Rawpatentdata

IPC30 reclassification and multiple classes - PART I

2011-02-10T07:10:00.000-08:00

In some previous posts I faced issues related to IPC30 reclassification released from INPI/OST.
Such reclassification, like any reclassification, works well when you apply it to a univocal value; anyway it happens that it's very difficult to assign a main or unique ipc class to a patent, so how is it working, in respect to the number of classes given to applications when you apply it to all patent's IPCs?

Now I'm disclosing some results about it's application to a wide extent of patents; following analysis refers to EPO, USPTO and WIPO (or better PCT procedure application) data, from sept 2010 Patstat ediction.

# classes	# of applications	%	cm %
1	4813658	69,9%	69,9%
2	1558807	22,6%	92,6%
3	396745	5,8%	98,3%
4	90992	1,3%	99,7%
5	18326	0,3%	99,9%
6	3565	0,1%	100,0%
7	836	0,0%	100,0%
8	213	0,0%	100,0%
9	61	0,0%	100,0%
10	13	0,0%	100,0%
11	4	0,0%	100,0%
12	4	0,0%	100,0%

We see that up to 12 different IPC classes can arise (very rare) but ve see that 25% of patents belong to 2 or 3 classes...

How does it change by splitting it by application authority?

Are there any remarcable pairs / triples of classes who appear more often?

The answer in next forthcoming post...

About triadic patents

2011-02-03T09:54:00.000-08:00

As Wikipedia and OECD say, Triadic patents are a series of corresponding patents filed at the European Patent Office (EPO), the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO), for the same invention, by the same applicant or inventor. Triadic patents form a special type of patent family.

That indicator is developed using the databases of the U.S., European and Japanese patent offices with a view to listing the inventions that are protected on all three markets. Given the high costs of filing for a patent in three separate offices, triadic patents are usually filed for more economically valuable inventions.

More about triadic methodology @this link (a paper from Helene Dernis and M Khan)

More recently also 4 and 5 offices, adding Korea and China, families have been introduced; this is another interesting list of statistic for triadics but also 4 and 5 offices patents:

http://www.trilateral.net/statistics/tsr.html c (triadics and 4 offices)

http://www.trilateral.net/statistics/grants.html (grants by ipc for 5 offices)

Guidelines for Examination in the European Patent Office

2011-01-31T05:06:00.000-08:00

Did you ever ask yourself what guidelines do examiners from European Patent Office follow?
Probably not, and regardless this lack of answers to this question you could sleep well.

Instead, if your nightmares are trubled from such question @this link you may download April 2010 ediction of Guidelines for Examination in the European Patent Office.

Have a good sleep, then!

Link between US patent classes and IPC

2011-01-27T02:18:00.000-08:00

This one comes straight from epo patstat forum, you may find the original @ this link.

If you are in need of matching US Patend Classification (USPC in short) against IPC, there are some web pages in USPTO web site that may be useful:

USPC-to-IPC Reverse Concordance (entries are grouped by IPC notation, rather than USPC notation): http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/classification/international/ipc/ipc8/ipc_concordance/ipcsel.htm

US-to-IPC Concordance Pages from Classification Home (by choosing US-to-IPC8 Concordance in the radio button) : http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/classification/index.htm

For more details, see USPTO dedicated page:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/classification/international.htm

Analizing Inpadoc legal status for EPO patents

2011-01-24T08:18:00.000-08:00

As previously stated, EPO released as an indipendent dataset table TLS221 containing Inpadoc PRS legal status events for patstat patents.

A short summary that can be done is to count the occurrence of events. I did it for EPO, adding also the higher publication number (last punr) where such event took place.

The event with most occurrence (over 7M) is "LAPSED IN A CONTRACTING STATE", followed by "POSTGRANT: ANNUAL FEES PAID TO NATIONAL OFFICE" with over 5M of occurrence.

Other event with over 1M of occurrence are:

#occurr.      PRS description
3872743    'DESIGNATED CONTRACTING STATES:'
3800430    'REFERENCE TO A NATIONAL CODE'
2019601    'REQUEST FOR EXAMINATION FILED'
1397420    'FIRST EXAMINATION REPORT'
1218881    'CORRESPONDS TO:'
1163669    'EXTENSION OF THE EUROPEAN PATENT TO'

but this is the full list by PRS CODE.

