Patent Filings Slow Amid Economic Slowdown

Posted on January 28, 2009 by mjwhitekingston

The worldwide economic crisis appears to be having an impact on international patent filings. This week the WIPO announced that the number of international patent application filings in 2008 increased by 2.4 percent, a big drop from the 9.3 percent average pver the past several years. However, the number of applications filed was 164,000, an all-time high. The countries with the largest increases were Korea (12%) , China (11.9%) and Sweden (12.5%). The U.S. experienced a 1 percent drop. Australia, Italy, Netherlands, UK also experienced declines. Canada had a very respectable 4.2% increase.

Posted in Patent statistics, WIPO | 2 Comments

New Guide to Using Patent Information from WIPO

Posted on January 22, 2009 by mjwhitekingston

WIPO recently published a new 44-page guide to using patent information.

The guide explains what a patent is, the information contained in a patent document, where patent information can be found, and how to use basic patent search strategies. Almost half of the guide is devoted to explaining how patent information can be used.
It’s a well-written, concise introduction to the benefits of using patent information.
Posted in business applications, patent documents, Patent information | Leave a comment

Locating Re-examination Certificates

Posted on January 20, 2009 by mjwhitekingston

Patent attorney Stephen Nipper recently posted on his blog, The Invent Blog, a question about re-examination numbers. It seems that the USPTO website has some erroneous examples of re-examination document numbers.

In brief, anyone may file a request for a rexamination of a patent on the basis of prior art consisting of patents or other publications. The USPTO will examine the prior art and decided whether some, all or none of the claims of the patent in question should stand. At the end of the review the USPTO issues a re-examination certificate that sets forth the results of re-examination. This certificate is then attached to the original patent.

Re-examination certificates are not indexed in the USPTO’s web-based patent database. Instead, users can retrieve a copy of the certificate by retrieving the original patent, e.g. by searching the patent number and clicking on the “Images” button to see the TIFF image. The re-exam certificate is attached after the claims section. (See 3,876,375.)

When a request for re-examination is filed, the USPTO assigns the case a control number preceded by a series code. The series code 90 is used for ex parte re-examination proceedings (90/009,335) and 95 for inter partes proceedings (95/001,115). Since 1981 there have been approximately 9,500 ex parte re-examinations filed. And 500 inter partes re-exams have been requested since November, 1999. The number of requests has nearly doubled in the last decade, increasing from 350 in fiscal year 1998 to 650 in 2008.

It is possible to retrieve re-examination filings in the USPTO’s Public PAIR (Patent Application Information Retrieval) System. Simply search the re-examination control number (including the series code, e.g. 90/010334). The file wrapper will contain all the documents and forms involved in the re-examination, including a copy of the patent in question, submitted prior art, e.g. patents and non-patent literature.

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Promoting IP Awareness – Database of Materials

Posted on January 14, 2009 by mjwhitekingston

The WIPO has a new database called IP Outreach in Practice which contains “basic information and links to practical examples of interesting IP outreach initiatives.”

It’s quite an interesting collection and a great place to look for inspiration and ideas. You can search by category (IP creation, IP use and awareness, IP crime), format (tv program, curriculum material, newsletter, etc.). There’s an advanced search for more complicated queries.

WIPO wants to continue building the collection. You can send examples of outreach materials or initiatives to outreach@wipo.int.

Posted in education, patent information dissemination, promotion, WIPO | 1 Comment

Browser Toolbar for Patent Info Resources

Posted on January 9, 2009 by mjwhitekingston

Patent Pal is a new browser toolbar that links numerous patent information tools and resources. Included are over 30 patent search sites, numerous IP blogs and newsfeeds, patent office websites, manuals, job sites, and much more. Users can customize the toolbar and add their favorite sites. This is a very cool and useful tool… one of the best I’ve seen in years. Patent Pal can be downloaded from http://www.thepatentpal.com/.

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Patent Databases: 2008 in Review

Posted on January 1, 2009 by mjwhitekingston


USPTO
Early in 2008 the USPTO installed verification software in its Public PAIR (Patent Application Information Retrieval) system that requires users to enter a two-word code in order to access patent and published application files. This was done in response to repeated bulk downloading by web spiders and automated scripts that severely degraded PAIR’s performance.

WIPO PATENTSCOPE
In September, WIPO announced that the complete file contents of published international applications would be made available through the PATENTSCOPE search system. As of December 30, 2008 only the PCT request form is available. Other types of documents to be added include correspondence, copies of forms and original documents filed by applicants.

In December, WIPO announced that it would suppress inventor and individual applicant address information in PATENSCOPE due to privacy concerns. This will apparently not affect PATENSCOPE searches or RSS search alerts based on inventor address criteria. And address data will still appear on the frontpage of PCT published applications in PDF format.

On January 1, 2009 WIPO implemented three new kind codes (A4, A8 and A9) for republished PCT applications.

EPO esp@cenet
In October, EPO introduced a number of enhancements to the esp@cenet international patent database. These include increasing the number of documents stored in “My List” from 20 to 100; the ability to export data from search results (up to 30 records at a time); date range searching; highlighting search terms; and a single Google-like search box.

