Patent Bits and Pieces
October 10, 2013
Overview
•
•
•
•
Types of Documents
Types of Searches
Parts of a Patent
Types/Parts of Patent Numbers
– Incl. Country Codes and Kind Codes
• Patent Families/Equivalents
• If time: INID #s, File Wrapper, Country
specific sites
Patent Documents
Patents
• Utility Patent
• Design Patent (D)
• Plant Patent (PP)
• Statutory Invention
Registration (H)
• Defensive Publications
(T)
– April 1968 – May 1985
Other “Documents”
• Search Report
• File Wrapper
• Change of Assignment (*)
• Maintenance Fee
Information
Types of Searches
• Preliminary/Novelty/Freedom to Operate
– Classification plus Maintenance
• Inventor/Assignee
– New hire
– Conference “expert”
– Competitor
• Include families to find countries important to
them
– Future partnership
• General “State of the Art” Research
Searching is Iterative!
Keyword/Text
Search
Classification
Document/
References
Parts of a Patent Document
• Bibliographic
– Title, Number, Date, Inventor, Assignee, Class
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
References
Abstract
Drawings
Background
Summary/Description
Preferred Embodiments
Claims
Patent Numbers
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
10/023130
EP1131476 (A1)
DE4212755 (C2)
GB2434022 (B)
US20010023130 20011217
US H1749 (H)
US RE42710 (E1)
WO 2008101089 (A3)
US
Publication
number
Country Code
Parts of a Patent Number
6645399
B2
Application Numbers (US)
• Application Number (Series/number)
• Publication Number (US YY/number)
Country Codes
• Based on ISO 3166-1
• From the WIPO website http://www.wipo.int/pct/guide/en/gdvol1/anne
xes/annexk/ax_k.pdf
• Alpha list (by code and by country) from the
USPTO – (more useful for quick lookup)
http://www.uspto.gov/patft/help/helpctry.htm
• Same codes as used for URLs
Country Codes - Answers
Organization
African Intellectual Property
Organization (OAPI)
Code
OA
African Regional Intellectual
Organization
Code
Ireland
IE
Israel
IL
Netherlands
NL
Property Organization (ARIPO)
AP
Nordic Patent Institute
XN
Australia
AU
Norway
NO
Austria
AT
Oman
OM
Brazil
BR
Russian Federation
RU
Canada
CA
Saudi Arabia
SA
China
CN
Serbia
RS
South Africa
ZA
Spain
ES
Sweden
SE
Switzerland
CH
United Kingdom
GB
World Intellectual Property Office
WO
Democratic Republic
of the Congo
CD
El Salvador
SV
European Patent Office
EP
Greece
GR
Iceland
IS
Kind Codes
US specific Kind Codes
• Come at the end of the number
• Vary by country/issuing authority
• A letter, usually followed by a number
Examples (general)
• A – First publication level (application for most
countries)
• B – Second publication level (granted/examined
patent for most countries)
• C – Third publication level (granted patent in
many countries, reexam certificate in US)
• R - Separately published search reports
• T – Publication of Translations
• U, Y, and Z are 1st/2nd/3rd level for utility models
Patent Numbers
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
10/023130
EP1131476 (A1)
DE4212755 (C2)
GB2434022 (B)
US20010023130 20011217
US H1749 (H)
US RE42710 (E1)
WO 2008101089 (A3)
Patent Equivalents
• Same invention / multiple countries
• First application = Priority
• English language publication
– US, UK – English Only
– EP, WO – Some English
– JP (in PAJ) – English Abstracts
• Patent Family = List of equivalents
Advanced Topics
• INID Numbers
• Patent File Wrapper
• Patent Information available from other
countries
INID Numbers
• WIPO Handbook on Industrial Property
Information and Documentation, Standard
ST.9
• Internationally agreed Numbers for the
Identification of (bibliographic) Data
• …a list of approximately 60 distinct
bibliographic data widely used on the first
page of Patent documents or in Patent
Gazettes
File Wrapper
• Official name for documentation that is part
of the prosecution of an application/patent
• USPTO – online, can download individual
pieces, or just the ones you want, as PDF
• EPO – “European Register” has similar
information
• Other countries have this online, but in their
own language
• Can be purchased – but $$$$
WON Website
• WON – Dutch Patent Information User Group
• http://www.won-nl.org/2008/public/en/patinf.shtml
• Website lists IP related sites by region/country:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Home Page
Bibliographic Database
Register
Full Documents (many are in PatentScope)
Machine Translations (very few)
Litigation Information
Other