All countries which have signed the Paris Convention are required to publish an official periodical journal providing details of patents granted and registered trademarks. These journals are usually published weekly. Examples are:
France: Bulletin officiel de la propriété industrielle
Germany: Patentblatt
Spain: Boletín oficial de la propriedad industrial
Sweden: Svensk patenttidning / Swedish Patent Gazette
United Kingdom: The Patents and Designs Journal (formerly
Official Journal (Patents))
United States: Official Gazette of the United States Patent and
Trademark Office
Japan: Tokkyo koho (Patent Gazette)
The European Patent Office also produce a list of where to find patent information on the internet which includes servers of other patent offices, database hosts which offer patent databases and patent information providers.
A useful source of US patents is the Delphion Research Intellectual Property Network where you can view US patents, from 1971 onwards, free of charge.
Japan Patent Office has an informative web site, with search options.The official announcement service of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is the PCT Gazette: Gazette of International Patent Applications 1978 - (published twice weekly). Every second issue of the PCT Gazette is devoted to abstracts of PCT applications. You can find out more from the World Intellectual Property Organization home page, e.g. information about the International Patent Classification (cf. below).
Two organizations are particularly important in the field of patent information provision:
Derwent Publications who provide the World Patents Index (WPI) available as an online database from 1976. This covers patents from some 30 countries. English language abstracts are provided for many of these countries and this simplifies keyword subject searching.
EPIDOS-INPADOC.
The International Patent Documentation Center (INPADOC) was established in
Vienna in 1972. At the beginning of 1991 INPADOC became part of the new EPIDOS
(European Patent Information and Documentation Systems), a directorate of the
European Patent Office, based in Vienna. It holds bibliographical data from over
50 countries on the INPADOC databases, updated on a weekly basis. No abstracts
are provided, but titles in non-roman alphabets are given in English.
Searching can be carried out by name - of a person, or a company. Subject
searching is carried out either by keyword searching or by means of the
classification codes of the International
Patent Classification (IPC) used by patent offices throughout the world.
The first edition of the IPC was published in 1968. It should be noted that the
IPC was developed first and foremost for use by patent examiners. It is,
therefore, designed to cover the inventive aspects of a patent rather than the
context in which it might be used.
A list of Selected resources for patents, inventions, and technology transfer is available from the Stanford University, USA.