PRS CODE	COUNT	last punr	description
'110E'	300	2082790	'REQUEST FOR CONVERSION INTO A NATIONAL PATENT APPLICATION'
'111L'	2221	2157192	'LICENSES'
'111Z'	2812	2208339	'REGISTERING OF LICENCES OR OTHER RIGHTS'
'16A '	1114	1975264	'NEW DOCUMENTS DISCOVERED AFTER COMPLETION OF THE EP-SEARCH REPORT'
'17A '	3	513	'APPLICATION MAINTAINED'
'17P '	2019601	2211600	'REQUEST FOR EXAMINATION FILED'
'17Q '	1397420	2209285	'FIRST EXAMINATION REPORT'
'18D '	461702	2207895	'DEEMED TO BE WITHDRAWN'
'18R '	54072	2165701	'REFUSED'
'18RA'	758	2114162	'DATE OF RECEIPT OF REQUEST FOR RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF RIGHTS'
'18RR'	309	1994152	'RE-ESTABLISHED'
'18W '	126739	2204944	'WITHDRAWN'
'19A '	415	2189005	'DATE OF STAY OF PROCEEDINGS [BEFORE GRANT]'
'19F '	355	1976562	'DATE OF RESUMPTION (AFTER STAY OF PROCEEDINGS) [BEFORE GRANT]'
'19U '	1999	2195186	'DATE OF INTERRUPTION (INTERRUPTION OF PROCEEDINGS)[BEFORE GRANT]'
'19W '	1660	2155943	'DATE OF RESUMPTION (AFTER INTERRUPTION OF PROCEEDINGS)[BEFORE GRANT]'
'26 '	86541	2103236	'OPPOSITION FILED'
'26D '	382	1900280	'OPPOSITION DEEMED NOT TO HAVE BEEN FILED'
'26N '	898466	2077303	'NO OPPOSITION FILED'
'26U '	182	1488072	'INADMISSIBLE OPPOSITION'
'27A '	15231	1836085	'MAINTAINED AS AMENDED'
'27C '	4062	1835237	'TERMINATION OF OPPOSITION PROCEDURE'
'27O '	12173	1816095	'OPPOSITION REJECTED'
'27W '	17080	1863394	'REVOKED'
'29A '	65	1903155	'SUSPENSION OF PROCEEDINGS (CORRECTION)[AFTER GRANT]'
'29F '	22	1386983	'THE RESUMPTION OF A PREVIOUS INCORRECT ANNOUNCEMENT OF A SUSPENSION OF PR'
'29U '	86	1770709	'DATE OF INTERRUPTION (INTERRUPTION OF PROCEEDINGS) [AFTER GRANT]'
'29W '	60	1770709	'DATE OF RESUMPTION (AFTER INTERRUPTION OF PROCEEDINGS) [AFTER GRANT]'
'31I '	3	3961	'INTERRUPTION'
'31W '	3	3961	'RESUMPTION'
'32 '	67	3153	'CONVERSION'
'32PN'	561	2127793	'EP: PUBLIC NOTIFICATION IN THE EP BULLETIN AS ADDRESS OF THE ADRESSEE CAN'
'7119'	1	1049532	'GB: EP PATENT (UK) WITHDRAWN (SECTION 117/1977)'
'A4 '	212027	2204378	'SUPPLEMENTARY SEARCH REPORT'
'A5 '	26	246255	'SEPARATE PUBLICATION OF THE EP OR INT. SEARCH REPORT'
'AC '	105361	2211597	'DIVISIONAL APPLICATION (ART. 76) OF:'
'AF '	1	1190947	'IS ADDITION TO NO.'
'AK '	3872743	2211601	'DESIGNATED CONTRACTING STATES:'
'AKNL'	15	557345	'NL: CORRECTIONS (PART 1 HEADING G)'
'AKX '	519191	2124514	'PAYMENT OF DESIGNATION FEES'
'AX '	1163669	2211601	'EXTENSION OF THE EUROPEAN PATENT TO'
'AXX '	45469	2124423	'PAYMENT OF EXTENSION FEES'
'BE20'	13122	1384597	'BE: PATENT EXPIRED'
'BECA'	8924	2001094	'BE: CHANGE OF HOLDER'S ADDRESS'
'BECH'	6599	2001094	'BE: CHANGE OF HOLDER'
'BECN'	5287	1990654	'BE: CHANGE OF HOLDER'S NAME'
'BERE'	257006	2025612	'BE: LAPSED'
'BERR'	202	1576585	'BE: REESTABLISHED'
'CCHV'	45	574418	'PROCESSING APPLICATIONS ACCORDING TO ARTICLES 230 AND 231 OF LAW 9.279/96: NOTIFICATION OF PRESENTATION OF AN ADMINISTRATIVE NULLITY'
'CCPA'	105	285237	'ENTRY OF CHANGE OF NAME AND/OR HEADQUARTER AND TRANSFER OF APPLICATION PATENT AND PATENT AND CERTIFICATE OF ADDITION OF INVENTION: TRANSFER GRANTED'CERTIFICATE OF ADDITION OF INVENTION: TRANSFER GRANTED'
'CCPR'	3	182442	'ENTRY OF CHANGE OF NAME AND/OR HEADQUARTER AND TRANSFER OF APPLICATION
'CCPT'	3	273209	'ENTRY OF CHANGE OF NAME AND/OR HEADQUARTER AND TRANSFER OF APPLICATION PATENT AND CERTIFICATE OF ADDITION OF INVENTION: TRANSFER ON REQUIREMENT'
'CCPV'	331	733366	'ENTRY OF CHANGE OF NAME AND/OR HEADQUARTER AND TRANSFER OF APPLICATION PATENT AND CERTIFICATE OF ADDITION OF INVENTION: CHANGE OF NAME GRANTED
'CCRE'	3	466199	'ENTRY OF CHANGE OF NAME AND/OR HEADQUARTER AND TRANSFER OF APPLICATION PATENT AND CERTIFICATE OF ADDITION OF INVENTION: CHANGE OF NAME REFUSED'
'CND3'	2	1060108	'COPIED FROM NATIONAL REGISTER ON DEMAND OF THIRD PARTY'
'CRD3'	1	1713875	'COPY OF EPO REGISTER ON DEMAND OF THIRD PARTY'
'D11X'	11	586773	'LEGAL MEANS OF EXECUTION (DELETED)'
'D17D'	2315	2171852	'SEARCH REPORT (DELETED)'
'D17P'	1579	2157678	'REQUEST FOR EXAMINATION FILED (DELETED)'
'D17Q'	2779	2037326	'FIRST EXAMINATION REPORT (DELETED)'
'D18D'	1622	2168837	'EP-APPLICATION DEEMED TO BE WITHDRAWN: (DELETED)'
'D18R'	144	1722654	'REFUSED (DELETED)'
'D18W'	801	2123619	'WITHDRAWAL (DELETED)'
'D18Z'	25	1015336	'REQUEST FOR RE-ESTABLISHMENT (DELETED)'
'D19F'	1	1457499	'PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED "RESUMPTION AFTER INTERRUPTION OF PROCEEDINGS" WAS E'
'D20 '	23	241702	'CORRECTIONS OF A PATENT SPECIFICATION (DELETED)'
'D26 '	67	1316336	'OPPOSITION FILED (DELETED)'
'D26N'	169	1819366	'NO OPPOSITION FILED (DELETED)'
'D27A'	7	1493698	'MAINTAINED AS AMENDED (DELETED)'
'D27C'	21	995450	'OPPOSITION FINISHED (DELETED)'
'D27O'	66	1444214	'OPPOSITION REJECTED (DELETED)'
'D27W'	41	1549281	'REVOKED (DELETED)'
'D8RA'	6	90669	'DATE OF RECEIPT OF REQUEST FOR RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF RIGHTS (ART 122) (DELE'
'DA1 '	88	1849473	'DATE AND KIND OF FIRST PUBLICATION (DELETED)'
'DA4 '	374	2074380	'APPLICATION LAPSED SECTION 141(1)/REG 8.3(2) - APPLICANT FILED A WRITTENNOTICE OF WITHDRAWAL'
'DAC '	41	1827259	'DIVISIONAL APPLICATION (ART. 76) OF: (DELETED)'
'DAF '	5	513690	'SUCCESSIVE APPLICATION (ART. 61) (DELETED)'
'DAHF'	11	946088	'DIVISIONAL APPLICATION (ART 76) IN: (DELETED)'
'DAX '	279119	2206826	'EXTENSION OF THE EUROPEAN PATENT TO (DELETED)'
'DB1 '	765	2027175	'DATE AND KIND OF SECOND PUBLICATION (DELETED)'
'DB2 '	11	1397126	'DATE OF PUBLICATION OF NEW SECOND SPECIFICATION ** LAST ENTRY DELETED'
'DBV '	308	2072508	'DESIGNATED CONTRACTING STATES (DELETED)'
'DET '	14085	2143339	'DE: TRANSLATION OF PATENT CLAIMS'
'DIN1'	743	2163593	'INVENTOR (DELETED)'
'DIN2'	74	1444191	'INVENTOR (DELETED)'
'DX '	2458	2124262	'MISCELLANEOUS: (DELETED)'
'EAL '	68064	619223	'SE: EUROPEAN PATENT IN FORCE IN SWEDEN'
'EL '	12261	2187878	'FR: TRANSLATION OF CLAIMS FILED'
'EL1 '	36	1436119	'FR: TRANSLATION OR CORRECTED TRANSLATION OF CLAIMS FILED'
'EM '	93	1501989	'CORRECTION OF A MATERIAL ERROR CONCERNING INSCRIPTION IN THE NATIONAL PAT'
'EN '	89853	1847163	'WITHDRAWN (ART. 11 AND 12 EXTENSION ACT)'
'EN3 '	366	1478602	'FR: TRANSLATION NOT FILED ** DECISION CONCERNING OPPOSITION'
'EN4 '	147	962615	'FR: NOTIFICATION OF NON FILING TRANSLATION IN AN EARLIER BOPI IS ERRONEOU'
'EPTA'	33572	582021	'LU: LAST PAID ANNUAL FEE'
'ET '	674270	1892219	'FR: TRANSLATION FILED'
'ET1 '	1595	1625575	'FR: TRANSLATION FILED ** REVISION OF THE TRANSLATION OF THE PATENT OR THE'
'ET2 '	106	868564	'FR: TRANSLATION FILED ** REVISION OF THE TRANSLATION OF THE MODIFIED PATE'
'ET3 '	10255	1744826	'FR: TRANSLATION FILED ** DECISION CONCERNING OPPOSITION'
'ETR '	33	69921	'FR: TRANSLATION FILED ** RESTORATION OF THE RIGHT'
'EUG '	188093	1984057	'PATENT REVOKED'
'FDY '	41	2166543	'FILE DESTROYED'
'FIT '	23	569461	'SPC for herbicidal products: no action taken'
'FITB'	2	393911	'SPC for herbicidal products: suspended'
'FITD'	30	382375	'SPC for herbicidal products: granted'
'GBA '	3	164592	'GB: TRANSLATION AMENDED (GB SECTION 77(6)(A)/1977)'
'GBAT'	2	1347540	'GB: AMENDMENT OF TRANSLATION ALLOWED (OF EP PATENT) (GB SECT. 80(3)/1977)'
'GBC '	4202	2184497	'GB: TRANSLATION OF CLAIMS FILED FOR EP (GB SECTION 78(7)/1977)'
'GBC8'	9	346780	'GB: TRANSLATION OF CLAIMS FILED (GB SECTION 80(3)/1977)'
'GBCC'	87	1646478	'GB: CORRECTED TRANSLATION (OF CLAIMS) FILED (GB SECTION 80(3)/1977)'
'GBDL'	176	313468	'GB: DELETE "EUROPEAN PATENT CEASED" FROM JOURNAL'
'GBDW'	25	1025473	'GB: GB DESIGNATION WITHDRAWN'
'GBGD'	16	221494	'GB: DATE OF PUBLICATION OF THE NEW SPECIFICATION OF THE PATENT UNDER ARTI'
'GBGR'	1	105872	'GB: GRANT DATE REVOKED'
'GBGW'	34	207673	'GB: GRANT DATE WITHDRAWN'
'GBPC'	483205	1960641	'GB: EUROPEAN PATENT CEASED THROUGH NON-PAYMENT OF RENEWAL FEE'
