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patent information
Searching patent information
Why
use patent information?
What
information is available?
Australian
patent information
International
searches
Why use patent information?
- Don't reinvent the wheel. Searching worldwide patent information can help
you avoid wasting time and money duplicating work done elsewhere.
- Look for technology that is available for licensing or is in the public
domain because it was not patented in Australia or patent protection has expired.
- Monitor your competitor's research activities. Technical information about
your competitors' products or processes might be published in a patent specification
years before they appear on the market.
- Keep an eye on trends in technology and emerging key players.
- Avoid infringing someone else's patent. Searching Australian patent information
before setting up to manufacture or import a product can help you avoid costly
legal disputes.
What information is available?
More than 40 million patent documents have been published worldwide with almost
a million new disclosures added each year.
Each patent document has a unique identifying number and includes a detailed
description of an invention, usually with drawings, and information about the
inventor and applicant.
Patent documents are not manufacturing specifications so you may not find exact
dimensions or operating parameters if they are not critical to they way the
invention works.
Australian patent information
Searching Australian patent databases reflects
only a small percentage (approximately 7%) of world patenting activity, so this
will not necessarily tell you if your invention is new. But it provides up-to-date
information about Australian patents not available elsewhere.
It can even be a good place to start a novelty search if you have limited resources.
You might find something the same right away and avoid the cost of an international
search.
If not, it may help you decide on the technical areas in which to concentrate
your search effort.
Abstracts of published Australian patent applications from 1975 onwards are
available at AU Published Patent
Data Searching. They can also be viewed at any of our state
offices and are available on subscription
on CD-ROM.
We strongly recommend that you only use our databases if you are very sure
of what you are doing. It is best if you get advice from suitably
qualified professionals such as Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys, lawyers
specialising in the relevant field or a professional search service.
International searches
Patent information is classified by subject matter and can be searched worldwide
using commercial patent databases.
Using these databases effectively is a specialised skill and can be time consuming
and costly. For this reason you may want to contact a specialist search
service to carry out a search for you.
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