The content in the database is brought to you by Kluwer Law International in cooperation with Heymanns Verlag, Derk Visser, Howrey LLP, Arnold + Siedsma, Brinkhof and the European Patent Institute.

· What content is included?

The database includes:

- International Licensing and Technology Transfer (Liberman, Chrocziel et al, since 2008)

- Case Law of the board of Appeal of the European Patent Office, 5th edition 2006 (European Patent Office, 2006)

The full text of key Patent conventions, treaties and agreements, including the European Patent Convention and its implementing regulations, WIPO Convention and TRIPS Convention are included. These are fully searchable and easy to browse.

This includes news items from the following Kluwer Law International sources:

6. KluwerPatentBlog posts.

· How far back does the database go?

The database is based on print and online publications of Kluwer Law International, oldest of which was first published in 1927 (Manual Industrial Property). Case law in the database include landmark decisions on patent law since 1980, plus other relevant patent decisions since January 2007 from national courts of the EPC Member States (all Supreme Court decisions and a selection of lower court decisions) and a selection of EPO Boards of Appeal decisions.

· In which order are the documents organized in the database?

The ordering of documents depends on the location and type of document. Under Books, titles are initially listed in alphabetical order, though you can switch to an alphabetical sorting per author or a chronological listing per year of publication if need be. Under Journals, volumes and issues are provided in reverse chronological order (i.e. youngest first).

· Can you search for blog posts?

This is not currently possible. However, you can browse the latest blog posts on the home page and on the All News tab. We hope to be able to implement this in the near future. For the time being, please use the search engine on the blog at http://KluwerPatentBlog.com .

· Why are my printouts incomplete?

Due to browser-related bugs, which cannot be addressed by Kluwer Law International, certain ways of printing a document will not have the desired effect of printing documents in full. To avoid this, please refrain from using the print icon in your browser menu bar (ALT+R). Also, please refrain from choosing Print (CTRL+P) from the File menu. Documents should be printed as follows:

To print documents from a document or search results list:

1. Select Print Selected from the Email Selected/Print Selected dropdown menu.

2. Check the check box for the document you want to print.

3. Click the Go button. The Print Preview page will display for the selected document(s).

Tip! Multiple documents can be selected at one time. To select all the listed documents, click the Select all button.

To print individual documents:

1. Select and open the document of your choice.

2. Click on the printer icon. The Print Preview page will display for the selected document.

3. Go to ‘File’ > ‘Print Preview’ and then choose ‘Print’ to print the document as displayed in the Print Preview Page.

· I saw an interesting news item on the homepage but now it’s gone. Where can I find it?

A limited number of news items and blog post notifications are highlighted on the home page. Once removed from the home page, all news items, blog posts and recently added material notifications can be consulted on the All News tab for about a month. All news items can also be found using the database search engine.

· Where do you get your court decisions?

All case law is based on Kluwer Law International’s online publication Kluwer IP Cases (KluwerIPCases.com). This is a database of patent decisions from EPC jurisdictions, reported and summarized in English by correspondents located in each EPC Member State, providing:

- Headnotes and summaries of the decisions in English;

- English annotations; and

- Full texts of the decisions in their original language.

· How do you determine which cases are included in Kluwer Patent Law?

Summarized cases include landmark decisions on patent law since 1980, plus other relevant patent decisions since January 2007 from:

- National courts of the EPC Member States: all Supreme Court decisions and a selection of lower court decisions; and

- A selection of EPO Boards of Appeal decisions.

The EPO and lower national court decisions concern cases that represent a development and/or clarification of substantive law, or concern a remarkable factual background.

Note that all EPO Board of Appeal Decisions are made available via Federated Search. See below for more details on Federated Search.

· Can I browse court decisions?

All case law can be browsed by country/jurisdiction or by a specific topic. To access the case law and their summaries, please select a jurisdiction or topic from the Browse Category “Case Law” on the homepage or the tab “Browse Categories”. Remember that the (advanced) search engine will obtain the same results, but will allow you to further specify and amend your search criteria.

· Do you include just the legislation that is in force?

The database includes both old and new legislation (and also rules, protocols and so on), so you can conduct a research no matter what the age of the issues at hand. The law date or entry into force date of each document helps define the age.

Smart Charts™, Compare Jurisdictions and Federated Search

· What are Smart Charts™?

Kluwer Patent Law has 3 different Smart Charts™:

- Visser’s European Patent Convention (EPC) SmartCharts™ (edited by Derk Visser)

- Kluwer Manual IP SmartCharts™ (edited by Arnold + Siedsma)

- Patent Litigation SmartCharts™ (edited by Howrey)

These powerful, comparison tools provide a way to quickly and easily compare and access information from multiple jurisdictions. After selecting a topic or topics from a list, you simply select your jurisdictions and the results are displayed in an easy-to-read chart or matrix format. These charts and matrices can be printed, saved, or exported with ease. In addition, a link to the full text of the relevant analysis, case law and/or legislation is provided.

· How does the Compare Jurisdictions tool help me do my research?

This feature allows you to compare information from selected jurisdictions and topics. The results are presented in a summary format with links to the full text and the option to print the findings. Quick insight into complex litigation systems reduces research time and improves results.

· What is Federated Search?

Federated Search is the simultaneous search of multiple online databases or web resources. The search capability allows results to be filtered and indexed, leading you quickly to the information you need in a single results set. A query in Kluwer Patent Law not only searches Kluwer’s own database, but it also combs the following (external) sources: