This Guide aims to assist users in searching for technology information using patent documents, a rich source of technical, legal and business information presented in a generally standardized format and often not reproduced anywhere else. Though the Guide focuses on patent information, many of the search techniques described here can also be applied in searching other non-patent sources of technology information.

SpringerBriefs in Biotech Patents presents timely reports on intellectual properties (IP) issues and patent aspects in the field of biotechnology. In this volume the limits of patentability are addressed, a question that is often raised when it comes to biotechnological inventions: The first section addresses current issues in the patentability of plants produced by essentially biological processes including the controversy between farmer’s privilege and patent exhaustion with respect to seeds in the US. The second section examines the patentability of human embryonic stem cells in Europe and the US, also considering alternative technologies with respect to their practicability and patentability. The third section focuses on the patentability of genes and nucleic acids, especially the issue of patenting of encoding genes and nucleic acids.

The U.S. patent system is in an accelerating race with human ingenuity and investments in innovation. In many respects the system has responded with admirable flexibility, but the strain of continual technological change and the greater importance ascribed to patents in a knowledge economy are exposing weaknesses including questionable patent quality, rising transaction costs, impediments to the dissemination of information through patents, and international inconsistencies. A panel including a mix of legal expertise, economists, technologists, and university and corporate officials recommends significant changes in the way the patent system operates. A Patent System for the 21st Century urges creation of a mechanism for post-grant challenges to newly issued patents, reinvigoration of the non-obviousness standard to quality for a patent, strengthening of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, simplified and less costly litigation, harmonization of the U.S., European, and Japanese examination process, and protection of some research from patent infringement liability.

In recent years, business leaders, policymakers, and inventors have complained to the media and to Congress that today's patent system stifles innovation instead of fostering it. But like the infamous patent on the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, much of the cited evidence about the patent system is pure anecdote--making realistic policy formation difficult. Is the patent system fundamentally broken, or can it be fixed with a few modest reforms? Moving beyond rhetoric, Patent Failure provides the first authoritative and comprehensive look at the economic performance of patents in forty years. James Bessen and Michael Meurer ask whether patents work well as property rights, and, if not, what institutional and legal reforms are necessary to make the patent system more effective. Patent Failure presents a wide range of empirical evidence from history, law, and economics. The book's findings are stark and conclusive. While patents do provide incentives to invest in research, development, and commercialization, for most businesses today, patents fail to provide predictable property rights. Instead, they produce costly disputes and excessive litigation that outweigh positive incentives. Only in some sectors, such as the pharmaceutical industry, do patents act as advertised, with their benefits outweighing the related costs. By showing how the patent system has fallen short in providing predictable legal boundaries, Patent Failure serves as a call for change in institutions and laws. There are no simple solutions, but Bessen and Meurer's reform proposals need to be heard. The health and competitiveness of the nation's economy depend on it.

Patent protection under the European Patent Convention (EPC) is not available for all issues. The intuitive colloquial meaning of the terms "invention" and "technical" often differs from the legal interpretation given in case-law decisions. Many of the current patent disputes among the players in the smartphone and portable-device market are based on issues relating to graphical user interfaces (GUIs), which allow the user to interact and interface with these devices. Furthermore, practitioners often have concerns regarding the filing of trivial patent applications in this and related computer-implemented fields. "Human and Machine Rights" seeks to place these issues in the light of the case law of the European Patent Office. Assisted by a Socratic dialogue between two forgotten computers, Master and Flip-flop, part I of "Human and Machine Rights" leads the reader through a systematised reading of EPO case law, looking for the conceptual framework underlying the boundaries of the exclusions from patentability for technicality reasons (in particular those relating to GUIs and gestural systems). The intention is to explicitly set out a praxis-oriented criterion, thus allowing practitioners to anticipate whether or not patent protection is available for a specific subject-matter, and to determine where the risks of trivial patent applications lie. Leaving behind the traditional classification of decisions according to the areas of activity relating to the respective inventions, "Human and Machine Rights" develops a new conceptual categorisation of the issues under discussion in the decisions, departing from the problems solved or the aims achieved by the inventions. A Human-Machine-Interface (HMI) model is used for this purpose. This categorisation automatically leads to a differentiation between the main trend of the decisions and the possible dissonant voices, thus contributing to increased harmonisation in the way inventions are dealt with. An annex presents