Apologies for the somewhat late response from the Europe ...
Indeed, as my almost namesake David Dickens already indicated in his
posting of 23 January, there are good definitions of PCT minimum
documentation and patent families available from the EPO website
(www.european-patent-office.org).
Furthermore, Questel Orbit are just one of several commercial hosts who
make use of EPO data (in this case REFI data), add-value and create
their own databases such as PlusPat.
Whilst EP data only goes back to the first EP application in 1978, the
EPO has long been in the business of collecting (originally in paper and
now captured electronically) patent documents from around the world.
Indeed, access to the "PCT minimum documentation" for patent examination
is one of the requirements of being an International Search Authority
and it is this data the EPO started to convert into electronic form (the
BAck CONversion project) by scanning paper for more than 20 years.
These scanned images are part of the Bacon Numerical Series database
which, in combination with searchable bibliographic data and as much
text as is available is the same electronic document collection made
available free-of-charge to the general public via esp@cenet.
If you are just looking for a particular patent, the esp@cenet
collection is a good place to start since its scope, both in number of
countries included and in date coverage, continues to grow.
At the end of last year, the worldwide database on esp@cenet included
some 37 million records (based on only one representative member per
patent family) although the searchable text data is a little slower (20
million have a title, 4.7 million an English abstract, almost 24 million
an IPC classification, 16.5 million an EPC classification, and so
on...).
Finally, to return to the subject of the original posting, a search in
esp@cenet produces 219 hits in the worldwide database, 51 if you reduce
it to only US records, and some 11 in the period 1960-80 with nothing
after 1973.
Hope this helps ...
Kind regards,
David J. Dickinson
EPO Website Manager
EPIDOS, EPO in Vienna
--------------------------------
ddickinson@epo.org
dickinson@epo.co.at
--------------------------------
www.european-patent-office.or
*******************************************************************
The views expressed in this posting are those of the author
and not necessarily those of the European Patent Office.
*******************************************************************
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-piug-l@derwent.co.uk [mailto:owner-piug-l@derwent.co.uk]On
Behalf Of Turner, Elyse
Sent: 23 January 2002 15:06
To: 'David Dickens'; 'Agnieszka Gorak-Marecik'; PIUG-L@derwent.co.uk
Subject: RE: Patents of Int. Meehanite Metal Co.
I think it is necessary to add to David Dickens' reply a major source of
the
data in the PlusPat file, which is the EPO Refi file. As I understand,
the
EPO Refi file is compiled based upon the PCT minimum documentation.
Part of
the requirements of the PCT minimum documentation is that it includes
data
from 1920, hence the date. I do not know what countries exactly must be
included, but I believe GB, FR, DE and US are included. It should be
noted
that since this is "minimum" documentation, it does not necessarily
include
all data from all countries. I believe Refi includes all EP data, but
that
only goes back to 1978. Before that, I think there was a concentration
on
English language documents. That is about all I know.
If David Dickens, or preferably someone from the EPO (David Dickerson?)
could provide more info on the Refi file or PCT Minimum Documentation,
that
may answer some of Roy Zimmerman's questions. I would also be
interested in
a reference describing the requirements of the PCT Minimum
Documentation.
Thank you.
Elyse
Elyse D. Robinson Turner - Sr. Information Scientist
Patent Department, Merck & Co., Inc. RY 60-35
732-594-6418 [home office 215-757-2555 Wed+Thurs]
elyse_turner@merck.com
-----Original Message-----
From: David Dickens [mailto:ddickens@QUESTEL.ORBIT.COM]
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2002 5:42 PM
To: 'Agnieszka Gorak-Marecik'; PIUG-L@derwent.co.uk
Subject: RE: Patents of Int. Meehanite Metal Co.
The PlusPat patents file on Questel-Orbit does have comprehensive
bibliographic data for US patents back to the 1920's (and also covers 68
other countries).
Searching Meehanite Metal as an assignee and limiting it to US patents
shows
51 patents. This includes 3 from the 1980's, 3 from the 1970's, 8 from
the
1960s, 15 from the 1950's, 19 from the 1940's, 1 from the 1930's, and 1
from
the 1920's.
For more information on Questel-Orbit and PlusPat, please have a look at
our
website, www.questel.orbit.com.
Thank you
David Dickens
David T. Dickens
Director, Patent Business
Questel-Orbit
8000 Westpark Drive
McLean, VA 22102
Phone: 001-703-556-7446
Fax: 001-703-356-4023
Mobile: 001-703-967-9766
Email: ddickens@questel.orbit.com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Agnieszka Gorak-Marecik [SMTP:marecik@bg.agh.edu.pl]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2002 10:28 AM
> To: PIUG-L@derwent.co.uk
> Subject: Patents of Int. Meehanite Metal Co.
>
> Dear PIUG USERS,
>
> I'm looking for American patents of International Meehanite Metal
> Co., granted in the years 1960-1980. In USPTO database I can
> find three of them, but of course I can find only those which are
> granted after 1976. Using the name of asignee I can't find patents
> published in sixties and seventies. I would be very grateful for your
> help.
>
>
> Agnieszka Gorak-Marecik
>
> University of Mining and Metallurgy
> Main Library
> Department of Special Collecions
>
> Al. Mickiewicza 30
> 30-059 Cracow
> Poland
> tel.: +48 126173217
> e-mail: marecik@bg.agh.edu.pl
>
>
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