Considerations of providing patent and trademark assistance services at one's library

PurposeThe authors' goal in writing this article was to provide background information and detailed considerations to assist those wishing to provide patent and trademark assistance at their libraries. The major considerations include staffing, spaces and resources, with the time commitment from the staff being the most significant.Design/methodology/approachThis paper combined the experiences of an author relatively new to patent and trademark librarianship with one who has years of experience. These were used in tandem with knowledge gained from a decade of attendance at annual week-long seminars at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as well as by way of a comprehensive literature review.FindingsThe main commitment needed in providing patent and trademark services to the public is not money but the investment of time, which includes professional development, staffing, teaching classes and workshops, outreach and consultations.Originality/valueThe information in this paper should serve as guidance to anyone new to providing patent and trademark services within their libraries, including those at Patent and Trademark Resource Centers (PTRCs), Patent Information Centres (PATLIBs) and beyond. Although articles have been published on various aspects of intellectual property (IP) and libraries, a comprehensive guide to providing patent and trademark services has yet to be published.

Comparative Analysis of Appeal Procedures in the European, American and Brazilian Patent Offices

The right to appeal exists as a response to the two main characteristics of every human being. The first refers to the attitude of not settling for adverse decisions, which leads people to seek instruments to remediate these decisions, while the second is the possibility that every human being has to make mistakes and the need to correct these mistakes in decision-making acts that may have been mistaken. Therefore, an appeal is an instrument that enables review of a decision by a higher authority to obtain its modification or revocation. In the patent system, appeals are used basically to reverse decisions of patent examiners during the examination procedure as, for example, the decision to reject a patent. Although all patent offices have procedures for appeal against first-instance decisions taken by these offices, there are significant differences as to how this procedure is conducted in each office. This chapter will study the laws and regulations, rules and procedures on appeals in two of the main patent offices in the world – the European Patent Office – EPO and the United States Patent and Trademark Office – USPTO, and in the Brazilian Patent Office – INPI, pointing out the main differences between them.

Identification of Promising Smart Farm Technologies and Development of Technology Roadmap Using Patent Map Analysis

In this study, we suggest methodologies for identifying promising and vacant technologies on smart farms by analyzing patent information. Additionally, a technology roadmap for smart farms is suggested using network analysis. The database of patents related to smart farms was extracted from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) by keyword search, and valid patents data was selected and clustered using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) algorithm. We also conducted the technical importance analysis and trend analysis to identify promising technology topics. By developing a patent map based on a self-organizing map (SOM), we were able to identify vacant technologies among smart farm technology groups. In order to develop vacant technologies, we presented a stepwise technology roadmap by analyzing the relationship between technology elements using network analysis. The proposed procedure and analysis method provides useful insights in establishing research and development (R&D) strategies for the development of smart farm technology roadmaps.

Leveraging latent persistency in the United States patent and trademark applications to gain insight into the evolution of an innovation-driven economy

Objective: An understanding of when one or more external factors may influence the evolution of innovation tracking indices (such as US patent and trademark applications (PTA)) is an important aspect of examining economic progress/regress. Using exploratory statistics, the analysis uses a novel tool to leverage the long-range dependency (LRD) intrinsic to PTA to resolve when such factor(s) may have caused significant disruptions in the evolution of the indices, and thus give insight into substantive economic growth dynamics. Approach: This paper explores the use of the Chronological Hurst Exponent (CHE) to explore the LRD using overlapping time windows to quantify long-memory dynamics in the monthly PTA time-series spanning 1977 to 2016. Results/Discussion: The CHE is found to increase in a clear S-curve pattern, achieving persistence (H~1) from non-persistence (H~0.5). For patents, the inflection occurred over a span of 10 years (1980-1990), while it was much sharper (3 years) for trademarks (1977-1980). Conclusions/Originality/Value: This analysis suggests (in part) that the rapid augmentation in R&D expenditure and the introduction of the various patent directed policy acts (e.g., Bayh-Dole, Stevenson-Wydler) are the key impetuses behind persistency, latent in PTA. The post-1990’s exogenic factors seem to be simply maintaining the high degree and consistency of the persistency metric. These findings suggest investigators should consider latent persistency when using these data and the CHE may be an important tool to investigate the impact of substantive exogenous variables on growth dynamics.

