In the previous issue of our newsletter, we started to present the main searching fields of the free online patent databases. We already presented the "publication number" and the "application number" fields.
This month, we will continue our presentation by presenting to you the following searching fields: "priority number", "publication date" and "proprietor", and illustrating them with the "Edinburgh patent".
Priority number:
The number that refers to the priority document on which the patent is based and consisting of the date of initial filing of the parent patent application followed by a country code and a number. In the case where a patent has several priority documents, all the priority numbers are listed.
- This searching field allows you to retrieve all corresponding Patents that have been filed in other countries by entering these priority numbers as search criteria
In our example of the "Edinburgh patent", this patent holds the following priority number 21.04.1993 GB 9308271. This means that a patent application has been filed in the UK on 21 April 1993. If you want to know if a patent has been filed in another country for this patent, you can enter the priority number as search criteria and you will retrieve the patent family (AU6542694, AU678233, CA2161089, DE69422034D, IL109381, JP9500004T, NZ265090, SG41951, US6146888, WO9424274, ZA9402719, ZA9402720).
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Publication date:
The date of publication of the patent document is the date the document is available to the public and forms part of the state-of-the-art.
- This searching field allows you to retrieve all the patents published on this date, including the patent you are looking for.
- Please note, however, that most patent databases only allow a search by this field for the most recent years.
In our example of the "Edinburgh patent", the date of publication is the 8 December 1999. It was published in the EPO Bulletin 1999/49.
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Applicant / "Proprietor":
The name of the company (or individual) that held the patent when it was filed.
- This searching field is the most adequate to look for all patents held by the same company (or individual).
- Be aware, however, that names can have different spellings in different documents.
- Try to use both the abbreviation and the full name of the company (or individual). For instance, type "IBM" and "International Business Machine" if you are searching a patent for this company. The same advice applies to individuals: type "John Fitzgerald Smith" and "J.F. Smith" if you are searching a patent for this individual.
- Note that the abbreviation for University is "Univ".
- Note also that most patent databases only allow a search by this field for the patents granted in the most recent years.
- Please note finally that the patent may have been sold to another company (or individual). In the databases, only the name of the patent holder at the date of filing is registered most of the time. It is therefore not possible to get accurate information about current patent holders from patent databases.
In our example of the "Edinburgh patent", the "proprietor" is the University of Edinburgh. Most of the time, the postal address of the University is also indicated. If you enter "Univ Edinburgh" as applicant in the espacenet® database, you will find the following patents: EP1224192, EP1169269, EP1157366, EP1155509, EP1237918, EP1115840, EP1112349. These are the last patents for which the University of Edinburgh has applied. Please remember that the term "proprietor" refers only to the patent holder at the date of filing, who is not necessarily the current patent holder. The University of Edinburgh might have sold the granted patent to another company.
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