'GBPR'	11473	1847171	'GB: PATENT REVOKED UNDER ART. 102 OF THE EP CONVENTION DESIGNATING THE UK'
'GBRH'	2	109873	'GB: EP (UK) PATENT REINSTATED (GB RULE 100)'
'GBRI'	13	255042	'GB: EP (UK) PATENT REINSTATED (GB RULE 110(3)A/1987)'
'GBRJ'	1	300945	'GB: REINSTATED UNDER RULE 110(4) - ALTERATION OF TIME LIMITS'
'GBT '	218467	1844896	'GB: TRANSLATION OF EP PATENT FILED (GB SECTION 77(6)(A)/1977)'
'GBT8'	14	2012199	'GB: TRANSLATION FILED (GB SECTION 80(3)/1977)'
'GBTA'	3140	1879932	'GB: TRANSLATION OF AMENDED EP PATENT FILED (GB SECTION 77(6)(B)/1977)'
'GBTC'	6	330584	'GB: CORRECTED TRANSLATION (OF EP PATENT) FILED (GB SECTION 80(3)/1977)'
'GBV '	37396	1842901	'GB: EP PATENT (UK) TREATED AS ALWAYS HAVING BEEN VOID IN ACCORDANCE WITH'
'IECL'	246	2184497	'IE: TRANSLATION OF CLAIMS FILED FOR EP (IE SECTION 120(6))'
'ITCL'	10790	981234	'IT: TRANSLATION FOR EP CLAIMS FILED'
'ITCP'	180	86210	'COMPLEMENTARY PROTECTION CERTIFICATE'
'ITF '	306954	1098336	'IT: TRANSLATION FOR A EP PATENT FILED'
'ITPR'	10854	863897	'IT: CHANGES IN OWNERSHIP OF A EUROPEAN PATENT'
'ITTA'	81250	572713	'IT: LAST PAID ANNUAL FEE'
'K1C0'	12	812577	'PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED CORRECTION OF PATENT APPLICATION CANCELLED'
'K1C1'	1549	1060720	'CORRECTION OF PATENT APPLICATION (TITLE PAGE) PUBLISHED'
'K1C2'	61	601814	'CORRECTION OF PATENT APPLICATION (PARTIAL REPRINT) PUBLISHED'
'K1C3'	1194	1062940	'CORRECTION OF PATENT APPLICATION (COMPLETE REPRINT) PUBLISHED'
'K2 '	19	277065	'CORRECTION OF PATENT SPECIFICATION PUBLISHED'
'K2C0'	7	696553	'ANNOUNCED RECTIFICATION CANCELLED'
'K2C1'	321	978359	'CORRECTION OF PATENT SPECIFICATION (TITLE PAGE) PUBLISHED'
'K2C2'	552	612651	'CORRECTION OF PATENT SPECIFICATION (PARTIAL REPRINT) PUBLISHED'
'K2C3'	872	868353	'CORRECTION OF PATENT SPECIFICATION (COMPLETE REPRINT) PUBLISHED'
'KL '	465	99143	'CORRECTION LIST'
'LIM1'	140	2053985	'LIMITATION IS ADMISSIBLE'
'LIM4'	6	1887581	'LIMITATION DEEMED NOT TO BE FILED OPPOSITION PENDING OR FILED'
'LIM5'	2	1345773	'LIMITATION WITHDRAWN'
'LTIE'	27039	2077303	'LT: INVALIDATION OF EUROPEAN PATENT OR PATENT EXTENSION'
'LTLA'	1601	1883641	'LT: LAPSE OF EUROPEAN PATENT OR PATENT EXTENSION'
'MED '	41	705275	'SPC for pharmaceutical products: no action taken'
'MEDA'	12	470247	'SPC for pharmaceutical products: examined'
'MEDB'	11	548114	'SPC for pharmaceutical products: suspended'
'MEDD'	280	733366	'SPC for pharmaceutical products: granted'
'MEDE'	2	365467	'SPC for pharmaceutical products: interlocutary refusal'
'MEDF'	3	211991	'SPC for pharmaceutical products: office refusal'
'MEDG'	6	237545	'SPC for pharmaceutical products: definitive refusal'
'MEDH'	2	320164	'SPC for pharmaceutical products: Board of Appeal'
'MEDM'	2	162639	'SPC for pharmaceutical products: Withdrawal of SPC application'
'MEDN'	2	113608	'SPC for pharmaceutical products: Annulment of SPC'
'NLE '	2	332626	'NL: NOTIFICATIONS CONCERNING APPLICATIONS'
'NLR1'	56501	2047779	'NL: OPPOSITION HAS BEEN FILED WITH THE EPO'
'NLR2'	20403	1799654	'NL: DECISION OF OPPOSITION'
'NLR3'	6719	1610848	'NL: RECEIPT OF MODIFIED TRANSLATIONS IN THE NETHERLANDS LANGUAGE AFTER AN'
'NLR4'	1672	1943524	'NL: RECEIPT OF CORRECTED TRANSLATION IN THE NETHERLANDS LANGUAGE AT THE I'
'NLR5'	1	430347	'NL: PATENTS IN RESPECT OF WHICH A REQUEST TO PROVIDE A CERTIFICATE OF PRI'
'NLR6'	2	473699	'NL: PATENTS IN RESPECT OF WHICH A DECISION HAS BEEN TAKEN ON A REQUEST CO'
'NLS '	34363	2010014	'NL: ASSIGNMENTS OF EP-PATENTS'
'NLT1'	16383	2013924	'NL: MODIFICATIONS OF NAMES REGISTERED IN VIRTUE OF DOCUMENTS PRESENTED TO'
'NLT2'	24394	2057318	'NL: MODIFICATIONS (OF NAMES) TAKEN FROM THE EUROPEAN PATENT PATENT BULLE'
'NLUE'	365	1947976	'NL: LICENCES REGISTERED WITH REGARD TO TO EUROPEAN PATENTS'
'NLV1'	219721	2101315	'NL: LAPSED OR ANNULED DUE TO FAILURE TO FULFILL THE REQUIREMENTS OF ART.'
'NLV4'	220591	1924593	'NL: LAPSED OR ANULLED DUE TO NON-PAYMENT OF THE ANNUAL FEE'
'NLV5'	26	995695	'NL: ANNULMENT (ART. 75)'
'NLV6'	7	1368526	'EUROPEAN PATENT SURRENDERED (CF. ARTICLE 48 OR ARTICLE 63 OF THE PATENTS'
'NLV7'	16305	1384597	'NL: LAPSED BECAUSE OF REACHING THE MAXIM LIFETIME OF A PATENT'
'NLXE'	3491	2010735	'NL: OTHER COMMUNICATIONS CONCERNING EP-PATENTS (PART 3 HEADING XE)'
'PG25'	7725957	2112403	'LAPSED IN A CONTRACTING STATE ANNOUNCED VIA POSTGRANT INFORM. FROM NAT. O'
'PGFP'	5139750	2124302	'POSTGRANT: ANNUAL FEES PAID TO NATIONAL OFFICE'
'PGRI'	7477	1947976	'POSTGRANT: PATENT REINSTATED IN CONTRACTING STATE'
'PRVG'	1	978251	'PETITION FOR REVIEW BY THE ENLARGED BOARD OF APPEAL GRANTED'
'PRVN'	24	1328375	'PETITION FOR REVIEW BY THE ENLARGED BOARD OF APPEAL NOT GRANTED'
'R110'	2	7963	'FILING OF A REQUEST FOR CONVERSION (CORRECTION)'
'R11L'	83	1899790	'GRANTING OF A LICENSE (CORRECTION)'
'R11X'	61	1519671	'LEGAL MEANS OF EXECUTION (CORRECTION)'
'R17C'	7507	2194165	'DATE OF DESPATCH OF FIRST EXAMINATION REPORT'
'R17D'	13437	2208002	'SEARCH REPORT (CORRECTION)'
'R17P'	7887	2208214	'REQUEST FOR EXAMINATION FILED (CORRECTION)'
'R18D'	2124	2105002	'EP-APPLICATION DEEMED TO BE WITHDRAWN: (CORRECTION)'
'R18R'	391	2098287	'REFUSED (CORRECTION)'
'R18W'	8953	2123112	'WITHDRAWAL (CORRECTION)'
'R18X'	2	308679	'RE-ESTABLISHED (CORRECTION)'
'R18Z'	36	1994152	'REQUEST FOR RE-ESTABLISHMENT (CORRECTION)'
'R20 '	788	331061	'CORRECTIONS OF A PATENT SPECIFICATION'
'R26 '	28663	1988913	'OPPOSITION FILED (CORRECTION)'
'R26D'	38	1405280	'OPPOSITION DEEMED NOT TO HAVE BEEN FILED (CORR.)'
'R26N'	17	1603192	'NO OPPOSITION FILED (CORRECTION)'
'R26U'	29	1369971	'INADMISSIBLE OPPOSITION (CORRECTION)'
'R27A'	148	1311631	'MAINTAINED AS AMENDED (CORRECTION)'
'R27C'	59	1170448	'OPPOSITION FINISHED'
'R27O'	102	1461886	'OPPOSITION REJECTED (CORRECTION)'
'R27W'	267	1475260	'REVOKED (CORRECTION)'
'R28E'	3	9930	'DATE OF RECEIPT OF REQUEST FOR RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF RIGHTS (ART 122) (KORR'
'RA1 '	744	1971153	'DATE AND KIND OF FIRST PUBLICATION (CORRECTION)'
'RA4 '	1495	2141230	'DATE AND KIND OF SUPPLEMENTARY SEARCH REPORT (CORRECTION)'
'RAC '	56	2186879	'DIVISIONAL APPLICATION (ART. 76) OF: (CORRECTION)'
'RAF '	1	688582	'SUCCESSIVE APPLICATION (ART. 61) (CORRECTION)'
'RAG '	1	163563	'HAS SUCCESSIVE APPLICATION (ART. 61) (CORRECTION)'
'RAP1'	486716	2209135	'TRANSFER OF RIGHTS OF AN EP APPLICATION'
'RAP2'	58529	2140589	'TRANSFER OF RIGHTS OF AN EP PUBLICATION'
'RAP3'	28846	2204183	'CORRECTION OF THE ADDRESS OR NAME OF APPLICANT (A DOCUMENT)'
'RAP4'	5296	2099576	'CORRECTION OF NAME OR ADDRESS OF PATENT OWNER (B DOCUMENT)'
'RAX '	29098	2207797	'EXTENSION OF THE EUROPEAN PATENT TO (CORRECTION)'
'RB1 '	74	1120719	'DATE AND KIND OF SECOND PUBLICATION (CORRECTION)'
'RBV '	188216	2208214	'DESIGNATED CONTRACTING STATES (CORRECTION):'
'REF '	1218881	2164226	'CORRESPONDS TO:'
'REG '	3800430	2193751	'REFERENCE TO A NATIONAL CODE'
'RHK1'	20838	915321	'MAIN CLASSIFICATION (CORRECTION)'
'RHK2'	83	750611	'MAIN CLASSIFICATION (CORRECTION)'
'RIC1'	548527	2208455	'CLASSIFICATION (CORRECTION)'
'RIC2'	1938	1621198	'CLASSIFICATION (CORRECTION)'
'RIN1'	895614	2209214	'INVENTOR (CORRECTION)'
'RIN2'	14939	2099980	'INVENTOR (CORRECTION)'
'RJL1'	3	1640970	'REJECTION OF LIMITATION - SUBSTANTIVE REFUSAL'
'RJL4'	2	1551724	'REJECTION OF LIMITATION - REQUEST ALLOWED BUT REQUIREMENTS NOT FULFILLED'
'RTI1'	79745	2209035	'TITLE (CORRECTION)'
'RTI2'	1602	1996833	'TITLE (CORRECTION)'
'SC4A'	2260	717821	'TRANSLATION IS AVAILABLE'
'TCAT'	4206	2125415	'TRANSLATION OF CLAIMS IN AT SUBMITTED'
'TCNL'	7866	2148560	'NL: TRANSLATION OF PATENT CLAIMS OF A EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION FILED'
'X '	5	624460	'DOCUMENT NOT PUBLISHED'
'XX '	11509	2206470	'MISCELLANEOUS:'
'ZE '	66	1233695	'NL: CORRECTIONS TO EARLIER ENTRIES IN HEADINGS PE - XE'

