Searches in WIPO database for developing countries

Developing countries' Patent Offices (PO) do not always have access to international patent databases. When the Patent Office receives a request from a company for patent protection for a new product, the PO needs to verify whether the product is truly new or benefits from a patent elsewhere in the world, before making its final determination on the request. POs can request assistance from the World Intellectual Property Organisation, who in turn, forwards these requests to WIPO Members, including Switzerland.

The overall goal of IPI Searches is to allow companies to add value to their products and grow, and for national IP policy to more successfully spur an innovative economy and economic growth. Companies in developing countries often do not patent their new products, opening the possibility that these products are copied and hence lowering the return on the R&D investment by that company. At the macro level, a government promotes patent protection, as this encourages companies to engage in R&D activities in the knowledge that the costs related to product development can be recuperated through its sole supply of the product for the time specified under the patent licence.

Direct outcome: patent Offices are better able to respond to requests from companies for patent projection through reliable patent protection determinations. Indirect outcome: company growth as product development investments are recuperated and reinvested.

Expected results:  

International patent searches comparing the properties of the proposed new product with those properties of existing patented products.

Phase 1 01.01.2012 - 31.12.2017   (Active)