PATENTS INFORMATION A REVIEW OF RECENT CHANGES

Of significance for patents information during the past decade or so have been the major changes in patents legislation, improvements to the publications of the principal patenting systems, and the transforming effects of computerized databases. The review covers these changes and outlines the current publication procedures of the European Patent Convention, Patent Cooperation Treaty, and the major national systems. The importance of the patent specification as a source of information, and developments during this period in its construction and bibliographic data are explained. Official and non‐official publications associated with the specification are covered. Particular emphasis is given to computer databases covering patents, since they now form a powerful, numerous and growing means of searching specifications in the majority of subject fields. Reference is made to efforts to increase general awareness of the value of patents as information and to improve their availability by schemes such as the UK's Patents Information Network.