Kites patstat-based reports update

2011-01-13T04:34:00.000-08:00

a short not to announce that patstat based reports on KITeS website (http://db.kites.unibocconi.it/) have been updated to ediction 09/2010.

Hope you'll enjoy it!

Kind of publications in patstat

2011-01-13T04:31:00.000-08:00

How can I get from Patstat how many patents have been granted from my favorites patent offices? And how many utilility model or industrial design application have been published from Malaysian patent office?

Such informations are contained in the field Publication Kind (PUBLN_KIND) of table TLS211_PAT_PUBLN (giving informations about published patents).

This field displays publication kind attributed by the Patent Authority issuing the publication.

See for example what is the contents, counted by publication numbers, of such field in ediction 10/2009, for USPTO:

PUBLN_KIND	PUBLN_AUTH	npubl
1	US	1
1	US	1
4	US	1
	US	8342
A	US	1
A	US	6155642
A0	US	1
A1	US	2163951
A2	US	664
A3	US	1
A4	US	1
A5	US	4
A6	US	1
A7	US	4
A9	US	1704
AA	US	2
B	US	725
B1	US	604459
B2	US	847218
B3	US	6
B6	US	1
C	US	145
C1	US	434
C2	US	14
D	US	4
E	US	24729
E1	US	3950
F1	US	60
F2	US	1
H	US	2224
H1	US	334
I	US	702
I1	US	2
I3	US	1
I4	US	1919
I5	US	2930
N7	US	1
P	US	8238
P1	US	2759
P2	US	6815
P3	US	1692
S	US	25592
S1	US	194947
T	US	30
T2	US	1
U	US	14
U1	US	10
Y	US	1

If you'd like to see the full list you can download it from this link.

Anyway, we need a decoding for understanding what stand behind these 2 letter codes.

At this url you may find the vocabulary by patenting authority, provided from EPO and kindly suggested me from Malthe Mosel from Max Planck institute for IP.

So we may discover from above data that for USPTO that 6155642 patents in A status are "patent [from begin until end 2000] or patent issued after 1st pub. within the tvpp", or that kinds "1", " 1", "4"," " are probably mispelling (but I suppose you already guessed it...)

Reclassification of G01Q IPC

2010-12-14T02:02:00.000-08:00

In september 2010 Patstat data we find a 'new' IPC class, starting with G01Q.

http://v3.espacenet.com/eclasrch?classification=ecla&locale=en_gb&ECLA=g01q

example:
http://v3.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?DB=EPODOC&adjacent=true&locale=en_gb&FT=D&date=20101117&CC=EP&NR=2250533A2&KC=A2

Such code was not previously reclassified, so, thanks to the suggestions of Emmanuelle Fortune from CEPS,
G01Q could be classified in the new Wipo35 technology classification as follows:

(G01Q# not G01Q70/12) in the number 12 "control" (that was class 7 (Technologies for Control/Measures/Analysis) in OST 30 reclassification)

G01Q70/12 in the number 22 "Micro-structure and nano-technology" (that was class 5 (semicond+nanotech) in OST 30)

You can download from this link OST30 reclassification in XLS format, updated with G01Q.