Time to market for drugs approved in Canada between 2014 and 2018: an observational study

ObjectivesThis study examines the length of time between when a patent application is filed in Canada for a new drug and when it is available for patients (time to market) and various components of that time. It also looks at whether various factors explain the time between patent application to New Drug Submission (NDS) and compares Canadian and American times. Drugs approved between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2018 are examined.DesignDescriptive study.Data sourcesWebsites from Health Canada, Food and Drug Administration, Merck Index, United States Patent and Trademark Office, WHO and previously published articles.InterventionsNone.Primary and secondary outcomesThe primary outcomes are time to market, time from patent application to NDS (pre-NDS time), review time, time from approval to availability (postapproval time) and factors that may influence the pre-NDS time. The secondary outcome is a comparison of Canadian and American review times and times between patent application and approval.ResultsThere were 113 drugs available for analysis. The median time to market was 11.80 years (IQR 9.40–14.05). The component median times were pre-NDS 10 years (IQR 8.05–12.80), review time 0.96 years (IQR 0.75–1.15) and postapproval time 0.15 years (IQR 0.08–0.28). Less than 8% of the pre-NDS time was explained by the factors that were analysed in a multiple linear regression equation. There was no statistically significant difference between Canadian and American pre-NDS times.ConclusionOnce a drug reaches the market, companies have a median of 8.2 years before the patent expires and generics can reach the market. Most of the time between the filing of a patent application and when a drug is marketed is determined by decisions that are largely under the control of the company.

Robert Davol Budlong: el diseño industrial de radios y accesorios para el nuevo hogar

La aparición de nuevos materiales y procesos técnicos trajo consigo la evolución del diseñoindustrial, una de las disciplinas más decisivas en la evolución de la humanidad hacia el conocido comoestado del bienestar, dando sus primeros pasos en la década de los 30. La sustitución de materialesnaturales por otros sintéticos hizo que, por primera vez, se pudiera realizar todo aquello que se pensaba,dando origen al paraíso de los objetos que la alquimia contemporánea del plástico y la introducción denuevas técnicas permitían en su fabricación.El desarrollo del consumo en masa que propiciaron los objetos de plástico hacía necesaria la figura deldiseñador. Su papel se irá imponiendo incluso a la figura del artista, llegando a influir directamente nosólo en los procesos de fabricación sino también en su estructura y por supuesto en el aspecto final delobjeto.Este artículo, fundamentado en la obra de Robert Davol Budlong, uno de los grandes diseñadoresnorteamericanos, está basado, principalmente, en el estudio de los formularios de aplicación parapatentes en la United States Patent and Trademarks Office accesible on-line (USPTO. 2019). Deesta forma documentamos la autoría de numerosos objetos que dieron los primeros pasos hacia lacontemporaneidad.

Inventions and Innovations Related to Better Results in Intestinal Anastomosis: a Patent Review

Objective: To evaluate new techniques and improvements in surgical instruments related to intestinal anastomosis procedures. Methods: A search was conducted on the free database of patents from the National Institute of Industrial Patent Office (INPI) and The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Were analyzed all occurrences between 2012 and 2016 related to experimental surgery and intestinal anastomosis. The requests for patents were examined individually and the data collected was the nationality of the applicant, if was physical (PP) or legal (LP) person and if was innovation or invention. At the end, a comparative analysis between the two institutions was performed. Results: In INPI was found only 5 occurrences. All of them were deposited by legal entity and were inventions. In addition, only one was a national request. In USPTO database, 65 occurrences met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 48 were national applications and only 5 were filed by physical person. Conclusion: More requests were found in US database, predominating national trustee and greater solicitation to inventions than Brazilian database. The main applications for patents are invention of surgical instruments, the development of new biological glues and improvement of mechanical sutures. Keywords: patents, gastroenterology, surgical anastomosis.

