Patent and Trademark Information: Uses and Perspectives

Citation

Shelton, M.E. (2005), "Patent and Trademark Information: Uses and Perspectives", Collection Building, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 103-103. https://doi.org/10.1108/01604950510608285

Patent and Trademark Information: Uses and Perspectives is co‐published as a volume of Science and Technology Libraries, a Haworth Press journal. As the title suggests, the focus of this book is on patent and trademark information, but the majority is on patents.

Like many books on this topic, there are several articles that focus on how to conduct searches and identify the resources that are helpful to the process. In addition to an article on US patent searching, the reader will find one on the European network of patent databases. With much detail, the author gives extensive information on the system's search interface. At times, the description becomes repetitive. An article by Stephen Adams steps out of the mainstream of patent searching to provide descriptions of various regional systems. History and background on organizations in Africa, the Arab states, South America, and various Soviet block states are presented. Along with these articles, the reader will also find some unique articles. One focuses on how to search for information on inventors. While the author does explain how to conduct the research and the value of patents as a tool to document a person's work, a bibliography of other resources that support inventor research is also provided. The most interesting article is “Patents for victory” by Michael White. It takes a historical look at how the US government took control of patents held by enemy states during the First and Second World Wars. The article explains how the information was licensed to American companies and the long‐term consequences of these actions.

Although there are only two articles that deal with trademarks, the last article is particularly worthwhile. Few books contain specific documentation on finding trademark information at the state level, but James Miller has put together a fine compilation of web sites that support state trademark searches. With descriptions about search functionality and a very useful table, this article proves to be very valuable to the trademark searcher. The other article on trademarks provides information on how to use tools that support federal trademark searching. The author also gives examples of five different trademark queries that are useful in understanding why a person would want to conduct a trademark search.

Although several of the articles are standard to any book on patents and trademarks, several others do stand out. This book will be good for any library that already collects and support technical information in addition to providing help with patent and trademark searching.