ESF‐APE‐INV 2nd “Name Game” workshop

2010-11-30T04:26:00.000-08:00

The 2nd “Name Game” workshop on patent data will be held in Madrid, on December 9‐10, 2010, as part of the APE‐INV project, sponsored by the European Science Foundation.

It builds upon the success of a similar initiative held in Paris in November 2009, also as part of the APE‐INV project, and it aims at convening several researchers interested into building inventor‐based patent datasets, which requires solving a number of technical problems and exchanging data and expertise. It will be hosted by IPP, the Instituto de Politicas y Bienes Publicos, of CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas) and organized by Francesco Lissoni (KITES‐Bocconi) and Catalina Martinez (IPP‐CSIC).

APE-INV is a project funded by the European Science Foundation that aims at identifying inventions stemming from academic research through a reclassification by inventor of patents from PatStat, the EPO Worldwide Patent Statistical Database.

Such reclassification effort requires inventors’ names, surnames, and addresses to be parsed, matched, and filtered, in order to identify synonyms (that is names+surnames or addresses which are the same, although spelled differently) and to
disambiguate homonyms (verify whether two inventors with same name and surname are indeed the same person). Several algorithms have been produced in the recent past, either with reference to data from PatStat or from national patent offices.

One the objectives of the APE-INV project is to compare the accuracy and efficiency of such algorithms, and to involve as many researchers as possible in a collective research effort aimed at producing a shared database of inventors’ names, surnames, and addresses, linked to PatStat.

In order to achieve this objective APE-INV produces a number of PatStat-based benchmark databases, and invites all interested parties to test their algorithms against them. The present document (to be updated periodically) describes such benchmark databases, their rules of access, and provides guidelines on how to conduct the tests and how to report their results, in order to ensure comparability. Information is also provided on workshops that will be organized in order to allow a discussion of the results.

Objectives and Programme Approach

The main results expected by Ape-INV are there:

Sharing experiences for the creation of INV Database
to share expertise and methods among European (and US or Japanese) reearchers for the creation of an inventors’ database, one that will identify all different spelling variations of the inventor’s name, as well as the inventor’s different addresses and patents;
to share expertise and methods among European researchers for matching the inventors’ database with national databases of academic scientists, in order to produce comparable counts of academic patenting activity and to collect auxiliary information on academic inventors;

Producing a Database on Academic Patenting in Europe (APE-INV Database)
to produce a freely available database on “academic patenting in Europe”, that will contain reliable and comparable information on the contribution of European academic scientists to technology transfer via patenting, and that researchers will be able to update in the future.

Editing joint publications using the Data-set
to experiment the database opportunities, editing one or more joint publications containing original applications of the newly created databases;

Designing a Method to allow users to correct data
to devise a method for collecting the database users’ feedbacks on the quality of the data, one that will allow users to enter their own corrections to the identification errors. Users’ corrections are particularly important in this case, since the identification of inventors rely on algorithms that make use of information on each inventor’s social network: so users’ corrections to the identity of one inventor may lead to correct the identity of others.

Cooperating with established institutions in the field of patent data
A unique window of opportunity has been recently opened by the European Patent Office (EPO), and its collaboration with the OECD Patent Statistics Task Force for the creation of PATSTAT, a new database for statistical use (joint with WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and Eurostat).

APE-INV program will contribute to create a community of PATSTAT users, and to turn PATSTAT into a reference source for the worldwide community of social scientists engaged in science and technology studies. Besides making use of PATSTAT data, APE-INV will try to establish co-operation ties with all the insititutions involved in its development.

Participation to APE-INV

Currently, the APE-INV programme is supported by 9 ESF member organizations, namely:

• Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
• National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS), Belgium
• Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), Belgium
• The National Foundation of Science, Higher Education and Technological Development of the Republic of Croatia (NZZ),
• Danish Social Science Research Council
• German Research Foundation (DFG)
• National Research Council (CNR), Italy
• Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)
• Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), Spain
• Swedish Research Council (VR)
• Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)

However, APE-INV is willing to enlarge the participation to other countries, in order to become a pan-European research networking programme. In addition, collaboration with scientists worldwide is encouraged, and will be pursued with the help of subsidiary funds.

Workshop on patenting in China

2010-11-30T02:18:00.000-08:00

This one-day workshop deals with various issues having to do with Chinese patents and the patent system in China : evolution of the patent system in China over the last 20 years, quality of the Chinese patents, enforceability of patents in China, availability of datasets on Chinese patents and patent citations, effects of patent system on economic performance. There will be presentations by economists and lawyers.

Maastricht, the Netherlands
UNU-MERIT, Keizer Karelplein 19, conference room
December 10, 2010

more on: http://www.merit.unu.edu/patenting/

Deeper into patstat ipcs in september 2010 data

2010-11-24T05:18:00.000-08:00

Two issues with IPCs
First of all a new group of IPC code arised:

G01Q

we have 73195 in all patstat, but still we have no reclassification (OST30 or NACE) for them

See as example: EP 2250533
Soon we will try to suggest a possible cathegory for this IPC.

On the other hand we must highlight some IPC, falling under ipc_class_level 'S' are present in sept. 2009 data aside Advanced and Core IPCs. EPO suggestion is to drop them (they are about 1.2 Millions)

'A', 160.067.275
'C', 140.155.212
'S', 1.294.288

News from patstat user conference

2010-11-19T01:43:00.000-08:00

Some news about patstat future development were disclosed in Vienna @ patent statistics for decision makers conference.

First of all, as already cited, ECLA classification has been added in available informations.
Such classification is an ectension of IPC containing 135.000 symbols vs 70.000 in IPC.

April 2010 ediction added complete ECLA (ECLA, ICO, ECNO, IDT codes)
September 2010: added EST codes Y02 (ICO symbols) patents in the area of sustainanable energy technologies

About Ecla you can find on EPO website an e-learning module.

Another important issue is the possibility of querying patstat on line from EPO website.
From URL https://data.epo.org/expert-services/ you can run some queries (a part of them, those with a lock icon, are accessible only to service subscribers) and make also graphics, straight on epo data.

Also it has been announced what could be released in next patstat edictions:

• EP number of claims
• US number of claims
• US drawings
• PCT addresses
• A stable application id
• Cited References - New Features • IPC Classes - Core and Advanced

In detail:
Number of grants may be added to EP-B pubblications within a patstat table (probably TLS211)
Anyway EP-B publications may have different numbers of claims depending on designated countries and language considered
FI: EP 1311379 B1: GB/DE: 19 claims
AT/BE/.../TR: 13 claims

For unique and Stable Application Identifier, will be used published applications : DOCDB "R-id" ; for replenished applications will be used a surrogate key e.g : starting from value 900,000,000

Cited References:
In Sept 2010 - New origins have been added
'5' - International Search Report
'6' - Supplementary Search Report
'7' - Chapter II

In April 2011 - International Search Authority will be added
Options :
provide data inside CITN_ORIGIN
e.g. CITN_ORIGIN = '5SE'
or introduce a new field to contain authority

Cited References - Optional Features:
Option : have cited applications included origin '1' - cited by the applicant on filing earlier application filed by same applicant application that has not been published

IPC Classes - CORE and ADVANCED
In Sept 2010 : an application would have at least "core" level possibly "advanced" level
In April 2011 : an application will have either "core" level or "advanced" level

Importing patstat TLS221 (PRS inpadoc legal status) into MYSql

2010-11-15T05:51:00.000-08:00

From september 2010 inpadoc legal status data are available as a separate dataset, but linked to the rest of patstat via application id.
Datacome with no documentation, since they link existing PRS 14.11 product documents (so I link my previous posts on the argument )

In comparison to the old PRS data, there are no more fields L001 - 500, since application and publication data may be retrieved from TLS201 and 211 from core patstat tables, so they became redundant.

