Photocopying Facilities Photocopying of patent specifications costs 10p per page. On average photocopies of full specifications cost 4.00 each. Patent specifications can be transmitted by fax but in this case there is an additional charge of 1.00 per page. Documents can be supplied immediately or within 48 hours. Databases Members of staff are available to conduct patent searches on commercially available online patents databases such as Derwent's World Patents Index but usually readers are directed to the British Library's Patents Online search service or the Patent Office's Search and Advisory Service.
Discs covering filings made in Europe and the USA are currently available.
Searching the CD-ROMs is free but printing of references costs 10p per page. We have a Patent Office interactive training workstation which comprises a workbook, laser discs and laser disc player and monitor. A light pen connects to the laser disc player and is used to swipe bar-codes under each section in the workbook. This activates the laser disc player which plays the appropriate part of a training film from one of the laser discs. The interactive approach means that a user can either follow the training package as it is laid out in the workbook or move around and look at particular items of interest in any sequence.