Potencial das palmeiras nativas da Amazônia Brasileira para a bioeconomia: análise em rede da produção científica e tecnológica

Os recursos naturais provindos das palmeiras Euterpe oleracea, Astrocaryum aculeatum, Mauritia flexuosa, Bactris gasipaes, Oenocarpus bacaba e Attalea maripa potencialmente favorecem o aproveitamento da biodiversidade e são economicamente viáveis ao mercado nacional, em virtude do aproveitamento integral de seus produtos e subprodutos. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi realizar uma prospecção baseada na busca de patentes e produção científica de modo a identificar as potencialidades para a bioeconomia das palmeiras nativas da região amazônica brasileira. Para isso, foi realizado uma pesquisa documental exploratória de abordagem quantitativa, analisando os documentos de patentes depositados aos bancos de dados do Instituto Nacional de Propriedade Industrial do Brasil, Banco de Patentes Latino-americanas, United States Patent and Trademark Office, European Patent Office e World Intellectual Property Organization. Para a prospecção científica, foram utilizados artigos publicados nas plataformas de pesquisas da Elsevier, as quais incluíram Scopus e Science Direct, como também as bases de dados da Springer Link, SciELO e o Periódico da Capes. Os resultados da prospecção foram compilados em redes de dados e gráficos. Do ponto de vista científico, as espécies Euterpe oleracea e Mauritia flexuosa se destacam por serem fonte de recursos biológicos com potencial bioeconômico, e apresentam um extenso número de publicações, no que se refere as atividades químicas dos frutos. O United States Patent and Trademark Office apresenta o maior número de depósitos de patentes para a espécie Euterpe oleracea. Nesta constata-se que o Brasil lidera como principal país depositante, devido à alta riqueza dessas espécies. Dentre os depósitos de patentes pesquisados, foram classificados principalmente pelo código A61K, o qual é relacionado à obtenção de comprimidos contendo extrato etanólico (padronizado) dos frutos de Euterpe oleracea e sua aplicação como antioxidante. Diante da presente análise, este estudo possibilitou apresentar uma visão geral das potencialidades tecnológicas e científicas das espécies de palmeiras. O estudo revela de forma significativa o potencial das palmeiras para atender as necessidades humanas na área de alimentação e saúde, e estas podem ser exploradas de uma forma ainda mais significativa pela indústria, com perspectiva para geração de novas tecnologias.

The Evolution and Spatial Dimensions of Invention in Canada, 1991 - 2011

The rapid development of information technology and medical research in the 21st century is a result of the increasing number of inventions. Inventive activity is thought to be an important catalyst for economic change and increased productivity. In order to measure a location’s inventive potential, different aspects such as geographic location, corporate assistance, and socio-economic factors can be studied. This study examines the spatial distribution and typology of Canadian inventions for the years 1991, 2001, 2006, and 2011, using patent data issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The research results suggest that inventive activity is declining in major metropolitan areas such as Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. On the other hand, medium-sized metropolitan areas like Ottawa, Calgary, Kitchener-Waterloo, and Saskatoon are experiencing increasing inventiveness. These areas have specialized economies based on high technology and petroleum. The regression analysis shows that regional innovation can be explained by census variables in groups of dwelling type, education level, and industry sector. The analysis also shows Canada has shifted from a manufacturing economy to a high technology and services-based economy.

The Evolution and Spatial Dimensions of Invention in Canada, 1991 - 2011

The rapid development of information technology and medical research in the 21st century is a result of the increasing number of inventions. Inventive activity is thought to be an important catalyst for economic change and increased productivity. In order to measure a location’s inventive potential, different aspects such as geographic location, corporate assistance, and socio-economic factors can be studied. This study examines the spatial distribution and typology of Canadian inventions for the years 1991, 2001, 2006, and 2011, using patent data issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The research results suggest that inventive activity is declining in major metropolitan areas such as Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. On the other hand, medium-sized metropolitan areas like Ottawa, Calgary, Kitchener-Waterloo, and Saskatoon are experiencing increasing inventiveness. These areas have specialized economies based on high technology and petroleum. The regression analysis shows that regional innovation can be explained by census variables in groups of dwelling type, education level, and industry sector. The analysis also shows Canada has shifted from a manufacturing economy to a high technology and services-based economy.