A snapshot of some of the key issues discussed at these conferences is provided. These include the future of patent information services in the new age of electronic databases on the Internet with contributions from Derwent, the EPO, the European Commission, and others. These presentations showed how the commercial and `free' databases may coexist in a way that could benefit the user with a potentially innovative product. Also illustrated was the value of patent information in the assessment process for awards to technically innovative firms. Another underlying theme explored in some depth in both conferences was the renewed efforts to introduce a single Europe-wide patent system, Community Patent Convention (CPC), and the benefits this could provide in the world-wide economy. The need to obtain a bundle of nationally valid patents to cover Europe was seen by many industrialists as burdensome, especially when compared with existing systems providing protection in analogous economic blocks such as the USA and Japan. The major hurdles still to be fully overcome include the cost and the necessity for translations, the issues of sovereignty of individual countries in Europe, the legal process for challenging a CPC patent, and the effect on national patent offices and their ability to continue to provide services not available elsewhere.