 4167 CPC Classifications. As our CPC classifications step includes an automatic concordance to IPC classification, in total, we classified 6938 applications in the IPC.  

Abstracting, reviewing, and translation of the information contained in patent documents: 

Examiners redraft applicant-prepared abstracts of non-PCT national applications when they are found to be deficient to an extent that they are unable to fulfil their function, or not submitted at filing. The abstracts of PCT national phase applications are not reviewed as these have been thoroughly evaluated in the international phase. 

Other activities: 

IP Australia’s Patent Analytics Hub analyses patent data on specific technology fields and provides reports as interactive visualisations or written reports to allow users to access and gain insights from patent information. IP Australia uses its patent analytics capability to provide added value to its International-Type Search (PCT Article 15(5)) reports, which now include an additional patent analytics report. IP Australia also provides patent analytics reports to government agencies and publicly funded researchers upon request. 

III. SOURCES OF PATENT INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE

Information on the following topics is desired:

Main types of publications of the Office (patent applications, full text, first pages, abstracts, bibliographic data, granted patents, etc.), medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs): 

The number of patent documents published in 2023 in the Australian Official Journal of Patents (AOJP) was:  

  • patent applications open to public inspection (AU-A) = 29,975 
  • patent applications advertised accepted (AU-B) = 17,012 

Note:  The AU-A figure includes standard patent, and innovation patents made open to public inspection (OPI) either pre-grant or at grant (does not include National Phase Entries).  

The AU-B figure includes standard patent acceptances and innovation patent certifications.

Link: https://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/ols/epublish/content/olsAvailablePatentPDFs.jsp   

Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URL), etc.: 

Official notices and changes to office procedures are published in the AOJP. These official notices, and many other patent related notices (including the Manual of Practice and Procedure), are also put directly on the IP Australia website under the Patent notices section (https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/news-and-community/official-notices#als_e=0&als_iptags=Patents). The AOJP and the Supplement to the Official Journal of Patents have been combined from 2018 and can be found at: http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/ols/epublish/content/olsAvailablePatentPDFs.jsp 

Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external collections and databases: 

IP Australia uses commercial search tools EPOQUE Net, STN and GenomeQuest to search databases such as EPODOC, DWPI, full text patent databases and many non-patent literature databases. Examiners also use free patent and non-patent literature databases available on the internet. 

IP Australia has developed and used various internal examination tools including Family Member Analyser (FMA), FER Feature Analysis (FFA), Automatic Preliminary Search Tool (APST) and RIO for Patents Citation Manager utilising various databases and tools such as WIPO-CASE, DOCDB, EPO’s Open Patent Services, DWPI to assist examiners with searching patent information. 

Non-Patent Literature - https://manuals.ipaustralia.gov.au/patent/6.1.10-non-patent-literature 

Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to external users, conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.): 

The following databases and information are available through the IP Australia and the Australian Government Data website: 

  • AusPat - AusPat is IP Australia's search database that allows inventors, industry and researchers to access patent applications lodged and granted in Australia (free of charge). AusPat also provides access to eDossier which is IP Australia’s case file register: 
    http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/ols/auspat/faqs.html 

IP Australia continues to share patent information with various organisations including WIPO and European Patent Office, with bibliographic data, IPC/CPC classification, documents and citations of Australian & PCT applications to enrich shared international patent information databases. 

Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.): 

IP Australia provides the Patent Supplemental Journal in XML format. This includes Legal Status Data.  

Note: Interested parties may also download the Patent Supplemental Journal in XML format from the secure FTP server in line with the weekly journal publication dates. It is also freely available on the Patent Supplement Downloadable Journals web page: http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/ols/epublish/content/olsAvailablePatentPDFs.jsp 

Legal Status API - IP Australia provides a WIPO ST.27-based Legal Status API, released in 2022 and found on IP Australia’s API Developer Portal (https://portal.api.ipaustralia.gov.au/s/apis). 

Other sources: 

No comment is made here.

IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Information on the following topics is desired:

Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements: 

IP Australia uses commercial search tools EPOQUE Net, STN and GenomeQuest to search databases such as EPODOC, DWPI, full text patent databases and many non-patent literature databases. Examiners also use free patent and non-patent literature databases available on the internet. 

