Exploiting patent databases

Would you like to know :

• the state of the art and applications developed worldwide in a particular field;

• who does what, where, how ;

• the evolution over time of the area under consideration ;

• your potential competitors ;

• know-how developed by various companies and inventors;

• new entrants in these development fields;

• your possible partners ;

• technological directions and new applications;

• links between technology and research ;

• new entrants to a field.

You then need to exploit the patent databases.

The purpose of this sheet is to :

• to provide you with a better understanding of the various patent databases available on the Internet – whether free of charge or for a fee – necessary for the use of Automatic Patent Analysis (APA) tools;

• know the content of patent bibliographic records and other accessible elements ;

• structure your search ;

• exploit the results.