CAMBIA Patent Lens- patent searching for the greater good from down-under

According to CAMBIA's mission statement: "CAMBIA is an independent, international non-profit institute. For more than a decade, CAMBIA has been creating new technologies, tools and paradigms to foster collaboration and life-sciences enabled innovation. These tools are designed to enable disadvantaged communities and developing countries to meet their own challenges in food security, health, and natural resource management." Based in Australia (they even have a GoogleEarth map of their location), the created Patent Lens, "to shed light and transparency on the patent system. The effects of the patent system as it works now may not match the original intent to benefit society. People affected by it should know the effects, so as to be able to advocate change where it may be needed." Patent Lens is a searchable full-text database of more than 7 million patents and patent applications from WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), USPTO (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, EPO (European Patent Office), and IP Australia.

The database also incorporates INPADOC — “bibliographic data from over 70 countries and legal status data from more than 40 patent authorities” — which, according to Patent Lens, “can help to give an idea whether a patent application related to one of interest was filed in other countries, and possibly whether patents are in force or applications are still pending.”

Check out the review from ResourceShelf: http://www.resourceshelf.com/2007/07/19/resource-of-the-week-patent-searching-for-the-rest-of-us/ and Patent Lens and CAMBIA: http://www.patentlens.net/daisy/patentlens/patentlens.html Patents are available in PDF, full-text, with images. Check it out!!