Abstracts Filing

There is growing commercial importance and escalating scientific interest in PVDF. The World Patent database, including the United States, Hsts 678 patents that cite the term poly(vinyHdene fluoride) for the period 1963—1980 and 2052 patents for the period 1981—1992 Chemical Abstracts files covering the years 1967—1992 contain 5282 references for the same term. Thirty years ago there was only one commercial producer of PVDF in the world now there are two in the United States, two in Japan, and three in Europe. 

The names STDIN and STDOUT are derived from standard input and standard output, an idea popularized by the UNIX operating system. Standard input and standard output are abstract files from which a script can accept input and send output, respectively. When a script is first launched, standard input corresponds to the keyboard and standard output corresponds to the computer screen. On Windows and UNIX systems, standard output appears in the command interpreter window. On Macs, the output appears in a small scrolling window that MacPerl creates specifically for this pmpose. When a Perl script is laimched, the user has the option of changing where standard input and output come from and go to. The user can also arrange for the standard output of one script to be sent to the standard input of another script in assembly-line fashion. This is actually a very powerful facility, but one that is beyond the scope of this chapter. 

The Du Pont proprietary technical information system was state-of-the-art when it was developed 20 years ago. It is still operating in batch mode but has become increasingly difficult to support. In response to demand from the technical community for online access to the information, the abstract file was duplicated and converted to an interactive, free-text searchable database as an interim measure. 

The arrow refers to an abstract which is shown in Sect. 7.3 Fig. 118 illustrates the abstract of the printed Chemical Abstracts, Fig. 117 shows the relevant information from the Chemical Abstracts File. 

Beilstein is a factual file, unlike Chemical Abstracts. There is only one entry for every compound, containing a multitude of sources. Every record is divided into many fields, which are individually searchable. In the Chemical Abstracts file, every single record reflects one single citation. This difference is the reason for the very different pricing structure in the Beilstein file. There is not only a fee for connect time and search terms (Sect. 6.2) but also for field display. Thus a warning is given from the start, to rethink before entering the display command ALL. It may cost more than one hundred US (Sect. 7.10.4). The recorded facts are ... 

The results of both searches (polymer and monomer CAS Registry Numbers) would be combined to generate a more complete listing of the literature. The following answers (Fig. 3) are found by searching the abstracts file for CA (399 on Dialog) with the monomer and polymer Registry Numbers. 

Typical bibliographic databases are the CA File of Chemical Abstracts Service CAS) or Medline of the US National Library of Medicine. Most electronic journals provide articles as full-text files, e.g., the Journal of the American Chemical Society ( ACS). 

The Chemical Abstracts (CA) File is the main abstracting and indexing service for biochemistry, chemistry, and chemical engineering. 

CAS/STlS[Interna.tiona.1. CAS/STN offers stmcture searchable files such as Registry, Beilstein, MARPAT, CASREACT, and Gmelin a variety of learning files, eg, LRegistry, LBeHstein, LMARPAT, and LCASREACT and software products such as STN Express for on-line stmcture and substmcture searching. Chemical Abstracts Service, a division of the American Chemical Society, has pubHshed Chemical Abstracts since 1907 and joindy operates STN International with EIZ Kadsmhe and the Japan Information Center of Science and Technology. 

JAPIO. This database is produced by the Japan Patent Information Organization and is based on the Patent Abstracts of Japan provided by the Japanese Patent Office. The database is updated monthly and contains all Kokai Tokyo Kobo (pubUshed unexamined patent appHcations) pubUshed as of October 1976. Records appear ia JAPIO approximately six months after pubhcation of the unexamined patent appHcation. English language abstracts are provided for the majority of appHcations filed by Japanese appHcants. AppHcations by non-Japanese appHcations do not have abstracts, but bibliographic information is iacluded. Searchable fields iaclude the International Patent Office Classification and JAPIO classification (96). 

