This page concentrates on designs databases, both free and priced,
from anywhere in the world. For other material, British and then
European sources are favoured. Sources of legal information and
advice are little covered. This site is meant for experts - you
should ask for help if you are unsure about what you are doing.
Although we are willing to assist, we are librarians and not experts
on the law. Some relevant material will be found elsewhere, such
as at our lists of litigation
sites and patent office sites (especially
that of the United
Kingdom). Information on designs generally is provided elsewhere
on our pages.
The Internet is constantly evolving and new sites will emerge,
whilst existing sites may change addresses or emphases. No liability
is accepted for any errors of commission or omission. However, if
you come across any problems in using the hypertext links, or have
suggestions for further sites, please let
us know. You are welcome to link to us.
These are our other lists of links:
Unless otherwise stated the sites on this list were understood
at the time of compilation to be free to use.
This page was updated 21 April 2008.
Classification schemes | Databases
and gazettes | Legislation & litigation
Classification schemes
Databases and gazettes
[Argentina,
Designs Database]
Entirely in Spanish. Includes images.
Australian
Designs Data Searching
Data on applications and registrations from 1986, and on those
from 1973 to 1985 which were active in 1985. Searchable by number,
title or class.
[Australia]
Designs Searchable Journal
From July 2002.
Australian
Official Journal of Designs
From June 2005.
[Austrian
Design Status Database]
Partially priced.
[Belarus,
Database] New!
Site is entirely in Belarussian.
[Belize]
Intellectual Property Journal New!
From April 2003.
[Brazil,
Design database]
Data only. Enter by typing letters shown into box and clicking
on Acessar.
[Brazil]
Revista de Propriedade Industrial
From June 2005. Secao I includes desenhos (designs).
[Britain]
Designs search
Searching by number, by product, by proprietor. The last two can
be combined. Defaults to kind of product search by (enhanced)
Locarno class where three levels progressively narrow down the
search. The kind of search can be altered by clicking on the tab
next to "Combination".
Includes designs in force as of 1 June 1997 plus those later registered.
[Britain]
Find Designs by Number
Database of British registered designs from about 1980, searchable
by design number only.
[Britain]
Patents and Designs Journal
Contains brief details only. August 1998 to March 2008 (when it
ceased).
[Britain]
Registered Designs Journal New!
Current issue only. Searchable by several elements.
[Britain]
Registered Designs Journal New!
From 27 February 2008, 12 month rolling archive. PDFs or zip files.
Contains images.
Canadian
Industrial Designs Database
Contains images of designs registered from 1861.
[Chile]
Consulta de diseño
Priced.
Select "Diseño industrial".
[China,
Database]
Site is entirely in Chinese. Enter design number in top left search
box, click on (Chinese) title, click on link within blue box on
left hand side. Documents are in AlternaTIFF PDF format.
Community
Designs Bulletin
EU-wide design right, issues from the 1 April 2003 containing
images of registrations. There is also a keyword
search capability for the gazette.
[Community
Designs Database]
Registrations from its beginning in April 2003. The Advanced version
offering more search options is reached by clicking on the twin
magnifying glass icon.
[Croatia]
Industrial Design [Database]
[Czech
Republic] Industrial designs
Database of bibliographic data from registration no. 19900 [1988],
representations from 20500 [1989].
[Denmark
Design Journal]
Dansk Monster Tidende from 1997 (called Dansk Designtidende from
2001). There are also annual
indexes from 1997.
[Denmark]
IP Registers
Status information, with more information available with free
registration.
DesignMuster
Priced subscription.
Also known as DesignFinder. Searchable data and images for 7 authorities.
Available (for 3 authorities only) on British Library workstations.
[Estonia
Designs Database]
Covers filings from 11 January 1998. Includes images.
[Estonia]
Industrial Designs Gazette
From February 2003.
[Finland]
DesignsNet
Database and images.
[France]
BOPI Dessins et modèles
Current (fortnightly) issue only. Click on "Recherche"
at top.
[France]
Plutarque
Partially priced.
Official site. Database of national designs from 1910 (images
only from 1996) plus Hague designs from 1979 ( images only from
1985). Site is entirely in French.
Geschmacksmusterblatt
From January 2004. Also contains search engine from 1988 for data.
Clicking on the design number in the list of hits gives an image
and more data. Type faces can be selected for searching.
[Germany]
Geschmacksmuster-Recherchen
Priced.
Database by Wila with registrations from 1988. Site is entirely
in German.
[Germany
Industrial Designs Database]
Free registration.
Official site. Data published from 1 October 1988 including status
information.
[Greece,
Status Register]
Site mainly in Greek.
[Hague
Agreement] Hague Express
Registrations from January 1999 in this international scheme.
Searched by Locarno class in the format 02-05.
[Hong
Kong] Design Search System
Clicking on the little image in the hit lists gives more data
including all filed drawings.
Hong
Kong Intellectual Property Journal
Official gazette recording designs from April 2003.
[Hungary,
Designs database]
Free registration.
Database of pending and currently valid designs. Includes a drawing.
Hungary
Gazette of Patents and Trademarks
Includes industrial designs. From 1996.
