Online IP Database Summarization

【英文关键词】Legal Research， IP Database

　　【正文】

　　This article is the continuation of the “Online Legal Database Summarization” we posted previously， which aims at briefly introducing IP databases we are using or we are acquainted with and concisely comparing the following databases from a foreign-related IP pragmatic perspective. In terms of search skills of a specific database， we will discourse through respective articles. At the same time， we hope professions will be attracted to participate in discussion and complementation.

　　Part One Legal IP Databases

　　Ⅰ Official IP Legal Database

　　1. Collection of Laws for Electronic Access （CLEA）： //www.wipo.int/clea

　　“CLEA” is the legal IP database of World Intellectual Property Organization （“WIPO” for short）， which provides Bibliographic Search and Full-Text Search. Its features are as follows：

　　（a） covering IP laws and relevant international treaties of a large number of countries and regions；

　　（b） providing multi-lingual legal texts including English， French， Spanish， etc. except Chinese legal texts；

　　（c） free access to checking and downloading HTML and PDF documents.

　　2. Intellectual Property Protection in China： //laws.ipr.gov.cn/laws/index.shtml

　　“Intellectual Property Protection in China” is the legal IP database sponsored by the National Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights Protection and the Ministry of Commerce. It currently supports bilingual interface of both Chinese and English and the features are as follows：

　　（a） providing legal search concerning laws， regulations and international treaties， relevant policy interpretation， legal frontier and etc.；

　　（b） providing English legal texts of laws， regulations and international treaties；

　　（c） monotonous search methods and simple contents of selected cases.

　　3. China IPR Judgments & Decisions： //ipr.chinacourt.org

　　“China IPR Judgments & Decisions” is the judgment document database hosted collectively by IPR Division of Supreme People''s Court and PRC & China Court. org. Its features are as follows：

　　（a） available and easy to search by regions；

　　（b） convenient to do topic search for its clear classification of the cases；

　　（c） providing full-text data for free including ruling， bill of mediation， judgment， etc.

　　Ⅱ Commercial IP Legal Database

　　There''s no product of commercial IP legal database unanimously recognized by the insiders in the current market. Four legal database suppliers mentioned in the “Online Legal Database Summarization” provide search services to users， within the comprehensive legal database， by means of IP topics or classifications. We notice that lexiscn.com introduced the “IP Practice” Professional this year on basis of “lexiscn.com Comprehensive”。 From the perspective of its product introduction， it develops in the direction of combined application of data derived from both mechanized search and professional generalization.

　　Part Two Patent Database

　　Ⅰ Official Patent Database

　　1. SIPO： //www.sipo.gov.cn/sipo2008/zljs/

　　“SIPO” is the online patent database sponsored by our State Intellectual Property Office. Its features are as follows：

　　（a） providing simple search and IPC Classification Search， while the search method is a little monotonous；

　　（b） not abundant in English data；

　　（c） providing online machine translation “CPMT （China Patent Machine Translation）” of partial file contents （for example， Claims）。

　　2. China Patent Information Center： //www.cnpat.com.cn

　　“China Patent Information Center” is a institution directly subordinate to the State Intellectual Property Office， which provides patent database search. Its features are as follows：

　　（a） providing table search and advanced search， and supporting combined application of search formulas in the advanced search mode；

　　（b） a large size of database；

　　（c） not abundant in English data， and online machine translation provided to partial file contents （for example， Claims）。

　　3. PATFT： //patft.uspto.gov

　　“PATFT （Patent Full-Text and Full-Page Image Databases）” is the online patent database hosted by USPTO （United States Patent and Trademark Office）， which provides searches of patent granted by U.S. and the published patent applications which have not been granted yet. Its features are as follows：

　　（a） comprehensive contents， rapid update and providing full-text of the patent specifications since 1790 in image format and also full-page HTML files of patent specifications for patents which can be dated back to 1976；

　　（b） providing different search methods including quick search， advanced search， patent number search and etc.

　　4. esp@cenet： //ep.espacenet.com

　　“esp@cenet” is the online patent database of EPO （European Patent Office）。 Its features are as follows：

　　（a） providing several search methods including quick search， advanced search， search by patent number and classification search；

　　（b） providing 3 database platforms including EP， Worldwide and WIPO；

　　（c） supporting multi-lingual files and machine translation of French， German， Italian and Spanish in addition to English；

　　（d） available to check and download relevant patent files published in other countries in terms of patent which has been made a international application；

　　（e） providing patent family and relevant citation analysis of the target patent.

