Standards and Patents
Standards
Standards are published documents setting out specifications and procedures designed to ensure products, services and systems are safe, reliable and consistently perform the way they were intended to. They establish a common language which defines quality and safety criteria. (Standards Australia). Please be aware that not all standards are held by Library.
Many standards can be found by searching for a topic in Library Search and then filter so the resource type = Standards. For example, Any field contains Concrete, Resource type = Standards returns over 40 results.
Other standards need to be searched directly within the databases (such as Australian Standards).
-
ASCE StandardsASCE Standards provide over 130 technical guidelines, or “how to” instructions, for promoting safety, reliability, productivity, and efficiency across all areas of civil engineering.
-
IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Standards DictionaryA comprehensive database of standards terminology. The dictionary contains over 39,000 standards terms with complete source citations of definitions.
-
IEEE StandardsContains over 2600 Standards (over 1350 active) from IEEE and SMPTE. These are searchable by collection, by number, by topic and by ICS Code.
-
Standards Online PremiumProvides full text access to all current Australian Standards, Joint ISO/Australian Standards, Joint NZ/Australian Standards, current Draft Australian Standards, and amendments to Australian Standards.
If you encounter issues with access please contact Library chat.
The library provides subscription access to Australian and selected international standards for educational use via i2i by Intertek Inform (previously SAI Global). Some things to note:
• Access is restricted and all users must access the database using their LTU credential (SSO).
• The publisher does not permit sharing copies of standards in any form.
• We suggest that each individual access and download the standard for study purposes (it will be locked to the device that you download it on, and you will need to be connected to the internet to open your DRM pdf if you accessed via i2i).
• The platform also allows you to read the standard in a document viewer (within a browser).
• The Library does not subscribe to all international standards - before requesting the unlocking of an international standard check the Equivalencies section of the product page for an AS equivalent.
Access:
1. Go to the Library's home page, search for Standards and change the type to Databases. This should bring you to the Standards Online Premium landing page where you can sign in (note - we have 5 concurrent user licenses so you may need to wait for a license to be available).
2. Search for the standard you need eg. AS 5100.7.
3. Click on the Standard name to go to the Product Page. If we subscribe to the Standard it will show in the top right with option to View Online or Download.
4. If the library does not have access (ie for an ISO standard), check the Equivalencies to see if there is an identical Australian standard. Please note - we only have a small number of International standards available. Also check the other Standards platforms above.
5. View online or download to open the file using Adobe Reader or PDF Exchange, you will not be able to open in another application. Note: PDF files are encrypted and can only be opened in a PDF viewer that supports File Open. You may need to install the FileOpen plugin (requires admin rights to the computer) to be able to access or you may need disable the global object security policy (GOSP) following the DRM guidance.
6. Please log out of the database in your browser as soon as possible to allow others to access.
Professional Associations, Organisations and Companies
-
American National Standards Institute (ANSI)The Institute administers and coordinates the U.S. voluntary standards and conformity assessment system.
-
British Standards Institute (BSI)BSI is the business standards company that helps organizations make excellence a habit.
-
European Committee for Standardization (CEN)CEN, the European Committee for Standardization, is an association that brings together the National Standardization Bodies of 34 European countries.
-
European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)ETSI produces globally-applicable standards for ICT, including fixed, mobile, radio, converged, broadcast and Internet technologies.
Patents
A patent is a right that is granted for any device, substance, method or process that is new, inventive and useful. A patent is a legally enforceable right to commercially exploit the invention for the life of the patent. (IP Australia, 2017)
-
Intellectual property @ La Trobe UniversityIf you have made a potentially patentable discovery or created other intellectual property that you want to protect, you should contact the La Trobe University Commercialisation Unit to arrange an assessment:
-
IP Australia - Australian GovernmentAustralian Government agency that administers intellectual property (IP) rights and legislation relating to patents, trade marks, designs and plant breeder's rights.
-
Patent LensThe Lens is an open global cyberinfrastructure to make the innovation system more efficient and fair, more transparent and inclusive.
-
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)WIPO is an international organization dedicated to promoting the use and protection of works of the human spirit. It administers 21 international treaties dealing with different aspects of intellectual property protection.
-
US Patent and Trade Mark OfficeUSPTO is the federal agency for granting U.S. patents and registering trademarks.
-
United Kingdom Intellectual Property OfficeSearchable databases of patents, trademarks, copyright and designs.
-
Espacenet Patent searchThe European Patent Office provides free access to EPO, Japanese, WIPO and EPODOC worldwide patent information.
Further help
-
IP Australia - Search for a PatentBefore applying for your intellectual property right, you should do a comprehensive search to make sure that it isn’t already registered.
-
University of Minnesota LibrariesTutorials available from the University of Minnesota provides help in finding relevant patents and learning how to read them.
-
Google PatentsSearch and read the full text of patents from around the world.