Patent Lens

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The Patent Lens is the main work product of the independent, international non-profit organisation, Cambia.

The Patent Lens, as its name suggests, was created in order to increase transparency in the world of patents. Originally, the patent system was set up to provide a “deal” between the state and the patent holder. The patent holder receives a legally enforceable right to exclude others from using his or her invention. In return, the contents of the invention were made transparent to others, thus encouraging others to “invent around” (find a new or better way of doing the same thing). This process was designed to foster innovation, and was not thought of as a way of protecting companies from competition.

Thus the Patent Lens brings back the transparency side of the “deal” between inventor and the public. The patent collection allows free searching of over 8 million documents, including US patent and applications, Australian patents and applications, European patents and PCT applications (world-wide applications). Searching can be done using many different variables, such as full text, title, abstract, inventor, assignee, patent number, application number etc. There are also links to pdfs of the patent/application, to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), to the INPADOC patent status and patent family information service and to a full-text copy of the patent or application in question.

In addition to the patent search engine, the Patent Lens has a number of “technology landscapes” (large detailed documents about the patenting of key technologies). To date landscapes are available for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of plants, Promoters Used to Regulate Gene Expression, Antibiotic Resistance Genes and their Uses in Plant Genetic Transformation, Resistance to Phosphinothricin, Positive Selection, Human Genome Patenting, Human Telomerase Gene, Molecular Markers Outside Gene Sequences and Bioindicators. Landscapes soon to be released will include Patenting of the Rice Genome and Patenting of the Influenza Genome.

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