Patent database software online
Large area deposition of energy efficient optical coatings is a field that has undergone many innovations. Novel types of coated vacuum glazing elements have significantly assisted the reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emission thus reducing the greenhouse effect. The 3RD GENLAC project has investigated the material science and process technology involved. In order to manage innovation information, the project developed software for an online patent database. It is based on PostGreSQL and may be accessed by web browsers. The patents which are housed in the database are organised into patent families known as "inventions". The structure of the data allows an immediate overview of the main ideas of an invention since it contains key features, special characteristics and invention-related material. Furthermore, patent documents such as applications and research reports are housed along with publication codes, application and publication dates which makes the legal state of invention easy to trace. Invention reports can be produced for each applicant and that database is equipped for multi-user access. The history function allows for every data change to be recorded. Furthermore search methods for each invention can be pinpointed which allows for technical area development to be monitored through repetition of search methods over time. This database may be used for other technological areas as well.
