Patent Legal Status Information

By Neil Walden, Neil_Walden@sandwich.pfizer.com, September 2000

Question:

The UK patent office gives access to it's register on-line via the Internet so that anyone can find out the status of British patents and applications. Do any other patent offices offer the same facility?

• The Dutch patent office offers a similar service. Registration is free. You just have to type in the NL or EP number (without the country code). The first time you connect you have to register and establish username and password.
  The address is: http://145.69.210.242/regnon/plsql/reg_pck_start.startpag?Taal=EN

• Australian PTO does too. See list of web databases on the links collection of http://www.sga2.com and also http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au

• The New Zealand patent office also has status available (http://www.iponz.govt.nz).

• The Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (formerly known as the Swiss Patent Office or Patentamt) also give on line access to its register the PMMBI:
  http://www.ige.ch/D/datbank/da1.htm (German only)

• Some offices offer this but charge for it. Try the list of links at http://www.bl.uk/services/stb/etalmenu.html#singe for lists of single authority databases, including such databases. The Delphion (ex IBM) site is also useful for status for many countries.

• Brazilian patent office offers similar services http://www.inpi.gov.br (English, French, Spanish)

• You should also try the IP Menu site (http://www.ipmenu.com) and Mayalls IP Site (http://www.mayallj.freeserve.co.uk/) both of which have links to status sites for various countries, as well as a lot of other really useful material.

Last edited: September 2002 / Elyse Turner

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