Electronic storage and search of technical information
15.7.
Developments in electronic storage of information in the last decade have gone a long way toward solving the problems associated with the other media. The information contained in a patent can be stored in electronic form on various types of media. It can also be recorded either in such a way that it can be searched by computer, or in such a way that electronic search is not possible. This is an important distinction.
15.8.
With the former method of storage, the information is entered in such a way that it can be recognized as such by a computer. For example, the bibliographic details of a patent can be entered into a computer in such a way that database management software can be used to search for particular details. The types of information can be searched separately, and there can be "fields" in the database for the inventor's name, the IPC classification, the priority date and so forth. Additionally, the abstract of the patent can be entered into the computer, allowing a searcher to search there for "key words". It can be seen that this type of storage allows for very sophisticated search and is convenient to use.
15.9.
The other way of storing information electronically is in fascimile form. This works similarly to a fascimile machine; the product is essentially an electronic drawing of the information. Information in fascimile form cannot be searched in the way outlined above, but it can be observed on screen, and can be printed out to provide a good quality representation of the page.
15.10.
The advantages of these technologies in patent information are obvious. Electronic media allow the compression of vast amounts of information, for example, onto tapes, Compact Disc-Read Only Memory (CDROM) discs or computer hard discs and floppy discs. Searching that information can be efficient and fast. Dissemination (via modern telecommunication systems) can be faster and cheaper than disseminating the information in paper form.
15.11.
Where patents are lodged, stored, searched and disseminated in paper form there is no need to convert the information into another form. With microfilm and microfiche technology, it became necessary to photograph the pages, but this was fairly straight-forward. However, with the new technologies, it is now necessary to convert the information into electronic form. The technology to facilitate this has improved recently and it is possible to convert the information into electronic form automatically through the use of optical character recognition technologies (which allow electronic capture of information in the first manner described above) and the use of scanner technologies (which allow electronic capture in the second manner described above).
15.12.
These technologies have been adopted vigorously by the leading patent offices. For example, the US, Japanese and European Patent Offices are co-operating to record past documents electronically. This is associated with the BACON project (BACKfile CONversion) under which patent documents from 1920 are being captured. This corresponds to the PCT minimum documentation and comprises patents from that date from the USA, France, the UK, (Western) Germany, Switzerland, Japan and WIPO. The results of this capture are added to the databases used by the patent offices for search and examination, for example within EPOQUE (EPO QUEry Service) used by the EPO.
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