World panorama of sporotrichosis patent deposit and use of patent information for problem solving in underdeveloped countries scenario

Abstract

Sporotrichosis is a neglected disease occurring worldwide, described as an occupational risk disease, affecting farmers, gardeners, and agricultural workers. Patents have territorial restrictions, being valid only in countries that have granted a patent license, which allows their free reproduction in countries where protection has not been extended. The use of tools that extract, organize, analyze and allow the targeted selection of interest documents can contribute to solution of problems in technologically less developed countries. This study aims to analyze the main patents related to diagnosis of sporotrichosis on Espacenet, a patent base with more than 120 million documents, seeking to select free documents for exploitation, with low cost of reproduction, and that can be used to at least minimize problems related to sporotrichosis. Patent2net, an open-source patent collector, was used to search in Espacenet, a database with more than 120 million of patents, documents that will be freely applied in Brazil. We identify a Taiwanese patent related to a kit for rapid detection of Sporothrix infection, that can be freely manufactured Brazil and other underdeveloped countries. The technometric analysis performed with P2N can be replicated by any interested in search of technological solutions for numerous problems, especially in poor countries.