PHILADELPHIA and LONDON, February 21 /PRNewswire/ --

- New content expands English-language coverage of Asian patent data via Derwent World Patents Index and provides essential resources for prior art research

Thomson Scientific, part of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC) and leading provider of information solutions to the worldwide research and business communities, today announced the addition of Derwent World Patents Index(R) (DWPI(SM)) and essential scientific literature, including Web of Science(R) and Inspec(R), to Thomson Innovation(SM) ( www.thomsoninnovation.com), its new intellectual property research and analysis solution. The addition of DWPI and scientific literature provides a unique combination of patent and non-patent resources to support more comprehensive prior art research.

"To succeed in this new era of worldwide competition, organizations must have a holistic view of global innovation that only Thomson Innovation provides by joining the value-added patent data of DWPI with a deep collection of scientific research," said David Brown, Executive Vice President, Corporate Markets, Thomson Scientific. "By augmenting patent research with scientific literature, organizations are better able to reduce risk, track competitors and spark new discoveries."

With the inclusion of DWPI, Thomson Scientific has significantly enhanced its English-language Asian patent coverage available through Thomson Innovation. In addition to English translations of Japanese full text patent data, Thomson Innovation now includes editorially enhanced English-language patent abstracts for China, coupled with additional Asian coverage.

"An increasing number of patent applications are being filed in Asia, and researchers must search that data in English to be more effective in finding and evaluating patents that might impact research and development, portfolio management, licensing or other business decisions," said Brown.

To complement the new patent data, a broad collection of scientific literature content also has been added to Thomson Innovation, providing a critical resource for prior art research. Scientific journals, conference papers and technical documentation often include information on inventions prior to a patent being published.

A recent study conducted by 1790 Analytics for the National Institute of Standards and the United State Patent and Trademark Office study indicates that emerging technologies tend to reference scientific journals more often than the average patent, underscoring the value of scientific literature for prior art research. 1790 Analytics is an intellectual property firm that specializes in patent citation analysis.

"The increasing availability of scientific literature through electronic resources, by all indications, is accelerating inventive activity and leading to more and faster development of emerging technologies," said Anthony Breitzman, Ph.D., Principal and Director of Research, 1790 Analytics.

Scientific literature in Thomson Innovation includes: -- Web of Science -- Provides retrospective searching of scientific literature, including the Science Citation Index , the Social Sciences Citation Index , and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index . -- Inspec -- A bibliographic database with 9 million records covering scientific journals, conferences, books, reports and dissertations from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). -- ISI Proceedings(SM) -- Provides over 4 million papers from more than 60,000 conferences including the Science & Technology and Social Science & Humanities editions. -- Current Contents Connect(R) -- Provides access to complete bibliographic information from over 8,000 leading scholarly journals and more than 2,000 books.

Also new on Thomson Innovation is Corporate Tree, which allows researchers to search for patents by selecting assignee names from a corporate hierarchy, taking mergers, acquisitions and divestitures into account.

For more information about Thomson Innovation, visit www.thomsoninnovation.com.

About The Thomson Corporation

The Thomson Corporation (www.thomson.com) is a global leader in providing essential electronic workflow solutions to business and professional customers. With operational headquarters in Stamford, Conn., Thomson provides value-added information, software tools and applications to professionals in the fields of law, tax, accounting, financial services, scientific research and healthcare. The Corporation's common shares are listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC).

Thomson Scientific is a business of The Thomson Corporation. Its information solutions assist professionals at every stage of research and development-from discovery to analysis to product development and distribution. Thomson Scientific information solutions can be found at scientific.thomson.com.

Web site: http://www.scientific.thomson.com http://www.thomsoninnovation.com http://www.thomson.com

Kevin Bonsor of Thomson Scientific, +1-919-461-7428 or kevin.bonsor@thomson.com