Total number of records in this ediction to be loaded is 80.328.938, devided into 16 files containing 5M records (header excluded), and the last containing 328938.
Be aware you'd need 20Gb of disk space for the whole process.

At this link you may download MYSql scripts for TLS221: care that they are 2 scripts since due to some errors, so if you want to be sure, at mid of first script you should run the second for creating a temp table to handcheck and correct (but this step is really for maniac since only a few records are to be corrected).
Then you can do other optimizations like setting date field to date formats from char etc.
Be also aware that in this first ediction records are terminated from {LF} but # 14 and 15 that are terminated by{CR/LF}.
My scripts reflect actual situation, but be aware EPO will soon fix this problem so scripts will need to be amended.

If you need a detailed list of 'problematic records' by number of txt file of TLS221 (they usually have a text field terminated by / so it escapes field termination and fields are shifted... this is the reason of the need of fixing records with above mentined procedure)...

3
Row 2117823 was truncated; it contained more data than there were input columns
( appln_id 010762977 progr #2)
14
Row 1243470 doesn't contain data for all columns
15
Row 3091645 doesn't contain data for all columns
Row 3504629 doesn't contain data for all columns
16
Row 3021693 doesn't contain data for all columns

patstat sept. 2010 MYSql load scripts

2010-11-15T04:41:00.000-08:00

A few days ago was released september 2010 version of PATSTAT data.
Along with 3 DVD come a precedure for uploading data into MS Sql server, but a very old procedure for MYSql user.

Cliccking on above icon you may get my scripts for uplaoding the data. They are released as they are, under CC 3.0 licence (this means you can use them but not resell 'em).
Please post a comment if you used them and found them useful, or if you have suggestions to improve 'em.

In this post I also put some comments.

First of all there is a 'problem' in comparison to previous versions, since records are not terminated with {CR/LF} but with {LF}.

Apart from that here I list the log of record load: we always lose some records in tables 202, 203 but oddly we 'earn' some records in 210 and 217, compared to the content declared by EPO.

table	date of files	declared	imported	delta
TLS201_APPLN	201009	66.226.956	66.226.956	0
TLS202_APPLN_TITLE	201009	48.303.269	48.303.256	13
TLS203_APPLN_ABSTR	201009	18.139.427	18.139.356	71
TLS204_APPLN_PRIOR	201009	28.823.857	28.823.857	0
TLS205_TECH_REL	201009	2.122.738	2.122.738	0
TLS206_ASCII	201009	37.428.136	37.428.107	29
TLS207_PERS_APPLN	201009	134.687.197	134.687.197	0
TLS208_DOC_STD_NMS	201009	16.864.577	16.864.577	0
TLS209_APPLN_IPC	201009	301.516.775	301.516.775	0
TLS210_APPLN_N_CLS	201009	25.289.374	25.289.379	-5
TLS211_PAT_PUBLN	201009	74.161.545	74.161.545	0
TLS212_CITATION	201009	97.111.948	97.111.948	0
TLS214_NPL_PUBLN	201009	14.826.883	14.826.881	2
TLS215_CITN_CATEG	201009	18.043.102	18.043.102	0
TLS216_APPLN_CONTN	201009	1.769.423	1.769.423	0
TLS217_APPLN_I_CLS	201009	101.894.277	101.894.406	-129
TLS218_DOCDB_FAM	201009	58.713.013	58.713.013	0
TLS219_INPADOC_FAM	201009	66.226.956	66.226.956	0

To go in detail (most user will find this boring) some record in some tables have lesser problems.

First of all 3 EP applications have an odd application and pubblication number that gives an upload error in part 3 of files TLS201 and 211 (is due to a non ascii char in the app/pub number and it's tranlastion in 2 chars make the field wider than it should be).

TLS201 - part03:
Data too long for column 'APPLN_NR' at row 21104523
Data too long for column 'APPLN_NR' at row 21145320
Data too long for column 'APPLN_NR' at row 21764445
TLS211 -PART03
Data too long for column 'PUBLN_NR' at row 19039112
Data too long for column 'PUBLN_NR' at row 19079909
Data too long for column 'PUBLN_NR' at row 19699034

This is the content of data, in black the field giving error:

73151912, 'EP', '      9600Ã“7LI1', 'A', 66151912, '9999-12-31', '', 0
66151912, 'EP', '      9600Ã“7LI1', 'D2', '9999-12-31', 'PI', '', '', 0

Then we have 2 titles longer than 3000 chars, always due to non ascii chars translated into 2 chars, increasing so the size of the field title.

TLS202 - PART01
Data too long for column 'APPLN_TITLE' at row 3126639
Data too long for column 'APPLN_TITLE' at row 3136166
(LONGHER THAN 3000)
003544896,"mÃ®todo e composiÃºÃúo farmacÃªutica para a prevenÃºÃúo ou o tratamento de uma doenÃºa ou uma condiÃºÃúo autoimune ou infecciosa, mÃ®todo e composiÃºÃúo farmacÃªutica para a prevenÃºÃúo ou o tratamento de uma doenÃºa ou uma condiÃºÃúo do sangue, mÃ®todo e composiÃºÃúo farmacÃªutica para modular a formaÃºÃúo de cÃ®lulas do sangue, mÃ®todo e composiÃºÃúo farmacÃªutica para intensificar a mobilizaÃºÃúo perifÃ®rico da cÃ®lula tronco, mÃ®todo e composiÃºÃúo farmacÃªutica para a prevenÃºÃúo ou o tratamento de uma doenÃºa ou uma condiÃºÃúo metabÃ¦lica, mÃ®todo e composiÃºÃúo farmacÃªutica para a prevenÃºÃúo ou o tratamento das condiÃºÃÁes associadas com doses mieloablativas de quimioradioterapia suportadas pelo transplante autÃ¦logo de medula Ã¦ssea ou de cÃ®lulas tronco do sangue perifÃ®rico (asct) ou pelo transplante alogenÃ®ico de medula Ã¦ssea (bmt), mÃ®todo e composiÃºÃúo farmacÃªutica para aumentar o efeito de um fator estimulante de cÃ®lulas do sangue, mÃ®todo e composiÃºÃúo farmacÃªutica para intensificar a colonizaÃºÃúo de cÃ®lulas tronco do sangue doadas em um receptor mieloablatado, mÃ®todo e composiÃºÃúo farmacÃªutica para a prevenÃºÃúo ou o tratamento de uma doenÃºa ou uma condiÃºÃúo bacteriana, composiÃºÃúo farmacÃªutica para o tratamento ou a prevenÃºÃúo de uma indicaÃºÃúo selecionada do grupo que consiste em doenÃºa ou condiÃºÃúo autoimune, doenÃºa viral, infecÃºÃúo viral, doenÃºa hematolÃ¦gica, deficiÃªncias hematolÃ¦gicas, trombocitopenia, pancitopenia, granulopenia, hiperlipidemia, hipercolesterolemia, glucosuria, hiperglicemia, diabetes, aids, hiv-1, distÃºrbios de cÃ®lulas t auxiliares, deficiÃªncias de cÃ®lulas dendrÃ¼ticas, deficiÃªncias de macrofagos, distÃºrbios de cÃ®lulas tronco hematopoiÃ®ticas incluindo distÃºrbios com plaquetas, linfÃ¦citos, cÃ®lulas do plasma e neutrÃ¦filos, condiÃºÃÁes prÃ®-leucÃªmicas, condiÃºÃÁes leucÃªmicas, distÃºrbios do sistema imunolÃ¦gico resultantes da terapia de quimioterapia ou de radiaÃºÃúo, distÃºrbios do sistema imunolÃ¦gico humano resultantes do tratamento das doenÃºas de deficiÃªncia imunolÃ¦gica e infecÃºÃÁes bacterianas, composiÃºÃúo farmacÃªutica para o tratamento ou a prevenÃºÃúo de um indicaÃºÃúo selecionada do grupo que consiste em doenÃºa hematolÃ¦gica, deficiÃªncias hematolÃ¦gicas, trombocitopenia, pancitopenia, granulopenia, deficiÃªncias de cÃ®lulas dendrÃ¼ticas, deficiÃªncias de macrofagos, distÃºrbios de cÃ®lulas tronco hematopoiÃ®ticas incluindo distÃºrbios com plaquetas, linfÃ¦citos, cÃ®lulas do plasma e neutrÃ¦filos, condiÃºÃÁes prÃ®-leucÃªmicas, condiÃºÃÁes leucÃªmicas, sÃ¼ndrome mielodisplÃístiacas, malignidades nÃúo mielÃ¦ides, anemia plÃística e insuficiÃªncia da medula Ã¦ssea, peptÃ¼deo purificado, peptÃ¼deo quimÃ®rico purificado, peptÃ¼deo quimÃ®rico, composiÃºÃúo farmacÃªutica, composiÃºÃúo farmacÃªutica para a prevenÃºÃúo ou o tratamento de uma condiÃºÃúo associada com um agente infeccioso de sars, mÃ®todo de processamento a baixa temperatura de hidrolisato proteolÃ¼tico de caseÃ¼na e hidrolisato de proteÃ¼na de caseÃ¼na"

