Rich Friedman
PATENT EXPLORER CD-ROM, Research Publications, 1921 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Arlington, VA 22202, (703) 413-5050, $1995
INFORMATION USA MULTIMEDIA CD-ROM FOR WINDOWS, Infobusiness, 887 South Orem Blvd., Orem, UT 84058, (801) 225-0817, $69.95
Software developers may lose huge amounts of R&D dollars, or be forced to pay royalties, if they are not aware of existing patents of competitive products. Patent Explorer CD-ROM provides full-text descriptions of more than 10,000 software patents from 1972 to 1993. The CD-ROM does not rely on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's classification of software patents because that classification assigns many software patents to categories other than software. Instead, Patent Explorer CD-ROM has grouped software patents into clusters based on the technology each
patent contains.
The full text of the software patent is provided, which may vary from a few paragraphs to several pages of description. A natural-language engine can search on full sentences in addition to individual keywords. In an age in which we're seeing more and more litigious behavior--witness Compton New Media's, Lotus's, and Borland's patent infringement lawsuits--this reference disc is an excellent source of existing software patents.
In the same vein, the U.S. government is a vast repository of useful information. The catch is that this information is difficult to find. The Information USA Multimedia CD-ROM for Windows aptly fills this void. It includes video, audio, and textual information on all 1261 Federal Domestic Assistance programs administered by 51 agencies, including contact addresses and telephone numbers. Subjects include educational grants and scholarships, labor statistics, market studies and research findings, tax advice, sources of loans, lists of surplus property, an
d more.
You can search on every word, print information in a variety of formats, write and edit notes within the software, and, in short, save a bundle of time and frustration getting information from the U.S. government.
Useful References
