Q: What is the Example section?
A: This section contains all of the precise methodological detail required for the reader to reproduce the new invention. This may be a method of producing a new drug or agrochemical, a new use of a compound, or a demonstration of how a new technique of method is carried out.
Q: What is the Administration section?
A: Drug administration details are analyzed and extracted from the patent document. This section specifically provides information on drug routes, dosages and delivery systems.
Q: Why do some of my searches result in no hits?
A: This means there are no recrods that match your search for time scale you have specified. This may genuinely be the case, however, it is advisable to check your spelling before assuming that there are no records matching your search query.
Q: How do I search for a particular patent number?
A: A patent number can be entered in the patent number search field on the search page. The format is of the type US1234567*, where * represents all possible kind codes. To find a specific patent number, the kind code must be entered.
Q: How do I log on to Derwent Biotechnology Resource?
A: Access the database via the following URL: http://www.biotechnology-resource.com. From this site, click on trial or contact database links and enter your username and password (this is case sensitive). You will then enter Derwent Biotechnology Resource. If you experience any problems accessing the database, please contact your nearest Technical Support desk.
Q: Why do some patent documents contain an Abstract, while others contain information about Novelty, Detailed Description, etc.?
A: From 2002, the format of patent abstracts in Derwent Biotechnology Resource has changed. Instead of providing a single paragraph of text as an abstracts, the abstract field is now broken into a series of subsections, such as Novelty, Detailed Description, etc.
Q: How can I restrict my search to a particular document type?
A: You can choose to limit your search to patent documents, conference proceedings or journal records, or any combination. The option to do this is available at the bottom of the search page.
Q: Which search operators can I use?
A: The Boolean operators SAME, AND, OR and NOT are permitted in the following search fields:
Topic
Thomson Derwent Keywords
Author
Source Title
Address
Patent Assignee
Conference
Q: What is the Specific Substances section?
A: This section gives details of any specific new entities, including specific host cells, vectors, nucleic acid or protein sequences which are claimed, or deemed important to the invention. Full sequences are given only if they are less than 80 bp or amino acids in length, e.g. DNA probes and primers.
Q: What is the Activity field?
A: This section is used to describe the biological activity of chemical or biological entities, if this activity is new. This is used especially for pharmaceutical, veterinary and agrochemical inventions and usually consists of a number of keyword terms, e.g. cytostatic or antitumor. Experimental methodology and results are provided, where there is biological data to support this activity term.
Q: I've selected fields for printing and the data is not present in the printed record?
A: Some selectable fields are only available for a certain kind of record, e.g. the author keywords field is only available for journal articles and conference proceedings. A list of available fields for each type of record can be found in the user manual and online help files associated with this product.
Q: What is the Advantage section?
A: This section describes all advantages of the new invention over what has been done in the past.
Q: What is the Novelty field?
A: New inventions are deliberately buried within patents. The Novelty section, written by one of our patent analysts, allows the reader to quickly identify what's new in the patent record. The section provides a succinct description of how the invention claims to be a non-obvious improvement over previous technology (the "prior art"). This is included as the opening paragraph of the new style abstract, and may be expanded upon within the Detailed Description.
Q: What is the Wider Disclosure section?
A: This section is present when the scope and/or novelty of the invention, as defined in the body of the specification, is broader than that of the main independent claim(s). The paragraph will contain those novel features and/or applications which fall outside the definition of the invention, as described in the legal claims.
Q: What is the Use section?
A: All patented inventions must have an industrial application, i.e. a use. This paragraph is always present, and covers all the uses (applications) of the invention in terms of its different technology areas. If there are no disclosed uses, this is stated.
Q: What is the Detailed Description?
A: Patents often claim that a number of entities and methods are new. This section gives you further details on other claimed drugs, agrochemicals, vectors, compounds, nucleic acid or protein sequences, and methodologies. The Detailed Description is an optional paragraph, and will be included when it is not possible to summarise the main claim(s) of the invention within the limits of the Novelty paragraph. Whenever there are other broad claims, these will be included with the Detailed Description proceeded by the phrase "An Independent Claim or Independent Claims"
Q: What is Technology Focus?
A: Technology Focus covers all other information relating to biotechnology which is contained within the patent. This section also includes areas outside the core technology area of the invention. This information will be presented in different sections. By doing this a reader can quickly identify whether a document outside the reader's core area of technology is of interest. Information may be grouped under appropriate sub-headings, such as Agriculture, Biology, Biotechnology, etc. Within each of these main technology areas may be information concerning different aspects of the same technology, this in turn may be grouped under sub-headings which illustrate the main thrust of the additional information, e.g. TECHNOLOGY FOCUS Organic Chemistry - Preferred Medicaments.
Q: What is the Mechanism of Action field?
A: This section covers the biological mechanism of action for chemical or biological entities, if this mechanism of action is new. This is used for pharmaceutical, veterinary and agrochemical inventions and also consists of a number of keywords, e.g. protease-inhibitor or plasminogen activator. Experimental methodology and results are provided, where there is biological data to support this activity term.
Q: Should I use English or American spelling?
A: Historically, British-English spelling has been used, but recently American-English spelling (but not terminology) has been adopted for titles and abstracts. In order to ensure complete retrieval, use both spellings of these words or incorporate wildcards to represent more than one spelling whenever possible. Due to the presence of author abstracts from 2002 onward, spelling contained within this abstract (searched using the Topic field) may be in English or American, so it is certainly best to search both spellings if your are searching for journals or conferences.