Same thing for 1 abstract:

tls203 - PART07
Data too long for column 'APPLN_ABSTRACT' at row 702251

In table 206 ascii - part01 we have one record (#56) that gives some problems since a text field finishes with a / and this shiftes some fields, giving error 'Row 56 doesn't contain data for all columns'

Also in TLS206-part05
last 63 records doesn't contain data for all columns, but this time for real...
(Row 1428062 till 1428127)
FI:
037428066010830866054240706US       43659874A 3USPI0003        000000000000000000000

Enjoy you database...

Double publication numbers by application id in USPTO

2010-11-10T02:11:00.000-08:00

As previously posted, several application authority may have more than one publication number referring to the same application id.

In the case of uspto these are the main publication kind pairs of publication numbers referred to the same application id. It may be useful for creating a disambiguation table.

kind1	kind2	count
'A'	'B1'	3895
'A'	'B2'	124
'A'	'C1'	356
'A'	'E1'	12
'A1'	'A2'	521
'A1'	'A9'	1662
'A1'	'B1'	18410
'A1'	'B2'	845793
'A1'	'H1'	43
'A2'	'B2'	169
'A9'	'B2'	768
'B1'	'B2'	142
'E'	'F1'	59
'P1'	'P2'	424
'P1'	'P3'	1686

Bytheway, counting the difference in months among filing date and publication date for the first of the two pubblication kinds, we get the following result:

months	# of applications
4	50501
5	53963
6	130103
7	111533
8	67594
9	48504
10	33086
11	26268
12	20754
13	15320
14	13855
15	11927
16	9346
17	7075
18	186961
19	32484
20	6354

Above 95% of applications listed in the first table are published before 18 months (cases in month 19 may be a rounding error), conforting so our hipothesys that the first of the 2 publication is due to the 18 month publication law.

See also:
18-month publication provision:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/documents/1100_1120.htm

About non-publication request:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/documents/appxr_1_213.htm#cfr37s1.213

Thanks to Francesco Lissoni for help in solving this issue.

Linkage among application and publication tables in PATSTAT

2010-11-08T04:11:00.000-08:00

We could expect (from EPO documents) that every application has 0 to N publications, where every publication belongs to exactly 1 application.
In reality, it isn't so.

Let's check in deep the the table containing applications (TLS201) and the one with publications (TLS211).

Linkage among them may be established via APPLN_ID field, that is the main key in patstat.

Referring to sept 2009 ediction, we start by checking application table TLS201.
The first control aiming to discover if the same application_id could referr to distinct couples application authority / application number gives a positive feedback (it would have been a real truble otherwise!)

If we check, on the same table, couples application authority / application number having more than one application id, we find a 9% of duplication.
Nothing strange: we already stated that the disambiguating data for applications are application authority, application number and APPLICATION KIND, so such a percentuage referrs to offices where same application number may be used (for instance) for a patent of invention and for an utility model, referring to different application filed.
So also this case looks ok with our data model.

Let's see instead what happens with publications table (TLS211).
Using the same citeria used on TLS201 we start checking if the same application_id could referr to distinct couples publication authority / publication number.

We get about a 10% of doublecounting, where the top 5 by publication office is

'JP'	4202644
'US'	867657
'CN'	513398
'GB'	333662
'IT'	264060

Bad news here is that this duplication is due to issues tightly related to the application authority!

In case of Japan, duplication is due to different publication numbers originated from the same application
See this example for publication number JP53123578.

For China happens the same of Japan (see example)

About USPTO change of law took place in Y2K (eighteen-month publication provisions of the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999) creating a duplication the publications related to the same application: a publication number issued 18 month after publication, related to the application only, then later a final publication number issued when application is granted. An example here.

In Italian patent office (I'm so proud eventually we are in a top 5!!!) we meet a lot of D0 publication kind, that referr to a lot of non existing publication, or better, publication we cannot find FI in espacenet.
FI publication number IT1243259, kind B, shares application id with IT9001711, status D0, that is pastat documents is listed as 'Filing application'

Same issue with D0 kind is found in GB patent office, together with other duplicated kinds (British always overmake... see GB2358979)

So we cannot really find a general rule but country by country should be investigated; probably we may drop D0 type everywhere, and we should know that by counting by publication number we run the risk of ovestimate the number of patents.
Good news: EPO data are not affected from this issue.

Eventually if we check, on the same table, couples publication authority / publication number having more than one application id, we find a 11% of duplication.

We meet here patents in different status and, in some cases, also a link to an unpublished priority application (see from appln_id > 58.000.000 and date = 9999-12-31)

An example from EPO is pantent EP122624, having 4 application ids: one for each of following states: A2, A3, B1, and also one for A1 that is an unpublished priority with date 31/12/9999.

Another example from JP patent offece (we met this patent before) JP53123578.

PASTAT september 2010: what's new

2010-11-01T13:38:00.000-07:00

This is just a resume of EPO letter annex to the DVD set of september 2010....

- First grant indication: the data for element 049 PUBLN_FIRST_GRANT has been replaced by source data from DOCDB XML in order to guarantee that the data in PATSTAT is in line with other EPO patent information products.

- PRS data: in cooperation with the INPADOC legal status data team, is now available an extra table available that contains the PRS data. The table TLS221_INPADOC_PRS is NOT part of the standard PATSTAT distribution. You will need to purchase product 14.11: INPADOC Worldwide legal status (PRS) .

- Citation origin: in table TLS_212_CITATION an extra "origins" for the citations has been added. The list now contains extra:    ISR ==> 5 - citations from the International Search Report
            SUP ==> 6 - citations from the Supplementary Search Report
        and    CH2 ==> 7 - citations introduced during the Chapter 2 phase of the PCT.
Observant PATSTAT users have seen that we also use the numerical presentation of the citation origin.

- Green technology: TLS217_APPLN_ECLA now also contains the Y02 tags covering "TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE". These tags describe technologies that hold the potential for reducing waste and emissions, including greenhouse gas emissions
More information on EPO's role on this issue @link

USPTO persons data quality

2010-10-28T00:31:00.000-07:00

In a previous post I analized geographic data quality of inventors in PATSTAT, for all the data contained.
The results for USPTO where not so good...

APPLN_AUTH	inventors	no state	no zip	no country	no address	no city
US	5960856	86%	98%	21%	97%	25%

In order to understand how is the trend across years (if data quality is improving or noise is spread allover the data) I selected applicant/inventors who filed after 31/12/1999 applications type “A” (patents of invention);
the results was that 1% have no country and about 2% have no city (so it could be impossible to assign a region/NUTS2 code).

distinct appl/inv	2774408
ctry code blank	29858	1,08%
city blank	56119	2,02%

If we investigate by inventor/applicant county whether there may be some nation having a BIAS (only for those countries having more than 100 inventors/applicants) we see that those who have values above average are countries outside Europe, so not included in some regional reclassifications like NUTS2.

