The British Library has just launched a new (and free) online learning course about intellectual property on the Web.
There is a press release about it. Aimed at a British audience, but available for anyone, the first course is on the basics of intellectual property (IP). It puts IP in the context of business people trying to protect their innovative ideas. Designed with the complete novice in mind, it has a gentle step-by-step approach.
Later a course on patent, trade mark and design searching, and a course on marketing the invention, will be added.
The web site requires registration for those who would like to try it.
British publishers were, for a very long time, required to send a copy of every book published to the British Library as well as some others including the Bodleian at Oxford. Whether the law still exists, I don't know but it was certainly in place forty years ago. The libraries were not required to pay for the books.Publishers in other countries were not bound by British law and so were not required to send books to the library. Consequently the library does not have a copy of every book published.
Posted by: Patents | 14 February 2009 at 08:19