Brand new database for Patents in the Public Domain | Argentina
July 27th, 2012 by Danny G. Pérez y Soto - B&R Research
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The Argentinian PTO, the National Institute for Intellectual Property –INPI–, has launched a database for patents in the Public Domain, that is, patents that can be freely used without payment of royalties or any kind of official fees.
According the PTO, the database includes more than 60.000 documents, including patents for the food, pharmaceutical and many other major industries. Such databases aim at easing technology transfer from big companies with strong R+D departments, to startups and entrepreneurs, who usually can’t afford the costs related to developing new technologies.
Inventions may enter the public domain because their inventor decided not to patent it, or because the protection of the patent has expired. This allows for anyone to use the invention and even profit from it.
The INPI has setup six offices in Argentina for this database –with four more offices to come–, these offices are located in:
-Tucumán
-Salta
-Paraná
-Córdoba
-Mar de Plata
-Mendoza
This database is a strong incentive for economic growth in the country, and is designed to work alongside the GenIA program for government-promoted startups. It is now up to the entrepreneurs to search the database and identify what inventions are commercially useful.
Similar databases have been created by the Colombian and Mexican PTO, and by the European Patent Office through the Espacenet platform. These databases can be checked at the following addresses:
Colombia Public-Domain Inventions Search
Mexico Public-Domain Inventions Search
Espacenet – European Patent Office