　　5. IPDL： //www.ipdl.inpit.go.jp/homepg_e.ipdl

　　“IPDL （Industrial Property Digital Library）” is the online patent database of Japan Patent Office. Its features are as follows：

　　（a） providing several search methods including Kind Code Search， Term Search， Text Search， etc.；

　　（b） the limitation of 1000 pieces of search results when searching with key words， otherwise， it is unable to show all the results separately；

　　（c） providing machine translation in English.

　　Ⅱ Commercial Patent Database

　　1. Delphion： //www.delphion.com

　　“Delphion” is the patent information service system supplied by Thomson Scientific based on Internet， which is the predecessor of the IBM Intellectual Property Network. Its features are as follows：

　　（a） a large size of patent data including 40，000，000 pieces patent files covering patent information of countries， international organizations and regions like the United States， Europe， Germany， Japan， WIPO and etc.； providing the most comprehensive patent database DWPI （Derwent World Patents Index） services all over the world；

　　（b） providing several search methods including key word search， number search， Boolean search， advanced search， etc.， providing search function of Citing and Cited and providing services of keeping history search records which may effectively reduce the repeated working time；

　　（c） excellent information analysis and integration function， for example， functions such as Corporate Tree， Citation Link， Clustering Analysis， PatentLab-II， Snapshot Statistics， etc.；

　　（d） Alert function which may track the search results.

　　The pricing mechanism of Delphion is quite flexible. Partial data can be searched after registration for free. It also accepts monthly or yearly payment， and on this basis， it may further charge by searches or documents downloaded， which is the main commercial patent database we currently use.

　　2. TotalPatent： //www.lexisnexis.com/totalpatent

　　“TotalPatent” is one of the products of LexisNexis which is a database specializing in patent search. Its features are as follows：

　　（a） a large quantity of patent data covering patent materials of 96 countries and patent institutions and providing the longest backdating time of their patent materials； rapidly and timely updates；

　　（b） providing several search methods including number search， grouping and alignment search， distributed search order and variety of search method；

　　（c） powerful functions of customization and storage ， which supports online work folder and may analyse data inside the folder；

　　（d） providing Alert function.

　　We have ever tried this product and are interested in the “LexisNexis PatentOptimizer”。 However its pricing mechanism is not so flexible. We temporarily don''t take it as our daily database for first choice.

　　Part Three Trademark Database

　　Ⅰ Official Trademark Database

　　1. China Trademark Office： //sbj.saic.gov.cn

　　“China Trademark Office （CTMO）” is the online trademark database hosted by the Trademark Office of State Administration for Industry and Commerce. Its features are as follows：

　　（a） providing approximate search， comprehensive search， status search， etc. of trademark；

　　（b） providing free searches of a large amount of trademark registration information.

　　2. TESS： //tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe？f=tess&state=4001：tmo12n.1.1

　　“TESS （Trademark Electronic Search System）” is the online trademark database of USPTO （United States Patent and Trademark Office）。

　　3. OHIM： //oami.europa.eu/ows/rw/pages/index.en.do

　　“OHIM” is the online trademark database of European Trademark Office， which includes two databases of CTM （Community trade mark） and RCD （registered Community design） covering 27 European countries.

　　4. IPDL： //www.ipdl.inpit.go.jp/homepg_e.ipdl

　　“IPDL” is the online trademark and design database of Japan Patent Office.

　　Ⅱ Commercial Trademark Database

　　1. Thomson CompuMark： //saegis.compumark.thomson.com

　　“Thomson CompuMark” is the database provided by Compu-Mark subordinate to Thomson Group providing value-added services of online trademark information and trademark registration information search. Its features are as follows：

　　（a） a great amount of trademark data covering over 200 countries；

　　（b） providing several search methods including literal symbol search， pattern symbol search， ISS， etc.；

　　（c） powerful trademark investigation and monitor function including SAEGIS trademark and investigation tool of domain name， etc.

　　In one word， official and commercial IP databases share unique features. The advantages of the former are charge-free and authority of data； all kinds of value-added and personalized functions of the latter one are quite powerful and it owns a large quantity of data updated rapidly.

　　Taking patent search for example， our application solution generally is that we search with Delphion first （it has obvious advantages in field of multinational search， search efficiency， reprocessing of searched data）， and check the results with the official database. Regarding comparatively important commitments， reports issued by professional search institution are needed. In short， for the patent data always develops dynamically， we cannot exhaust all search results and no professional institution can guarantee that its search conclusion is absolutely complete and correct. Only devotion to work and expertise may be recognized by clients.

　　Note： the comments above are only personal understandings and feelings， which are only for your references. Due to lacking time of systematical assessment of the database products mentioned above， we do not ensure the accuracy and integration of such information. The information and opinions of this article do not indicate any support or prejudice to some database product.

　　【注释】This article was originally written in Chinese：//www.giprs.org/ch/node/440（上海市润和律师事务所·仲奕 刘佳殷）