Nothing's for Free...Or is it?

The availability of patent information for free via the internet has increased significantly during recent years and very well known search engines have recently entered the sector.

However, despite the growing number and variety of free patent search sites on the net, we would like to know if there is a gap between what users want from these services and what's on offer from the providers.

For this reason we have launched this questionnaire to find out what users think about free patent services, which ones they like, what they dislike, what frustrates them, and what they would improve. It's all about listening to users and developing patent information products to suit their needs and not those of the providers.

It's all about listening to users and developing patent information products to suit their needs and not those of the providers.

Patent Information - Benefit or Burden?

Many studies have shown that, in Europe at least, the majority of small and medium sized industries, have either no awareness of patent information, or think it is too troublesome to retrieve - too much overhead for too little gain.

But what kind of incentive could persuade these SMEs that patent information is a valuable resource for innovation and competitiveness, and that patent information is easily accessible - via esp@cenet for instance?

We think simply that money might work!

No, we are not going to start paying people to use esp@cenet, but we are campaigning for people to use esp@cenet to access money from other sources - for research, development and innovation. Major initiatives such as the 7th Framework Programme from the European Union provide public sector funds (in this case about EURO50billion over 7 years) for R&D and innovation. In order to access these funds, applicants (typically cross-border joint ventures) must make proposals for technology projects.

We take the simplistic view that these proposals will be of higher quality if the proposers do their homework in advance of submitting their proposal, and that means finding out if someone else has got there first.

How can you find out if indeed someone has got there first? By checking the prior art - patent information.

We are actively promoting patent information as a resource for FP7 participants so that they can make better proposals to the EU and increase their chances of getting FP7 funding for their projects.

In other words, money for using esp@cenet.