Picture

Hello,

I just started using V 9.6.1.0. Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems like with all new patents I add to the database I don't get "preview" images of the first sheet drawing anymore. I also cannot select "drawings" unter "Download Information".
I guess previously I could include the image by clicking on Download All - but this does not seem to exist anymore.

I can click on the link to the espacenet mosaics, but this takes seconds to load - the beaty of MP is that I can work and screen quickly and are not being slowaed down by accumulating seconds which add up to hours and days...

Thanks for any insight on how to get the (available) preview images for all patents in the database. Thanks, Frank

Just to add to the previous post, in fact I found a few patents where the preview images were downloaded.
However, download is slow. I was just downloading information for one patent, but it didn't finalize. I see we now have a button to abort quirky downloads. Interestingly it showed "Downloading 4294967286", which seems a bit odd.
MP would be such a good application - if it could just download all the information quickly in the background while allowing to work on the data. The biggest issue I have with MP is that it pauses me always for several minutes for downloading and finalizing. Just some suggestions for improvement...Frank

Dear,

Could you update your MPatent revision please? MP9.7 rev. 120418.

Some modifications have been done on Espacenet webservice so MPatent must be update.

Concerning Drawing of the first page, it downloaded if the picture is available on Espacenet Database and for the number requested.

Please test the latest revision and tell me if the process is ok.

Please note also, concerning timing, that MPatent respect Fair Use of OPS/Espacenet, so we can't download like they are some years, very quickly. We work actually hard to implemente our own espacenet patents database. This will reduce the downoading time.
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Regards / Cordialement
Bruno Mannina
Technical Support / Support Technique

Dear Bruno,

it seems like the update improved the availability of images. However I notice that there are patents, esp. Chinese, where MP does not get the images, even though you can view them i.e. by clicking on the Mosaics link. Any chance to implement alternative methods to get the images if they are not available through the current method?

As you can probably tell I would much more prefer a modern database which saves changes immediately as they occur and you don't have to go through phases of project saving for every little addition. As i.E. SQLServer Express or MySQL is free and used in thousands of applications, chances are that the code is more thoroughly tested and robust than any proprietary solution (I still get sometimes odd situations where I have to close and restart MP, where downloaded documents don't appear, downloads don't finish etc. in 98% of the cases it works fine, but I'd like to be able to depend 99.99% on the tool I use. Especially when it comes to important matter like patents.

I understand the fair use policy and you adhering to it, even though I believe it does not dramatically reduce the bandwith for the EPO or other DB providers. However, why can't the download occur in a separate window so I can continue to work while MP downloads for the next 3h in the background?

Lastly, it would be very nice if I could start Acrobat optionally in a separate window vs. in the lower pane so I can have the PDF open for comparison etc. while looking at an other selected patent.

Thanks for considering, Frank

Thanks Bruno for the detailed answers!
Don't know OEB or DocDB and what that would really mean, but one of my biggest slow-downs are the current "database" limitations:

1) Preventing me from working while a download is in process
2) It takes 10 to ~100s for finalizing and saving a project (i7, SSD HDD), depending on the size, for simple operations such as adding citation numbers to a single patent. On slower hardware it may take minutes for every other click, which is simply not acceptable

A "real" database does not solve issues where downloads are not completed, but it would solve my issues above. If well implemented you could even have several users access a given project DB at the same time to screen, group and mark up patents at the same time. The status (read/unread, pertinence etc.) would update instantly for any user accessing the same project without ever needing to finalize a project as every DB transaction is immediately written to the DB. You also have the same if not more control to ensure consitency of the DB through transactions (grouping several changes togeter and committing them only if all data is available and passed some consistency checkes).

Just food for some thoughts.

Thanks again, Frank

Typically I have between 5.000-10.000 individual patents in one project. Very large projects may contain 30.000 patents or even a bit more.

I can only guess as I don't know the details, but I think some of the processes (Filtering, Tagging, Extraction) can be done "on the fly" with a real DB as new data is entered. They may even be offloaded to the DB-engine.

Could some of the processes be done while it's downloading several patents and the CPU is pretty much idling it order to speed up finalization?