[Liverpool] Software patent data

[Aidan McGuire]

if its useful i will offer to do the web site.

Aidan

On 2 Apr 2006, at 11:27, Julian Todd wrote:

> tony burrows wrote:
>> After the last meeting I started playing with the idea of getting  
>> data from the patent office.  Gave me an excuse to learn Python as  
>> well.
>>
>> Now currently a can take a downloaded page and grab the relevant  
>> data into an xml file.  I know how to use python to stuff it into  
>> MySQL, but I have hit a couple of problems.
>>
>> First, I'm not sure how to navigate around pages automatically so  
>> that I can grab stuff without having to do it all manually through  
>> a browser.
>
> All you need is urllib.urlopen(), read(), urlparse.urljoin() and  
> some regexp knowledge to get whatever you want from the internet,  
> spider around it, and capture the data.
>
>    http://docs.python.org/lib/module-urllib.html
>
>
> That's how I've done it for the whole of publicwhip.  Arrange a  
> date from me if you want to know how to get started.  The technical  
> term for what you are trying to do is making the data accessible.   
> So, downloading all the data, adding a proper search engine, and  
> reposting it in a useable form is not violating the copyright, it's  
> making it accessible for people who can't handle their interface.   
> Or so goes the argument.  It hasn't been tested in court, but the  
> moral defense is: if the patent office is willing to take on these  
> improved capabilities which people need, then you will take your  
> website down.  It should be as legal as caching the webpages for  
> quicker access.
>
> Julian T.
>
>
>
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