Supporting Covid-19 innovation: WIPO’s new search facility for PATENTSCOPE

The new facility will enable users – such as researchers, scientists, engineers, policy makers and general public users - to quickly source information in published patents relating to new technologies to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. These patents cover detection, prevention and treatment of diseases and include diverse mitigation inventions ranging from RNA vaccines and antisense oligonucleotide treatments to tracheal tubes for respirators and protective disposable face masks. As well as boosting innovation by finding existing and emerging Covid-19 technologies, the online tool can assist in identifying potential partners for further development and commercial exploitation.

The new online search tool contains over 70 search topics relevant to Covid-19 with each topic linked with the most relevant international patent classification (IPC) symbols. The IPC system of classification divides technology fields into sections, classes, subclasses and groups - it enables searches to be conducted to determine the state of the art in a particular technology area. For example, technology areas in the new PATENTSCOPE Covid-19 search include: personal protective equipment (PPE); diagnostics; artificial respiration; informatics; and medical treatment. The new search facility provides many search queries in technological areas relevant to the detection, prevention and treatment of Covid-19 from over 83 million patent and related documents in PATENTSCOPE, and allows users to quickly retrieve patent publications in these fields in 10 different languages.

In future WIPO plans to organize webinars to provide further recommendations on the use of the new Covid-19 search tool.