What we are offering?
Sometimes during the patent litigation process, law firms or patent agents need to know the earliest date on which items of stock were available to the public from the British Library, either in the reading rooms or via document supply. The Public Availability Date service will help supply them with the earliest date an item of stock was available from any part of the Library's collections.
What will we do?
We will:
- search internal records
- check the stock at the shelf
- where the BL holds more than one copy, we will check dates for both copies and give the earliest date it was available to the public
- provide a reply in writing (either by letter, signed fax or e-mail)
A charge will be made for this service. For all enquiries we will charge £84.00 per hour of research time, in 15 minute units plus VAT. Most enquiries will take at least 45 minutes (£63.00 plus VAT).
If we supply copies of any documents, such as journal articles or contents pages, these will be charged at the Library's remote tariff rates, plus copyright fees where applicable.
We are able to supply a written reply within 3 working days. If you require a faster reply we will do our best to meet your deadline.