IP Australia has developed and used various internal examination tools including Family Member Analyser (FMA), Automatic Preliminary Search Tool (APST) and RIO for Patents Citation Manager utilising various databases and tools such as WIPO-CASE, DOCDB, EPO’s Open Patent Services, DWPI to assist Examiners with searching patent information. 

The Patent Modernisation Initiative (PMI) – PMI was a series of projects which aimed to modernise IP Australia’s back-end patents systems and processes. This has included infrastructure upgrades and process improvements, such as replacing manual processes with built in task workflows and/or automation, a new citation manager, and efficient reuse of data between systems. Overall, the project aimed to improve examiner and administration efficiency and quality of output.  

In 2023, PMI continued the journey by: 

  • releasing a new re-examination product for examination and patents opposition; and 
  • releasing a product to manage bilateral applications. IP Australia carries out search and examination work for other foreign IP Offices as part of bilateral agreements. This release also included a migration of old bilateral data and documents from INTESS (Objective) to PAMS DB and AWS S3, which enabled INTESS (Objective) to be decommissioned.  

PMI also switched focus to developing products for IP Australia’s administrative Customer Experience Group. Products to handle new applications (Provisionals, National Phase Entry and Standard) were released to production. The new products include various automations and validations that greatly reduce the effort required from administrative staff to manually process them. They also reduce customer waiting time for filing notices. For applications requesting to enter AU national phase, up-to-date bibliographic details and documents are directly sourced from WIPO’s ePCT to improve the efficiency of processing new applications and the accuracy of data. At the end of 2023, PMI entered a transitional phase shifting work to BAU. 

Online Application portal (replacing eServices): A bespoke interactive cloud-based website for self-filers to file applications and mange existing IPRs. https://portal.ipaustralia.gov.au/login 

B2B API channel: Allows professional IP service providers to submit applications and manage IPRs via APIs https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/tools-and-research/Professional-resources/APIs 

Order Management Workbench (OMW): An internal web-based interface which allows formalities staff to enter paper-based applications and manually correct issues and errors with filings. It is a bespoke java application. 

Patent Application Management System (PAMS): The primary tool for managing examiner workflow in the national phase. It is a bespoke, Unix/Java-based web application. 

As of 2023, AusPat was the definitive Australian patents search engine which is the interface into the official patent register. AusPat contains bibliographic and status information from applications submitted from January 1979 on. AusPat also contains International Patent Classification information for the majority applications from 1920; IPC version 8 has been applied to applications filed from 1970 (https://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/ols/auspat/).  

The Office's publication system provides the following functions: 

  • Production of the AOJP Supplement as a PDF file and XML format available for download. The Supplement covers applications from 2002. The journal is published on IP Australia’s website; 
  • Production of patent certificates and original register entries; and 
  • Production of notices for patent applicants or their agents. 

INTESS was the application the office used for managing PCT applications and PCT-EDI for data exchange but moved to ePCT for the management of PCT applications. RO functions are now performed using ePCT Office Portal, and ISA/IPEA functions have been moved to the custom-built RIO for Patents Workbench. The workbench uses ePCT’s M2M services for ISA/IPEA processing. In 2023, the last piece of data within INTESS, bilaterals data, was migrated off INTESS to PAMS DB/AWS S3, with management of bilateral applications moving to the newly built bilaterals product in RIO for Patents Workbench. Consequently, INTESS was decommissioned in 2023. 

Hardware used to support business processes of the Office: 

IP Australia use commercial laptops with Windows 11 Operating system and MS365 office productivity tools. MS Teams and SharePoint have been introduced as primary collaboration technologies. 

IP Australia’s online and B2B via API IP Rights application and management tools are all cloud based. 

Legacy systems have been moved off-premises and moved into offsite, commercial, shared data centres and high available containerised architecture has been applied to majority of business-critical applications. 

Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources: 

The primary business system is the Unix / Java application PAMS which runs in an environment which includes Sun Solaris, Amazon RDS for Oracle, J2EE, BEA WebLogic, and Amazon S3. It is being iteratively replaced with RIO for Patents Workbench, which is an enterprise solution comprising bespoke Vue.JS single-page web application and PEGA case management integrated using MuleSoft APIs and utilising a number of existing and new on-premises and cloud-based technologies. The legacy Oracle database has been migrated to AWS Cloud. RIO for Patents New Applications product connects and exchanges up-to-date bibliographic data and documents with WIPO’s ePCT for applications requesting to enter AU national phase. 

