INPADOC, the international centre of patent documentation

Abstract

The idea of a world-wide data bank on patents had arised first in 1950, the international agreement on its establishment was signed in Vienna in 1972.
Most member countries are providing bibliographical data in machine readable form for INPADOC. Usually the number of patent documents registered corresponds to the number of patents issued by the participating countries. Ten of the most important bibliographical data are processed by the computerized system of INPADOC. Various services are based on the data bank: subscription services, information retrieval, SDI and copying services.
Information is supplied by INPADOC on various media: magnetic tapes, 16 mm microfilm, paper copies. Microfiches are also used for certain services.