IPRIMA - Intellectual Property Specialists

Science graduates are often trained to rely on literature and journal searching as a research tool. This includes the useful investigation of what others have done previously, to avoid wasted effort. Unfortunately most graduates and researchers do not look beyond such publications.

Intellectual Property databases represent an invaluable source of information, potentially more valuable than literature databases. This is a result of the modern Journal publication process, often requiring peer review before delayed publication. Importantly, many IP aware companies do not allow journal publication before all IP applications have been filed. Publication by staff may be further delayed until such time as publication of the Intellectual Property has occurred, often 18 months or more after filing. If an employee is only now allowed to submit a paper for publication, the published patent specification will precede the Journal publication by a considerable period.

It is true that the content of a patent specification will differ. Sometimes patentees will, at the risk of the validity of their IP, attempt to mislead a reader or obfuscate details of an invention. Blatant cases are relatively rare and most patent specifications provide useful information to a reader, even so far as describing how to put the invention into practice. At the least the reader is alerted to the direction the patentee is heading, and the field of investigation.

Accordingly, if research is the objective, Intellectual Property databases are an important source of material.