Nowadays, information is often identified as the most valuable
commodity to be acquired or sold. Indeed, the community of
entrepreneurs and scholars increasingly recognises patent
information, the quintessence of scientific and technical
information primarily found in the content of patents granted or
descriptions of inventions for which protection is being sought, as
crucial to the success of their projects or business ideas.
It is a challenging task to find the data we seek in in such a
vast collection. This is why we now have databases that compile
patent information. Long gone are the times when patent
documentations were to be found on library shelves, and were later
delivered on CDs or DVDs; nowadays we have at our disposal a
variety of online search tools to find the information we need in
invention descriptions or utility models from the field of
technology that we're interested in. Access to some of the
public search engines is free of charge, while in order