Full specifications of all non-PCT designated AU-A, AU-B and AU-C patent specifications are available on the AusPat website and via IP Australia’s patent specification bulk data product. Bibliographic data is available both through AusPat and via the Patent Bulk Specification data product.  

CPC Classification data is provided regularly to the European Patent Office (EPO) using their Web services API and is integrated into their DOCDB collection. The EPO also uses the Patents Journal and Bulk Specification products to represent a full bibliographic collection of Australian patent data within their DOCDB and INPADOC products. 

WIPO Case also has near real-time access to the Australian register, citations, bibliographic data and patent specifications through a series of APIs. 

Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file: 

The purposely built examination tool Family Member Analyser (FMA) allows AU patent examiners to access the latest electronic search file especially examination reports from other offices on the on-demand basis by connecting to various databases including WIPO-CASE and Clarivate’s Derwent API.  

The Automated Preliminary Search Tool (APST) allows examiners to perform an automated initial search based on limited bibliographic data (applicant and inventor names, IPC and CPC symbols). The tool provides access to published patent specifications (via Clarivate’s Derwent API) as well as providing secure access to internal unpublished specifications held by the office (national and PCT applications).  

Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support): 

The aforementioned Patent Modernisation Initiative (PMI) was a series of projects modernising IP Australia’s back-end patents systems and processes. This has included both infrastructure upgrades and process improvements, such as replacing manual processes with built in task workflows and/or automation, a new citation manager, and efficient reuse of data between systems. This aims to improve examiner and administration efficiency and quality. Focus had been on examiner processes, with work subsequently shifting to administrative processes. 

Other matters: 

No comment is made here. 

V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF PATENT INFORMATION

Information on the following topics is desired:

Patent library: equipment, collection management, network of patent libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign patent libraries: 

All Australian Patents records/documents are handled in accordance with Office procedures set down under Australian Law and archiving practices. 

Australian Patents data is searchable on AusPat:  

http://auspat-dev.ocpdev.aipo.gov.au/pss/welcome.do 

Australian Patents data is searchable on the EPOs Espacenet: https://worldwide.espacenet.com/ 

Australian Patents data is searchable on WIPO’s Patentscope: https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/search.jsf 

Publications related to different business procedures and patent information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.: 

IP Australia publishes its patent Manual of Practice and Procedure online at https://manuals.ipaustralia.gov.au/patent 

AusPat user guide (http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/ols/auspat/auspat_userguide.pdf) is published here http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/ols/auspat/learning.html 

Office's initiatives on providing foreign patent information in the local language(s) (e.g., machine translation tools, translation of abstracts): 

No comment is made here. 

Cooperation with universities, research centers, technology and innovation support centers, etc. 

Small business outreach: IP Australia takes a strategic approach to engagement with small business by establishing a partnership network across government, universities and industry associations, leveraging their networks and the credibility they have in IP Australia’s target audience of start-ups and small to medium enterprises.  

Engagement activities have been identified and targeted into the following groups: 

  • Government departments and agencies – Commonwealth and State based programs that engage with IP Australia’s target audience. These often use a Business Advisor network who have been trained in ‘Introduction to IP’. 
  • Universities – early career researchers, undergraduate and industry collaborations, working with accelerator programs, undergraduate innovation courses, and higher degree programs. 
  • Peak Industry bodies – industry associations that represent small and medium enterprises; providing objective information that can be channelled through the associations, leveraging any Business Advisor networks they have. 
  • Direct – IP Australia provides webinars and resources designed for self-service on IP Australia’s website and promoted through social media and newsletters, aimed at the end-user/self-filer. 
  • Indigenous – IP Australia has a dedicated set of resources including videos, fact sheets and a call-back service – Yarnline – to support Indigenous business owners engaging with the IP system. 

