Useful site for patent searchers new and old!

One of our one time regular patent readers from the 'good old days' came in today - a chap by the name of Marcus Bates. He now is an independent patent searcher but in his spare time he has put together a web-site with a list of really useful IP (and business) links and resources:

http://www.ip-centre.org/index.html

It is certainly worth checking out.

This is what Marcus says about the site;

"The site is a free web-links directory site, which I created for my own use, and that of other searchers. Over the last year I have nearly 10,000 hits. I update nearly every month, and check links on a monthly basis, when possible. I expanded the site, to include anything a person new to IP would need, and have included sections for people who are starting a new business. I also have included links for students and academics, who might need IP services. The site was originally designed to fill the void left by the British Library website redesign. There used to be a good page of links on the British library IP section for searchers and other users. I run the site with the ads paying for the hosting and domain etc. The site does not run at a profit, or at least hasn't so far. It is also mentioned on the links page at the EPO website. I am a freelance searcher and regularly use my site for searching. It is very handy for searching on other peoples computers, and it is also useful when I advise people about searching, as I can suggest links and know where they can find the links. I can add sections or links, when people email me, as I have for various companies and websites."

If anyone has any other useful links which they feel should be included Marcus is happy to receive them.

Maria

Maria Lampert
British Library

British Standard for IP services BS 8538

A new standard is being proposed which is "aimed primarily at the providers of commercial or advisory IP services" these include the IPO , Business Link , universities that specialize in invention and product design and inventors clubs.

The standard sets out to prevent "false representation of Intellectual property promotion services whereby the originator and developer of the idea is enticed to disclose the idea before securing the intellectual property rights resulting in the originator being subsequently unable to obtain valid protection for his idea and potentially, in the idea being commercially exploited by others"

IPinsight article

BSI is calling for comments on the draft standard from all interested parties by 31st JULY
you can see the draft here:

With football in mind....

The latest UKIPO seminar on Friday 2nd July was at Blackburn Rovers Enterprise Centre, Ewood Park entitled "Create and Protect Your Business Brand". Manchester PATLIB had a stand there to advertise our services and provide information. The event was organised by Pennine Lancashire Business Net, who run a monthly series of events for SMEs in their network. Extremely popular, an afternoon repeat performance had to be scheduled to cope with the numbers wanting to attend and it was still fully booked. A very useful event for us to publicise our new address and return of business and IP services.

Always up to the minute Gary Townley and David Hopkins (UKIPO) provided some topical information relating to World Cup trade marks and registered designs. With typical Welsh concern for England supporters who may require support in their hour of need they passed on this freephone helpline number 0800 4-1,4-1,4-1...

Chris Brown

Manchester PATLIB has moved!

Just to complement Maria's update on our new address, here is a picture of Elliot House, 151 Deansgate, Manchester M3 3WD. Service was resumed on Monday 28th June. Contact details are the same - e-mail: patlib@manchester.gov.uk phone: 0161 234 1397. Please note that the phone is no longer a fax connection.

For those of you who know Manchester, Elliot House is a listed office building and was built in 1878 to house the School Board Offices. It has also been a registrar's office, registering births, deaths and marriages. For more pictures of the beautiful architectural details and interesting historical notes see the following article by Jonathan Schofield http://www.manchesterconfidential.co.uk/Culture/Architecture/The-Good-the-Standard-and-the-Ugly-Elliot-House_10209.asp

Chris Brown

PATLIB 2010 - Dresden

This years PATLIB conference took place in Dresden Germany and was attended by Stef Stephenson from PATLIB Leeds and myself.

The conference was divided into three channels;

Channel 'A' - Tools
Channel 'B' - Business
Channel 'C' - Patent and IP Practice

As the plenary sessions and the seminars for each channel were run at different times attendees were able to pick and chose which seminars they attended without worrying about missing relevant papers presented during the plenary sessions. All of the presentations are available online via the EPO website.

The new format also helped keep speakers on topic with papers and seminars appearing much more relevant to the theme of the conference this year.

Fran Taylor of the British Library marketing team gave a very good presentation on Web 2.0 and the value of social networking sites to enterprises such as ours. If you get time I would strongly recommend that you read through her presentation. If you have any questions about social networking and its value to PATLIBs Fran would be happy to speak to you. She can be contacted be mailto:frances.taylor@bl.uk

I acted as moderator for the Channel 'B' Business plenary session on the afternoon of 1st June. There were three speakers each of which described their different methods of providing assistance to SME's in their areas. The one I found most interesting was given by Patricia Escudero of the Spanish Patent Office who told us about the Spanish Patent Office's Virtual Office, an online facility whereby anyone from anywhere in Spain can get all the help and guidance they need to decide which form of IP is most relevant to them and how to apply etc without leaving their home/office. They can even engage in 'live chat' with a member of Spanish Patent Office staff if needed.

On the evening of Monday 31st May all delegates had the opportunity of visit PATLIB Dresden. This was an eye opening visit for me. Having visited the UK PATLIBs I always felt that some of us were very short on space and facilities for our clients, well PATLIB Dresden is very small indeed (Stef may have a picture which we can post later), but they are still able to offer a full range of services to their clients as well as displaying a fair sized collection of IP related documents.

The conference next year will be in the Hague, at the EPO headquarters and will lean heavily towards training, again another departure from the norm for Conference but one which I feel will be much more relevant to most PATLIBs.

Away from conference would everyone please note the new contact details for PATLIB Manchester;


Chris Brown
Information Officer Intellectual Property Manchester Library and Information Service Manchester PATLIB City Library Elliot House
151 Deansgate
Manchester
M3 3WD
Tel: 0161 234 1397
Internal: 800 1397
E-mail: C.Brown1@manchester.gov.uk
Web-site: http://www.manchester.gov.uk/patlib

These will apply until further notice.

Regards

Maria

Maria Lampert
PATLIB London
Chair PATLIB UK

PATLIB2010 EPO - Conference programme

PATLIB2010: Presentations from the conference are now available online:

EPO - Conference programme

"Green channel" inventions

The UK Intellectual Property Office has created a database for its first "Green Channel" patents.
Read more....
Steve van Dulken's Patent blog: "Green channel" inventions