Patents as a Source of Information

It is not always as easy to follow industrial development as to follow purely scientific progress in any field. Information on such developments, when it becomes of real significance, has a tendency to go underground. In many cases, the first information available on important findings is in the 

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Collecting these symposium papers in this volume offered an opportunity to include also a paper by Sidney G. Berry entitled Chemical Patents, Their Meaning and Interpretation, as presented before the Columbia University School of Library Science Institute on Patents as a Source of Information in June 1960. 

French patents as a source of information for chemical literature research have undoubtedly been the source of many a headache, if one can judge from the exasperated comments of Worischek 57) and Fleischer 27) nor can any encouragement be offered at this time. French patents list no claims, but provide resumes which summarize their contents. Their only function is to establish a priority date for use in French courts in case of litigation. There is no formal examining procedure, and duplication of patents is not uncommon. Pharmaceutical compositions or medicines cannot be patented under French law, but the processes for manufacturing them are patentable. French patents do not extend to French Morocco, Tunis, Syria, or Lebanon which have separate patent systems. They do, however, extend to the other French colonies. 

Little can be said about Japanese patents as a source of information for the chemist searching the literature however, Japanese patents are being abstracted by Chemical Abstracts. Information about them may also be had from Tokyo Koho, the official patent report appearing irregularly in Japanese, published by Hatsumei Kyokai, The Patent Office, Tokyo (3). 

HMSO (1971) About Patents —patents as a source of technical information. 

A variety of sources were used to identify the patent associated with particular commercial products and to serve as a source of process information. These include the following ... 

In addition, a variety of sources were used to identify the patents associated with particular commercial products and to serve as a source of process information. These include the encyclopedic German work Pharmazeutische Wirkstoffe (4th edition), edited by A. Kleeman and J. Engel,6 and the 6-volume reference series on the Organic Chemistry of Drug Synthesis by Daniel Lednicer8 and references [10] through [14] below. 

Very few standard forms of sublimation or de-sublimation equipment are in common use and most industrial units, particularly on the condensation side of the process, have been developed on an ad hoc basis for a specific substance and purpose. The most useful source of information on sublimation equipment is the patent literature, although as Holden and Bryant(95) and Kemp et al. 96> point out, it is not clear whether a process has been, or even can be, put into practice. 

These databases are a rich source of information, yet they do not capture an element of interest, namely the biological endpoint there is no searchable field to identify, in a quantitative manner, what is the target-related activity of a particular compound. Such information is important if one considers that (a) not all chemotypes indexed in patent databases are indeed active - some are just patent claims with no factual basis and that (b) not aU chemotypes disclosed as active are equally active, or selective for that matter, on the target of choice. Furthermore, should one decide to pursue a certain interaction hotspot in a given ligand-receptor structure (assuming good structure-activity models are available), it would be very convenient to mine structure-activity databases for similar chemotypes to use as potential bioisosteric replacements. 

We are also witnessing a considerable increase in new specialized literature. The most important of these is the standard work Twin Screw Extrusion by J. L. White [44]. It is a rich source of information, both about the historical development and the state-of-the-art technology, as well as about patent literature and specialized publications. A few examples [45,46] from the wide-ranging specialized literature on the subject of co-rotating extruders should be mentioned here. 

The formulations of ultraviolet light-cured inks are proprietary, and at present, the best source of information as to their composition is the rapidly-growing patent literature. However, it is risky to infer the composition of inks used in tiie field from those described in the patent literature because only a small proportion of patented compositions ever become commercial products, and the compositions used in the field imy be the subject of patent applications not yet granted, or may be held as technical secrets without applying for patents. Nevertheless, the patent... 

Selection of Sources. When these abstracts have been assembled and the references have been listed in the notebook, the next step is the selection of the sources to be checked. These are chosen from four main groups, as follows (1) the major abstract journals, (2) classified patents, (3) a thorough catalog of books and pamphlets, and (4) a rather extensive list which the library has compiled of special sources of information, each bearing a brief note as to the field covered, especially of types of information not readily apparent. A few of the many sources listed, with a comment on the usefulness of each, follow ... 

In addition to these thorough, noncritical surveys, the libraries of The Texas Co. are frequently requested to make brief searches of the literature and/or patents on various subjects. For those critical surveys, the problem is discussed with the inquirer to define its scope as clearly and within as narrow bounds as possible. These searches for information may require from a few hours to several weeks and are frequently limited to checking the more obvious sources of information. They might require, for example, the earliest references on oil-base drilling muds, the effective ranges of various adsorbents, the chemical reactions of a new reagent, the carcinogenic action of hydrocarbons, or all company patents on a special subjects such as boron trifluoride. The report for this type of sur-... 

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