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Letter: Patents online

Published 18 April 1998

From Ron Marchant, The Patent Office

Barry Fox comments that the British Patent Office is considering making only
abstracts available on the Internet
(This Week, 21 March, p 7).

I should like to confirm that the British Patent Office is participating
fully in the European Patent Office’s project Distributed Internet Patent
Services (DIPS), along with other national patent offices.

Level 1, due to be completed in June, will give access to British patent
specifications published in the past two years. Level 2 of this project, which
is more comprehensive and ambitious, is expected to be implemented towards the
end of 1998.

Full details can be found at
http://www.european-patentoffice.org/news/pressrel/dips1.htm.

Newport, Gwent

Issue no. 2130 published 18 April 1998

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