[Iceland]
ELS-tidindi Island
Official gazette from 1990.
[Ireland]
Design Database
Only covers published designs filed under the Industrial Designs
Act 2001.
[Ireland]
Design Register
Only covers published designs filed under the Industrial Designs
Act 2001.
[Ireland]
Journal
Contains patents, trade marks and designs. From 12 June 2002.
[Ireland]
Registered Designs Index
From 1990. Alphabetical by applicant each year.
Israel
Patents and Designs Journal
From 25 September 2005 as zip files. Bibliographic details only.
[Italy,
"Made in Italy"]
Database of last 6 months' patents and designs. Searchable by
applicant and title only, gives brief details. Site is entirely
in Italian.
Japan
Design Gazette
Contains all designs, searchable only by publication number.
[Jersey]
Judicial Greffe, Design Database
[Korea,
Design searching]
Includes images from 1998.
[Latvia]
Search for Industrial Designs in Register
Includes drawings.
[Lithuania,
Official Gazette]
Includes images of designs, from 2005.
[Moldova]
BOPI [Official Bulletin]
From 2000. Includes designs. Follow links to year below "BOPI".
[Moldova,
Design Database]
Free registration.
[Morocco
Design database]
[New
Zealand] Design Journal Search
Search engine for gazette from 31 October 2002, accessible only
by clicking on Online Journal and then Designs in left hand column.
[New
Zealand] Design search
Partly priced.
Database including status information.
[Norway,
Database] New!
Includes images. Site is entirely in Norwegian.
[Norway]
Monstertidende/ Designtidende
Links to gazette issues from 1998. From May 2003 there is the
new Designtidende, which will gradually supersede the earlier
title. There is an annual
name index.
[Philippines]e-gazette
patents
Bibliographical details of inventions, utility models and designs.
From 20 November 2006. Includes images of designs.
[Philippines]
Patent Online Search System
Database for inventions (I), utility models (U) and designs (D).
[Poland
Design Database]
Select among old and new law designs and then select format of
search.
[Poland]
Wiadomosci urzedu patentowego
Gazette from 1999. Part C consists of images and data on designs.
[Portugal]
Boletimonline
Gazette, includes images. From 2004.
[Portugal]
Design Online [database]
Enter shown security code to run a search. Includes images.
[Russia,
Industrial Designs Gazette]
Current issue only. No images of the actual designs.
[Russia]
Register of Russian Industrial Designs
Searchable by design number. Includes images. Data in Russian
but status shown in English.
[Singapore]
Designs eJournal
From July 2007.
[Slovakia,
Database]
[Slovenia]
BIL: Bilten za industrijsko lastnino
Industrial property gazette from 28 February 2006. Includes images.
[Slovenia
Design database]
[Spain]
Consulta de expedientes
Legal status of designs.
[Spain]
Gazette
Gazettes for the last 4 weeks covering patents, utility models,
designs, trade marks.
[Spain]
Modindun@t
Designs database.
SurfIP
Select "Designs" for database covering Singapore and
Australian designs.
[Sweden]
Designregister New!
Includes images. Limited to searching by number or Locarno class.
[Sweden]
PRVLink Design New!
Partly priced subscription.
[Sweden]
Registreringstidning för design
Available in PDF format from 1999 onwards
[Switzerland
Design database]
Click on "Search query" and then select database.
[Switzerland]
Gazette, Teil III
From January 1996. Designs and seminconductor topographies.
[Turkey,
Designs database]
Includes images.
[Ukraine]
Interactive Database Industrial Designs Registered in Ukraine
Free subscription.
[US
designs on] DEPATISnet
Database hosted by German Patent Office offering links to images.
Includes apparently all US designs, which are searchable by numeration
by using S as the document code.
[US
designs on] Electronic Official Gazette (eOG)
Front page data (including drawings) of design patents, searchable
within each week. Links to the full image. Last 12 months only.
[US
designs on] Esp@cenet
From 2001, including images. Can be selected by using USS in the
publication number field or e.g. USD478194S. Otherwise searchable
by title or by name.
[US
designs on] Google Advanced Patent Search
Includes design patents, but as material is scanned some material
may not be accessible. All text is keyword searchable.
[US
designs on] Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR)
Official site. Searched by application or issue number. Gives
list of actions (with dates) leading to issue/ grant from the
file wrapper. Also provides data on related patent applications
(continuation in part etc.) in the "Continuity data"
area and on payment of maintenance fees in the "View Maint.
Statement" area.
[US
designs on] US Patent Search
Free subscription.
Includes copies of all US Design Patents.
[US
designs] on USPTO Full-TextDatabase
Official site. Includes front page data of US design patents from
1976 (but with revised US classification). Images of specific
designs from 1842 can be searched for by the "D" design
patent number or by the current US classification. A search can
be limited to designs in the Advanced Search page by specifying
apt/4 AND other search elements.
A plug-in such as AlternaTIFF must be downloaded to view the images
(this is preloaded on British Library PCs).
[US
designs on] www.pat2pdf.org
Searchable by number only.
Legislation & litigation
Much relevant information will be found on our other
links page, such as American material, where "design patents"
are considered to be a type of patent.