MARPAT, produced by Chemical Abstracts Service, coataias the geaeric stmcture records for pateat pubHcatioas siace 1988, which are iacluded ia the CA file. Sources iaclude pateats from 26 couatries plus EPO and PCT pubHcations. BibHographic records for retrieved references can be direcdy accessed ia this database (101). 

OG/PLUS USPTO Research PubHcations CD-ROM versioa of the USPTO Official Gazette covers 1990—preseat iacludes searchable subfiles PATENTS ISSUED, images of O.G. pages searchable by bibHographic fields and first page abstract PATENT STATUS Ede, track-iag post-issuance actions, eg, reexaminations, corrections and LITALERT, containing records of patent suits filed by U.S. District Courts with the USPTO updated monthly six disks/year... 

Personal communication. Chemical Abstracts Structure Tile and Dictiona File Printoutfor Nickel Compounds, Washiagton, D.C., Oct. 6, 1993. 

CA File, CAPlus, CA Previews STN Chemical Abstracts Service international, chemistry limited bibhographic data comprehensive English language abstracts deep indexing of chemical concepts stmcture-searchable compound registry chemical stmcture drawings... 

Searching of one or more on-line databases is a technique increasingly used ia novelty studies. The use of such databases enables the searcher to combine indexing parameters, including national and international classifications natural language words ia the full text of patents, ia their claims, or ia abstracts suppHed by iaventor and by professional documentation services and indexing systems of various sorts. Because the various patent databases have strengths and weaknesses that complement each other, the use of multiple databases is thus pmdent, and is faciUtated by multifile and cross-file techniques provided by the various on-line hosts. 

Most new patent cases of interest are pubHshed by at least one of the U.S., European, or Japanese patent offices, and WIPO (PCT). Japan presents problems for those not able to read Japanese, but the U.S. Official Ga tte (with representative claims) and PCT Ga tte (with English-language abstracts) can be in one s hands within a week of patent pubHcation. Similar timing is available for the European Patent Office bulletin which contains trilingual tides and the on-line EPAT file and various CD-ROM products. A highly effective alerting program can be developed from a combination of these methods. 

With the advent of on-line searching in the 1970s, the Derwent file was one of the first to go on-line. It had subject retrieval capabiUty by the manual and punch code systems, tide terms, IPC, and broad subject groupings called Derwent classes, whose primary function had been to allocate patents to appropriate segments of the Derwent system. By 1981, abstracts were added to the database, after which abstracts for the entire back-file were added. 

EDOG. EDOC, available on just the Questel system, provides in most instances less complete patent family information than either WPI or INPADOC, but it is unique in including Japanese C-level documents and also some AustraUan data not available in the other two databases. It is possible on occasion to find family information from before 1970 in this database, though such data are not provided systematically. The abiUty to search by the EPO-modified version of IPC is unique. Its value is tempered by the fact that output does not even include tides, much less abstracts of patents. That output can, however, be transferred by cross-file search protocols to more detailed files, such as WPI. 

The Chinese patent file with its abstracts can be used to supplement WPI, which at this writing has only tides for Chinese patents. JAPIO provides abstracts based ia particular oa pateat claims, and can help to clarify uncertainties with Japanese abstracts from Derwent and/or CA. PATOLIS, ia Japanese, is a unique source of Japanese legal status information (37). EPIDOS staff carry out PATOLIS searches on request for those with sufficient need to search the PATOLIS database, software is available to enable those who cannot read Japanese to extract key data. 

Other Databases with Patent Information. The APIPAT database has been discussed, as have the unique capabihties of the merged WPI—APIPAT file on ORBIT. Many other databases contain substantial amounts of patent information, notable among them are Derwent s biotechnology Abstracts the TULSA database (petroleum exploration and production), several specialized pharmaceutical files, PAPERCHEM, and METADEX. A very complete listing of databases containing patent information circa 1990 has been prepared (38). 

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