Searching OLD patents

Adams Stephen SR (Stephen.S.R.Adams@gbjha.zeneca.com)
Wed, 11 Sep 1996 11:36:39 +0100

I agree with Diane Kozelka that Beilstein and Kirk-Othmer may give you some
lead in on chemical areas, but you will need some chemical details such as a
sub-structure (for Beilstein) or a subject area (for K-O) in order to locate
information. I would be dubious about searching for assignees, due to the
lack of standardisation (or inclusion, come to that!)

The only other source which I would recommend trying is the EDOC file on
Questel. This does NOT allow inventor or assignee searching, but is the
only source which allows online searching for such old documents. It
provides basic priority/publication details, plus classification
information, either by ECLA or the older Dutch IDT system. Using this, it
is possible to construct a subject matter file listing which you would then
have to relate to whatever search files you have available in a local patent
library.

Coverage goes back to 1926 for Belgium, 1920 for Switzerland, 1877 [sic] for
Germany, 1902 for France, 1909 for Great Britain (plus some older material,
not comprehensive), 1946 for Luxembourg, 1962 for OAPI, 1912 for The
Netherlands, 1920 for USA. Other countries are also covered, but only
commenced in more recent years.

Stephen Adams
Zeneca Agrochemicals
stephen.s.r.adams@gbjha.zeneca.com