Earlier this week a puzzled IPKat wrote about a mystery website offering delivery of patent documents from Esp@cenet. Dutch patent practitioner Bas-Jan 't Jong, the originator of this website, iFdIP, has now written to clarify the position: "Besides my passion for patents, I always have had a passion for programming. Five years ago I developed an application to get patents from http://ep.espacenet.com/. At that time, internet connections were slow, and you needed to print out each page separately.The IPKat is grateful to Bas-Jan for his clarification. If anyone wants more information - or can offer Bas-Jan some help - they should email him here.
Esp@cenet recently introduced a programming interface which made it possible to access data at a more reliable way than my first program, and it triggered again my passion for programming. That is how the iFdIP site was born. I know that you can get the same full documents from Esp@cenet, but I think that the iFdIP site has some small benefit when starting from a publication number, which a patent attorney regularly does. Also, it is no longer necessary to enter the unique code, which is necessary on Esp@cenet.
The possibility of getting full documents is just the start for the iFdIP site. I am currently working on a single search interface from which you can get data of all available patent registers. The data is not based on INPADOC (which is not always accurate or complete), but on the true data provided by the national patent offices. Also, I have some thoughts on providing a graphical overview of patent families. But, as I only can work on the iFdIP site at night and during the weekends, progress is somewhat slow".
The IPKat has learned with pleasure and excitement that the Government of the Dominican Republic is acceding to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (as amended and modified). The PCT enters into force there on 28 May 2007.Left: K-Bear visits the Dominican Republic. Can you spot him?
Current members of the Patent Cooperation Treaty here
PCT texts and resources here
Roberto the Dominican inventor here
More on the iFdIP mystery; Dominican Republic joins the PCT
Reviewed by Jeremy
on
Thursday, March 08, 2007
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Reviewed by Jeremy
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Thursday, March 08, 2007
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The reason Esp@cenet would only print out patent documents one page at a time was political not technological. Some firms were making good money selling patent documents and protested when they became available without charge. Esp@cenet agreed to the one page at a time restriction so that at least large documents would still be purchased. Many firms developed software to overcome the one page restriction and last April Esp@cenet removed it.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note, the Dominican Republic joined as a requirement to the DR-CAFTA agreement with the US. Article 15.1.3 requires ratification or accession to the PCT (as well as a whole host of other treaties).
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