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 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/ EP (A1) DE (C2) GB (B) US US H1749 (H) US RE42710 (E1) WO (A3)

Parts of a Patent Number Country Code US Publication number B2

Application Numbers (US) Application Number (Series/number) Publication Number (US YY/number)

Country Codes Based on ISO From the WIPO website - xes/annexk/ax_k.pdf xes/annexk/ax_k.pdf Alpha list (by code and by country) from the USPTO – (more useful for quick lookup) Same codes as used for URLs

Country Codes - Answers OrganizationCode African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI)OA African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO)AP AustraliaAU AustriaAT BrazilBR CanadaCA ChinaCN Democratic Republic of the CongoCD El SalvadorSV European Patent OfficeEP GreeceGR IcelandIS OrganizationCode IrelandIE IsraelIL NetherlandsNL Nordic Patent InstituteXN NorwayNO OmanOM Russian FederationRU Saudi ArabiaSA SerbiaRS South AfricaZA SpainES SwedenSE SwitzerlandCH United KingdomGB World Intellectual Property OfficeWO

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 1 st /2 nd /3 rd level for utility models US specific Kind Codes

Patent Numbers 10/ EP (A1) DE (C2) GB (B) US US H1749 (H) US RE42710 (E1) WO (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

Types of Patent Families Simple Patent Family = A set of published patent documents having exactly the same priority number or combination of priority numbers. Complex Patent Family = A set of published patent documents having at least one common priority number. Extended Patent Family = A set of published patent documents, each document having at least one priority number in common with at least one other document of the set. Artificial Patent Family = A set of published equivalent patent documents of different countries having essentially the same contents but not linked by common applications. WIPO Handbook on Industrial Property Information and Documentation on CD-ROM, 2003

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 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