Patent Information Derwent Database

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). 

ITPAIS, the Image Technology Patent Information System was developed between 1975—1985 by Eastman Kodak Co., Agfa-Gevaert (Antwerp/Leverkusen), and Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd., and encompasses selected patents and Hterature references related principally to the chemical aspects of image technology. Search terms used for this table were the same as in the previous edition, and the Derwent patent database was used for the search data presented here. 

Derwent Information. A division of Thomson Scientific, Inc., Derwent is the leading supplier of value-added patent information. The Derwent databases, which are maintained online, include the following ... 

The World Patent Index of Derwent Information Ltd. is a broad collection of international value-added patent documents from 40 patent-issuing authorities. The bibliographic database contains 11.6 million patent records with 5.5 million images (October, 2002) and grows by 1.5 million patent documents each year. The classified and indexed documents (since 1963) are sometimes provided wdth additional abstracts or significant titles. 

U.S. Patents. This file, produced by Derwent, Inc., covers U.S. patents from 1971 to the present. The database iacludes all bibliographic and front page information and the text of all claims. (Prom 1971 to 1974 the claims from many patents were not available from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) source tapes, and therefore are not iacluded.) The complete cl aim text can be searched from 1971 but can be ptinted only from 1982. Tides and patentee names are present ia their original form, aeither expanded nor standardized. There is no enhanced iadexiag. Examiner citations are directly searchable, and USPTO classification is updated when the tapes are received from the Patent Office. 

Derwent Information Ltd. Derwent Information Ltd., previously known as Derwent PubHcations Ltd., changed its name in the 1990s to reflect more accurately the fact that its products go far beyond traditional pubHcations. Derwent provides a wide spectmm of information products and services, many of them relating to patents. Derwent also produces important databases (qv) of nonpatent information from the pharmaceutical and agncultural chemical Hterature. These products and services encompass alerting tools for current awareness, systems for retrospective search and retneval, and means for document deHvery and archiving. 

Besides the worldwide WPI database, Derwent provides on the ORBIT system the USPatents database, a bibhographic file of patent front page and cl aim information for U.S. patents since 1971. Derwent also produces a biotechnology database, GENESEQ, that indexes sequence stmetures of proteins or nucleic acids disclosed specifically or genetically in patents. This database is searchable with special sequence software on the InteUiGenetics system, and is a new addition to STN s database catalog. 

EPIDOS issues printed and microfiche compilations of its data in addition, its database can be searched on its own computer or on several on-line host systems. In general, EPIDOS provides the most complete patent family information of any service, although Derwent tends to include more information on inteUectual (nonconvention) famUies, whereas the Erench Patent Office s EDOC file on the Questel system includes information on... 

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. 

Derwent Direct, 18 226 Derwent Information Ltd., 18 211, 216—227 Derwent patent database, 18 222-223 Derwent s FARMDOC-AGDOC-... 

WPIM (World Patents Index Markush), produced by Derwent Publications, Ltd., contains the specific and generic structure records for compounds in the patents included in Derwent Sections B (Farmdoc), C (Agdoc), and E (Chemdoc) since 1987. Sources include patents from 29 industrialized countries as well as European and PCT patents and also items from Research Disclosure and International Technology Disclosures. The compound numbers of relevant references found in WPIM can be searched in Derwent s WPI database to retrieve the corresponding bibliographic information. 

There are various other sites providing general information on patents, such as that from the USPTO about patents and patenting procedures (http //www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ pac/doc/general/). Various other useful bits of information about patent terms and procedures in other countries are available from Derwent (http //www.derwent.com/). A comparison table of web patent databases from Duke University is presented by the university hbrary to help users compare the various resources available and assess which is best for each individual s needs (http //www.hb.duke.edu/chem/pat-comp.htm and at http //www.hb.duke.edu/reference/subjects/ patents.htm). 

GeneSeq . Thomson Derwent s biosequence database, provides information on nucleic and amino acid sequences found in the patent literature. It has biosequence indexing for the patents included in the DWPI database beginning with the very first patents to carry protein and nucleotide sequence descriptions. GeneSeq structure searches retrieve records with the sequence, a short abstract directed to that sequence. 

Whatever the search software offered, however, the database was of utmost importance. The DARC system not only offered a means to search generic structures in the short term, it also offered a way to record all of the information about structures found in patents, through a new and flexible input system. This capability was of incredible import to Derwent we could build a database that would not only serve the users today, but in future could be of more utility as search software was further developed. As opposed to the fragmentation code, there should never be a question of time-ranging. Moreover, though we assume that Markush DARC is a system not only of today but of tomorrow, we are building a database that can be converted and adapted to other search systems that may be offered by other organisations. 

These databases are generally obtainable from the various patent offices, or from specific suppliers such as the Derwent WPI or CAS MARPAT on STN. Other databases also contain information derived from patents (e.g., Beilstein is particularly good for patents before 1960), but the term patent database is used here to indicate the collection of data with the prime aim of providing a comprehensive service with respect to patent novelty, rather than a database of factual data in the sense of this article (although patent databases may well contain such information). 

Markush DARC (MDARC) is commercially available on the Questel online system, and contains two databases World Patents Index Markush (WPIM), produced by Derwent Information, Ltd. and Markush Pharmsearch (MPHARM), produced by Institut National de la Ptopriete Industrielle (INPI, the French patent office). The initial development of MDARC was a collaboration between Questel and INPI. This development was later Joined by Derwent with commercial implementation in 1987. 

Secondly, chemical IR may be thought of as a specialized index into the scientific and patent literature, with the chemical structure representing an extremely condensed abstract of the journal article or patent document. In this sense, the structures are not stored for their intrinsic interest, but as pointers to other documents, some of which, for example, may be related to their synthesis, physicochemical properties and numeric data, or applications. This is the sense in which a few data vendors supply chemical and reaction databases (Derwent and Institute for Scientific Information), and the alternate sense in which the CAS databases may be used. The use of CIR systems in synthesis design - providing access, for example, to databases of reagents or starting materials, or of name reactions - provides a crucial tool for the contemporary chemical and pharmaceutical industry. 

Derwent not only contains the basic patent, like Chemical Abstracts do, but in addition patent families from the countries covered by Derwent (Fig. 131). Chemical Abstracts Service also contains patent families with the limitation that they are only accessable in the printed version (Sect. 2.1.3.6) but not in the database. Other databases offering information concerning patent families are INPADOC and EDOC (Questel). 

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