Organisations around the world support innovation and small business by providing free, expert information on intellectual property. Databases comprising published patents, designs, plant varieties and trade marks are freely available, along with free, expert guides to self-filing, on-line application, and often 50% discounts for small businesses.

 

Patents are the most expensive form of intellectual property protection and the area where this free information and guidance has proven very popular. Millions of published applications are available via just three databases: the international patent database of the World Intellectual Property Office (www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/ ), the European Patent Office database (http://www.epo.org/patents/patent-information/free/espacenet.html ) and the American patent database (http://patft.uspto.gov/). Searches can be based on words, phrases, names, numbers, or classification codes (IPC classifications at http://www.wipo.int/classifications/ipc/en/ ).

 

Apart from the patent in full, other information available includes status, scope, territory, opposition and examination reports.

Use of these databases can save businesses time and money; provides valuable information on competitors and developments in the field; illustrates novelty of an innovation before incurring cost; and helps ascertain (and avoid) infringement. Reading others’ patents can also prompt further innovation. Importantly, it can enhance engagement with a patent attorney.

 

Apart from the databases, the sites link to patent journals (published by national intellectual property offices) which include, for example, details of licences (including licensors and licensees) and patents available ‘as of right.’

 

Such information is crucial to New Zealand businesses, especially those trading overseas. The criterion for patents in New Zealand currently falls short of other countries’: patents are granted for inventions not claimed in applications published in New Zealand within 50 years of the application date. Elsewhere, patents are granted for inventions not disclosed in any form, in any way, at any time before the application date. But this level of circumspection can also be anticipated to some extent. General internet searches (eg http://scholar.google.co.nz/ ) can be supplemented by expert sources: eg ISI Web of Knowledge ( www.isiwebofknowledge.com/ ), Science Direct (www.sciencedirect.com/ ), Scopus (www.scopus.com/scopus/home.url ), IET (www.theiet.org/ ) and Engineering Village (www.engineeringvillage2.org/controller/servlet/Controller ).

 

The current economic climate is an opportunity for dynamic, innovative companies. Use of free intellectual property and knowledge databases can give New Zealand business an informed edge: free access to the ‘state of the art’, internationally.