Overview of primary engagement activities: 

Hybrid Presentations and Workshops (30-45 minutes) 

Live sessions hosted by IP Australia Public Education staff which include; 

  • Pre-sessions survey (to understand audience profile)  
  • Welcome and introduction 
  • Short, pre-recorded presentation by a subject matter expert (experienced IP examiner) 
  • Q&A  
  • Links to relevant online education resources 
  • Post sessions survey (to understand attendee satisfaction and areas for improvement) 

Social media and newsletter 

IP Australia engages with audiences via digital platforms to support IP Australia policy and consultation activities, IP trends and analysis report publications, to highlight and correct misconceptions and to educate. Platforms include LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and email newsletter (monthly). 

Event attendance 

Participation at relevant industry and government events for face-to-face engagement with small business owners and professional services individuals supporting small businesses: 

  • Trade stand/booths; 
  • A5 and business card size collateral with QR codes linking to online education resources; 
  • Presentations and panel participation to demonstrate relevance of IP for business, IP within the innovation ecosystem, IP analytics for Government policy development, IP trends to support small business growth (success); 
  • Working with incubation hubs, accelerator programs and relevant conferences/expos, IP Australia provides information and demonstrates relevance of IP for start-ups and early-stage businesses; and  
  • Developing new content targeted at educating start-ups and early-stage business on commercialisation, exporting and IP protection for digital innovations/inventions. 

Ongoing promotion is conducted via social media, email subscription newsletters and proactive message multiplier networks such as peak industry bodies and other government organisations.  

Digital experience: The new IP Australia website was launched in late 2022. In 2023 the Digital Services Team has been leading a continuous improvement program over six months, listening to customers as they note what is working and where improvements can be made.  

Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.: 

Please refer to comments in previous section. 

Other activities: 

No comment is made here.

VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF PATENT INFORMATION

Information on the following topics is desired:

International exchange and sharing of patent information in machine-readable form, e.g., priority documents, bibliographic data, abstracts, search reports, full text information: 

International exchange of patent information can be done using IP Australia’s patents bulk data products: https://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/tools-and-research/Professional-resources/bulk-data-requests. 

In addition, various channels can be used for international exchange of patent information in machine-readable form between IP Australia and international organisations, including international intellectual property offices such as WIPO, the European Patent Office to enrich shared international databases of patent information. 

IP Australia in engaged with the Committee of WIPO Standards (CWS) and participates in the development and application of standards for IP Offices to exchange data in automated, machine-readable ways. 

Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to patent information: 

IP Australia’s Patent Analytics Hub and Office of the Chief Economist participate in the OECD IP Statistics Taskforce. 

IP Australia’s Patent Analytics Hub actively participated in WIPO Patent Analytics Community of Practices started in November 2023. 

Vancouver Group 

The Vancouver Group (VG) was established in 2008 comprising of the IP Offices of Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom (UK) to share information and experiences on common issues and areas relevant to management of a mid-sized IP Office.  

The VG Searching Working Group (VG-SWG) was formed in March 2018 to prioritise collaboration between patent search specialists and allow mutual learning to enhance search quality. The following activities from the workplan have been completed to date: Search Tools and Databases, Search Quality, Search Training, Search Collaboration Workshops and comparison of Search Manuals. The most recent VG Search Collaboration Workshop was conducted in the Chemical field in 2023.   

Other VG activities include:  

  • contributing to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) International Search Report (ISR) Feedback Pilot led by the UK IP Office.  
  • IP Australia’s Patent Analytics Hub and Office of the Chief Economist participating in informal meetings every two months with the VG office analytics and economics research teams. 

2021-2023 Bilateral Workplan with the European Patent Office (EPO)  

The 2021-2023 IP Australia-EPO Bilateral Workplan sets out on-going cooperation between IP Australia and the EPO on patent administration, examination and quality. Cooperation objectives included: 

  • exchanging information and best practices on efficient and quality examination, including on emerging technologies 
  • exchanging information on quality management systems including the interpretation of ISO9001:2015. 
  • exchanging information on patent examiner training 
  • increasing the use of the Patent Prosecution Highway programme by EPO and IP Australia applicants and the optimisation work-sharing potential offered by common tools such as EPOQUE Net 
  • continuing engagement on Cooperative Patent Classification to improve accuracy and consistency in classifying patent applications. 

Assistance to developing countries: 

No comment provided. 

Other activities: 

No comment provided. 

VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS

Please include any other relevant information here.

No comment is made here. 




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.

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.

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.