CTRY CODE	COUNT	EMPTY CITY	%
''	29858	29071	97,40%
'AE'	166	2	1,20%
'AR'	1265	21	1,70%
'AT'	10330	117	1,10%
'AU'	22688	499	2,20%
'BB'	181	21	11,60%
'BE'	12980	230	1,80%
'BG'	428	5	1,20%
'BM'	249	39	15,70%
'BR'	4137	54	1,30%
'BS'	137	3	2,20%
'BY'	163	2	1,20%
'CA'	70324	800	1,10%
'CH'	23982	489	2,00%
'CL'	558	14	2,50%
'CN'	29490	180	0,60%
'CO'	251	5	2,00%
'CR'	148	20	13,50%
'CU'	547	7	1,30%
'CY'	156	5	3,20%
'CZ'	1297	34	2,60%
'DE'	178725	2477	1,40%
'DK'	10973	204	1,90%
'EE'	225	0	0,00%
'EG'	228	0	0,00%
'ES'	10369	151	1,50%
'FI'	13552	123	0,90%
'FR'	67931	881	1,30%
'GB'	76473	1480	1,90%
'GR'	801	14	1,70%
'HK'	5289	128	2,40%
'HR'	378	6	1,60%
'HU'	2316	14	0,60%
'ID'	219	8	3,70%
'IE'	5163	60	1,20%
'IL'	25108	273	1,10%
'IN'	18600	189	1,00%
'IR'	236	5	2,10%
'IS'	414	9	2,20%
'IT'	31398	516	1,60%
'JP'	479365	3346	0,70%
'KR'	115483	978	0,80%
'KW'	162	0	0,00%
'KY'	255	39	15,30%
'LI'	376	21	5,60%
'LT'	149	2	1,30%
'LU'	815	55	6,70%
'LV'	115	0	0,00%
'MC'	113	6	5,30%
'MX'	2341	25	1,10%
'MY'	2666	24	0,90%
'NL'	28215	972	3,40%
'NO'	5912	106	1,80%
'NZ'	3875	141	3,60%
'PH'	742	3	0,40%
'PK'	135	0	0,00%
'PL'	1139	5	0,40%
'PT'	735	8	1,10%
'RO'	328	0	0,00%
'RU'	6956	40	0,60%
'SA'	516	3	0,60%
'SE'	23806	343	1,40%
'SG'	8106	98	1,20%
'SI'	567	4	0,70%
'SK'	277	0	0,00%
'TH'	797	18	2,30%
'TR'	618	3	0,50%
'TW'	113480	939	0,80%
'UA'	844	1	0,10%
'US'	1311956	10561	0,80%
'VE'	456	3	0,70%
'VG'	430	48	11,20%
'YU'	103	0	0,00%
'ZA'	2572	68	2,60%

WIPO and PATSTAT (III): patents entering national and regional phase

2010-10-22T06:13:00.000-07:00

As previously stated on part (I) of this topic, WO patents pass across two phases: international and national (or regional in EP case).

In this post I'll face the issue of determining how to distinguish PCT applications that entered the latter phase.

I'll referr to the case of EURO-PCT appication but it may be valid also for any other patent office.

We already know that by selecting Appln_auth = ‘EP’, Appln_kind = ‘W’, Publn_auth = ‘WO’, we gather PCT at international phase that were filed at the EPO.

PCT applications that have entered the European regional phase will have (a) corresponding EP application(s) for which the international_appln_id refers to the original PCT application.
So, you have to select all EPO applications (Appln_auth EP) having a Internat_appln_id filled in (PATSTAT team say it’s exhaustive for EPO).

Mind that the Application kind will be ‘A’, not ‘W’, since these have been validated as EPO applications (entrance to the EPO regional phase).

Let’s consider this EURO-PCT applications

APPLN_ID	APPLN AUTH	APPLN_NR	APPLN KIND	APPLN_FILING DATE	IPR TYPE
15808675	'EP'	' 9901446'	'W'	'1999-03-05'	'PI'

That gives origin to this publication

PAT_PUBLN ID	PUBLN_ AUTH	PUBLN_NR	PUBLN_ KIND	APPLN_ID	PUBLN_DATE
17714675	'WO'	' 9944650'	'A1'	15808675	'1999-09-10'

Now we cross check the application_id on internat_appln_id of TLS201 and we get this:

APPLN_ID	APPLN AUTH	APPLN_NR	APPLN KIND	APPLN_FILING DATE	IPR TYPE	INTERNAT APPLN_ID
1289254	'AU'	' 3328799'	'D'	'1999-03-05'	'PI'	15808675
15821876	'EP'	' 00104638'	'A'	'2000-03-03'	'PI'	15808675
52820607	'US'	' 51888700'	'A'	'2000-03-06'	'PI'	15808675

This means: the international application gave origin to 2 national phase and 1 regional phase patent.

See also this patent on espacenet along with it’s patent family.

Thanks to Catalina Martinez, Helene Dernis and Geert Boedt for clarifying me the issue.
NOTE: I know I should have posted part II before part III but I swear next week I'll post it...

WIPO and PATSTAT (I)

2010-10-22T05:10:00.000-07:00

Among the many patent offices, Patstat contains data from WIPO/PCT; such data cannot be treated like others patent offices, because of the very different application procedure.
Let's give as a first step some definitions taken from www.wipo.int and epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu:

The WIPO-administered Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) provides for the filing of a single international patent application which has the same effect as national applications filed in the designated countries. An applicant seeking protection may file one application and request protection in as many signatory states as needed.

The Treaty makes it possible to seek patent protection for an invention simultaneously in each of a large number of countries by filing an "international" patent application. Such an application may be filed by anyone who is a national or resident of a Contracting State. It may generally be filed with the national patent office of the Contracting State of which the applicant is a national or resident or, at the applicant's option, with the International Bureau of WIPO in Geneva (direct filing procedure).

The international application is then subjected to what is called an "international search." That search is carried out by one of the major patent offices appointed by the PCT Assembly as an International Searching Authority (ISA). The said search results in an "international search report," that is, a listing of the citations of such published documents that might affect the patentability of the invention claimed in the international application. At the same time, the ISA prepares a written opinion on patentability.

The international search report and the written opinion are communicated by the ISA to the applicant who may decide to withdraw his application, in particular where the said report or opinion makes the granting of patents unlikely.

If the international application is not withdrawn, it is, together with the international search report, published by the International Bureau. The written opinion is not published.

The procedure under the PCT has great advantages for the applicant, the patent offices and the general public:

(i) the applicant has up to 18 months more than he has in a procedure outside the PCT to reflect on the desirability of seeking protection in foreign countries, to appoint local patent agents in each foreign country, to prepare the necessary translations and to pay the national fees;

(ii) the search and examination work of patent offices can be considerably reduced or virtually eliminated thanks to the international search report, the written opinion and, where applicable, the international preliminary examination report that accompany the international application;

(iii) since each international application is published together with an international search report, third parties are in a better position to formulate a well-founded opinion about the patentability of the claimed invention.

For a patent application filed under the EURO-PCT route, two phases are identified, the international
phase and the national or regional (European) phase.
During the international phase, a search is carried out, and eighteen months after the priority date (the date of the first application at any patent office), the application is published.
When the international search report is finalised, the applicant has to choose between three alternatives: transferring the application to a national or regional patent office among those designated in the application (in which case it will enter the national or regional phase); electing an international preliminary examination; or withdrawing the application.
If the application enters the regional or national phase, formal search and substantive examination are undertaken, ending with the application being either granted, refused, or withdrawn by the applicant.

Thanks to Prof. Laurent Manderieux for explaining me some important concepts on this issue.