Current Alternatives of Patent Searches in Chemistry

Abstract

The aim of this review is to compare alternative patent searches in available chemistry databases. There are  cumulative database of world patents operated by European Patent Office under the name Espacenet, a couple of similar databases of other patent offices, then Google Patent Search service and recently also Derwent Innovation Index which is a simplified version of patent database Derwent World Patents Index (DWPI) of Derwent Company. This company and their products are well known for providing exceptionally reliable and carefully elaborated patent documents but until recently accessible only through a database centre, such as STN International. After merging with the Thompson Ltd. an access to simplified DWPI version will be provided as a part of the database system Web of Science (Elsevier). This situation will open the way for comparing patent searches in Elsevier databases with those of patent offices and chemistry databases SciFinder and Reaxys.