The need for a Free Patent Search Training course is very intense around the world. State of the art Patent Search is becoming an important function of all Research and Development centers across the world. The reason is simple. The European Union estimates that about 20 billion Euros are spent every year in Europe alone trying to research and find out inventions that are already patented.
If some invention is already patented how the researchers who are specialists in their chosen fields do not know this is a good question that can be easily answered. The world has about forty-five Million Patent Documents and not all are available in the same language and not all are available online. And most importantly only two per cent of the patents granted go in to commercial exploitation and so the very knowledge that some thing is patented will not be available unless a through and intensive patent search that covers all world databases is done.
This is again a difficult task as the patent documents are not available in one database. The largest Patent issuing authority in the world is the United States Patent and Trademark Office that has about 33 million patents issued from 1790 onwards in its database. But you can search through the database only from the year 1976 using free search queries as you may make with Google. And for Pre 1976 Patents, you need to search either with the exact number of the patent application or you need to search the US class that applies. Alternatively you can use expensive patent databases where depending on your subscription and the database selected, you are billed for the search and for viewing the results separately. If you want to look at just Five hundred patent documents, which is quite normal your costs will shoot up dramatically and many in the developing world cannot afford the luxury of all this.
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