Patent Bits and PiecesOctober 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

Document/ References Classification

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)

Parts of a Patent NumberC

ount

ry C

ode

USP

ublic

atio

n nu

mbe

r6645399

Kin

d C

ode

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/annexes/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 Code

African Intellectual Property

Organization (OAPI) OA

African Regional Intellectual

Property Organization (ARIPO) AP

Australia AU

Austria AT

Brazil BR

Canada CA

China CN

Democratic Republic

of the Congo CD

El Salvador SV

European Patent Office EP

Greece GR

Iceland IS

Organization Code

Ireland IE

Israel IL

Netherlands NL

Nordic Patent Institute XN

Norway NO

Oman OM

Russian FederationRU

Saudi Arabia SA

Serbia RS

South Africa ZA

Spain ES

Sweden SE

Switzerland CH

United Kingdom GB

World Intellectual Property Office WO

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

US specific Kind Codes

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