Home PatentsSearch
Searching
Patents Databases
Searching Patents Databases
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 30 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 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. Our state offices are open between
9.00 am and 5.00 pm on weekdays except public holidays.
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 to do this for you.
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.
|
