Lead-up to World Patents Index (1969-72)

While its roots lie in Farmdoc (1963-), Derwent World Patents Index in its full form dates from January 1974. That launch followed several rounds of negotiations between governmental bodies such as WIPO and Inpadoc and commercial players such as Leasco and Pergamon as well obviously as Derwent.  None of these discussions having come to fruition, Derwent then simply proceeded..

As well as correspondence held in the Hyams Archive at City University London, two accounts by Monty cover the ebb and flow of negotiations, sometimes colourfully. A few redactions having been made, these two documents can be found as multi-page PDF files in the ‘Downloads’ section of www.montyhyams,info, as follows:-

State of play summary concerning WPI (1972)

Dated 23rd June 1972 this gives the history of negotiations to date and makes proposals to the Directors of Thomson, Derwent's owner.      Sections cover: 

Original Derwent bid against Leasco in Sept 1969; Fresh Derwent proposal in March 1971.

Negotiations with 'the proposed Vienna Institute' (which is about to be named 'Inpadoc');  The activities of Mr. X (name stated but redacted for publication here);

Dealings with other patent offices; Cost of producing five year database;  Cost of production in 1973 as a current service; Action/advice required of Thomsons.

Relations with WIPO 1965-70

Written in approximately 1989, this reflects on relations in general before concentrating on the first call for proposals for a World Patents Index, and then negotiations during 1969-70 involving WIPO, Leasco, Pergamon and Derwent. Considerable financial and operational detail is included as well as some colourful memories of Robert Maxwell.

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