IP Australia
In April IP Australia launched a new patent search system called AusPat. Contents include bibliograhic data from 1970 forward and full-text data from about 1998 forward. IP Australia’s old system, PatentSearch, will be retired in February 2009.

FreePatentsOnline
In September FPO increased the storage of individual accounts to a maximum of 20 portfolios and 10,000 documents. FPO also added a chemical search function. SumoBrain, another fee-based patent search system from the creators of FPO, introduced free individual user accounts.

Patents.com
Launched in September, Patents.com offers access to full text US utility, reissue and design patents, published applications (including plant patent applications) from 1976 to the present and European patent documents from 1998? forward. Search modes include simple, advanced and expert; about thirty searchable fields. A bulk search option allows users to retrieve multiple patents by number. Patents.com is the reincarnation of PatentMonkey.com, a patent search site that operated from early 2006 to January 2008.

Google Patents
Google Patents added US published applications but data is about six months behind.

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U.S. Patent Counts – Year in Review

Posted on December 30, 2008 by mjwhitekingston


Figure 1. U.S. Patent (blue) and PGPub (red) Counts, Q4

2008 was a typical year for U.S. patents and published applications, but there were some surprises. The USPTO continued to churn out huge quantities of published applications (A docs), publishing slightly more than 312,000 applications this year, a 4.2 percent increase over 2007. On October 2 it published 8,955 applications, a record for a single week. In the fourth quarter, it published a record-breaking 84,780 applications, a 17 percent jump from the previous quarter and 15 percent more than the same quarter in 2007. Approximately 1.96 million plant and utilty patent applications have been published since 2001.

The number of issued patents (B docs) in Q4 rose to 46,556, a 13.9 percent increase from the previous quarter and a 2.5 percent rise from the same quarter last year. The total number of patents in 2008 dropped to 180,435, a 1.4 percent decrease from 2007.

Some milestones to watch for in 2009 will be the two millionth published application and patent no. 7,500,000, both of which will probably appear around the end of February. Plant patent no. 20,000 will probably issue in April and design patent no. 600,000 is expected this summer.

Table 1. Quarterly Patent and PGPub Counts*

Qn ….. Patents (B) …..PGPubs (A)….. Total (A + B)
Q1 ….. 43,657 ….. 77,962 ….. 121,619
Q2 ….. 49,353 ….. 77,691 ….. 127,044
Q3 ….. 40,869 ….. 72,421 ….. 113,290
Q4 ….. 46,556 ….. 84,780 ….. 131,337

Type ….. 2008 ….. 2007 ….. % change
A docs ….. 312,854 ….. 300,198 ….. 4.2%
B docs ….. 180,435 ….. 183,128 ….. -1.4%

*Based on preliminary weekly data from the USPTO website. Totals may change after the fact due to withdrawn patents and published applications.

Table 2. Weekly Averages and Medians (Q4)

Patents ….. 3,325 ….. 3,829
PGPubs ….. 6,055 ….. 6,183

Table 3. Number Ranges for 2008 (Totals)

Patents ….. 7,313,829 – 7,472,427 (158,598)
Reissues ….. RE39,964 – RE40,612 (648)
PGPubs ….. 2008/0000001 – 2008/0320630 (320,630)
Designs ….. D558,426 – D584,025 (25,559)
Plants ….. PP18,373 – PP19,612 (1,239)
SIRs ….. H2,208 – H2,227 (19)

Posted in Patent statistics, USPTO | 8 Comments

New Kind Codes for Republished PCT Documents

Posted on December 30, 2008 by mjwhitekingston

WIPO is introducing three new kind codes for republished international applications that will be implemented on Jan. 1, 2009. The codes are:

  • A4 = Later publication of amended claims and/or statement (PCT Article 19) with revised front page
  • A8 = International application republished with corrections to front page bibliographic data
  • A9 = International application or ISR republished with corrections, alterations or supplements (see also WIPO Standard ST.50)
Posted in Kind codes, PatentScope, PCT Applications | Leave a comment

PatentScope Suppresses Inventor Address Data

Posted on December 29, 2008 by mjwhitekingston

WIPO has announced that due to privacy concerns it will remove address data for inventors and individual applicants from its PatentScope database. The data will not be indexed or displayed in Internet search engines. This will not affect PatentScope searches or RSS search alerts. I ran several test searches based on city names and postal codes and retrieved the expected documents, although address data did not appear in individual records. However, address data will still appear on the frontpage of PCT documents in PDF format.

It is unclear if this policy will apply to WIPO data obtained by third-party database producers such as FreePatentsOnline and Patent Lens. As of December 30, inventor address data from PCT documents was still indexed and displayed in Patent Lens.

Posted in inventors, PatentScope, search alerts, WIPO | Leave a comment

FreePatentsOnline Launches CitePatents

Posted on December 28, 2008 by mjwhitekingston

FreePatentsOnline has launched a new site called CitePatents that is designed to make it easier for journalists, bloggers, copy writers and website owners and to link to patent documents. I hope this encourages more newspapers to link to patent documents in their stories. Too many journalists provide no details about related patents in stories about new products and infringement lawsuits. This wasn’t always the case. Fifty years ago newspaper stories frequently included references to patent numbers.

Posted in CitePatents, FreePatentsOnline | 1 Comment