The patent literature is now a leading source of intelligence about innovations in the clean coal and other chemical engineering areas. Some innovators, however, can be wary of infringing other people’s patents. To assist innovators search for clean coal patents, the European Patent Office recently introduced a new classification system for clean coal patents which also applies to patents filed in Australia and elsewhere. This paper discusses the new classification system for clean coal patents, and gives some examples about how it can be easily used by clean coal technologists to search for new patents and show trends in clean coal innovation in recent years.

Clean coal technologists may be concerned about being blocked by existing patent rights. Proposed changes to patent legislation will exempt research on patented technology from infringing these patents. This will open the door to areas previously unavailable. The impact of the proposed exemption to patent infringement for clean coal and chemical engineering innovation will be reviewed.