Patent Office (Computerisation)

HC Deb 29 November 1982 vol 33 cc59-60W

Mr. Dalyell

asked the Minister for Trade (1) what progress has been made towards the computerisation of Patent Office records;

(2) if he will make adequate computer facilities available to the Patent Office.

Dr. Vaughan

Computer facilities were made available to the Patent Office in 1974 and have subsequently been developed to the stage where patent searches in several technical areas are carried out by computer and a significant amount of the information published by the office is computer generated. It is likely that the office would be greatly assisted by further computerisation and, to this end, studies are well under way for both trade marks and patents and much effort is being made to ensure that all essential data are stored in machine-readable form.