The majority of countries priority numbers are made up of a country code (two letters), the year of filing (four digits), and a serial number (variable, maximum seven digits).

Some countries use other formats. These are Australia, Germany, China, Brazil, Ukraine, Gulf Council, Hungary, India, Italy, Mexico, OAPI and WIPO.
Their application numbers are made up of:

• a country code (two letters)
• the year of filing (four digits)
• “other” information (one or two characters)
• a serial number (five or six digits)

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It can be quite cumbersome and sometimes difficult to find out what the actual status of a patent is. A patent goes through a long life cycle with many events along the way. From the start during the procedure at the different patent offices, the term “patent pending” is normally used until it eventually becomes a granted and alive patent. If the application is revoked/withdrawn or not granted, it will just stay as published patent in the database. To make it easier to visualize the actual legal status of the patent green, yellow and red are used throughout the IamIP Platform to give a hint on the actual status.

Wondering what the green, yellow, and red icons (dots) mean in the expanded view?

These icons indicate the simplified legal status. At first glance you can see whether

• a patent has been filed (yellow),
• it has been granted (green), and
• the property right is no longer valid (red).

To create this indicator, relevant legal statuses are evaluated. See also legal status watch.
In a European patent, a small arrow to the left of the patent number indicates that more information is available. The green “in force” indicator will be displayed in a European patent as long as one of the states that have acceded to the European Patent Convention still has the IP right in place. A click on the arrow shows you the legal situation in the respective countries.

Click on the description (not acitve, in force, pending) to display the legal status and procedure data from the INPADOC database.

By clicking on the register link, you will automatically be directed to the register of offices. For more than 20 offices, this link is available. The quality and possibilities of use of the registers is determined by the offices. IamIP has no influence on it.

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During the life cycle of a patent, the status of an intellectual property right changes. If e.g. the fee for a patent is not paid in certain countries, it is no longer in force in that country. Thus, it may not bother new developments and/or the sale of their own products. It may also be interesting to know if a patent of the patent family is, in another country, in the proceedings for grant, opposition, or invalidity. It is also interesting to know whether a granted European patent has passed into the national phase of a country, or whether the European patent is actually valid in a particular country.

These procedural and legal amendments publish the offices in the patent documents or electronically in the registers. In addition, this information is provided to the European Patent Office and maintained in the INPADOC database.

A surveillance at the individual offices is possible. However, monitoring these chances is more simple in the IamIP platform. By a quick click on the “Radar Icon” in the result list, the patent is included in the legal status monitoring. The entire patent family is monitored for changes in the legal status.

If an event occurs and a change of legal status occurs, an e-mail is sent and the patent appears in the dashboard of your IamIP platform environment. Click on it and you will be directed the related patent.

Attention!

Please note that the European Patent Office can not guarantee the accuracy and completeness of this legal status data. Often there are also delays in the update of the database by the Office. Therefore, in individual cases, the actual legal situation can be reviewed by a patent attorney at the office to check the legal situation exactly.

The support of IamIP may not provide legal advice and can only explain the data.

Further information on the legal status data can be found on the pages of the
European Patent Office.

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Within the framework of the creation of the DOCDB database, the European Patent Office has been trying to standardize applicant names for many years. This EPO standard is displayed in the database and facilitates research in many cases.

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Within 12 months of that first filing, a subsequent patent application for the same invention can be filed claiming this “priority right”. 

According to the Paris Convention anyone who files a patent application, can within 12 months (the priority year), apply in another country and claim priority from the first application.  

When it comes to novelty, priority means that your later application can be seen as if it was filed the same time as your first application. The priority date is the filing of your first application.   

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When filing the patent, the applicant often refers to already published patent documents on the state of the art. During the examination process with patent offices, additional published patent documents can be found. These published patent documents are referred as cited patent documents. 

Also, one’s own patent is used within the life cycle of other companies patent filings, e.g. competitors. These are called citing patent documents. 

The number of citing patent documents can be an indicator of the importance of the patent. A frequently cited patent can be an indication of a core technology. 
Citation search is also a powerful tool for research. 

Citations are listed once you are looking at the detailed information.

If you would like to see all cited or citing documents from any publication you simply click the green button and they will appear in a new window. When you click “All cited” or “All citing” you will get all citations from the patent family, not just the publication you are viewing.  
  
Sometimes there are no citations documents visible, then you need to switch publication, click on any of the publications under “Also published as” to do this. 

You can mouse over a patent number to see additional information, or you can click on a specific number to view it. 

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For instance, the patent number US123456A1 originates from the USA. A patent number looking like AU1234567A1 originates from Australia. Thanks to the country codes, it is very easy to interpret the origin of a patent.  

A full list of all country codes and their respective countries can be found here. 

There are some exceptions when looking at country codes. Sometimes you might see the two-letter code WO;  this refers to a publication from a PCT application (Patent Cooperation Treaty), which is the international patent system and stands for Written Opinion. 

WIPO is an agency of the United Nations, and it is this body’s responsibility to oversee and administer a number of international treaties relating to patents and intellectual property in general. The Patent Cooperation Treaty is monitored by WIPO, which provides a common procedure for filing patent applications across its contracting member countries. At present, there are 184 members of WIPO, including the United States, China and several European countries. 

You will also see a lot of patent numbers starting with EP. These patent applications belong to The European Patent Convention (EPC), which is an agreement between the European countries. The EPC allows you to, by a single patent application, apply for a patent at the European Patent Office (EPO). 

EPO reviews and examines the application and can grant a patent in the member states. A single application is enough, but if it is granted, you must provide a translation of the patent (and pay the fees) in the countries where you want the patent to be valid in the end. 

Another exception is OA which relates to The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO which is an intergovernmental organization for cooperation among African states in patent and other intellectual property matters). 

You might also encounter EA which is the Eurasian Patent Organization. There are 8 member states: Turkmenistan, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Tajikistan, Russia, the Azerbaijan Republic, the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia 

IamIP Platform: 

In the IamIP platform, the country of the patent application is additionally visualized by a flag, as shown below: 

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A prior art search is (beside the freedom to operate search) the most often conducted IP search. As the name suggests, the prior art search aims to clarify whether claims defining a new invention are novel from the perspective of prior art.  

It is often conducted if an invention will be tested on its novelty inventive step and industrial applicability. In order to obtain a patent, the invention (claims) needs to fulfil those criteria and must not be disclosed anywhere else beforehand. This question is addressed by a prior art search, which is usually performed in-house or by a patent lawyer. The patent examiner in the patent office will conduct a thorough search as well on the invention in order to give his opinion. The likelihood of a patent application to be viewed by the examiner will increase from a comprehensive prior art search before drafting the application. This will save a lot of money as filing, prosecuting, and maintaining patents is expensive. 

The prior art search also gives insights on how comprehensive the claims can be written. By nature, those should be as broad as possible without infringing on other rights. 

The prior art search (or in this case, validity search) can also be conducted to check if a pending or granted patent is valid. Since prior art searches can never be 100% accurate (see below), relevant prior art might have been overseen by the examiner during the examination process, leading to patent claims that were not new (or inventive) due to that overseen prior art during the application process. As a matter of fact, a common misunderstanding is the thought that a patent will give its owner the guarantee of immunity against infringing on other IP rights. Since this is not the case, prior art searches are often conducted by competitors in order to find non-valid patents or too broad of claims in patents which they wish to attack to ensure their own freedom to operate or commercial activities. 

How to perform a prior art search 

In contrast to the freedom to operate search, the prior art search can be narrowed down to the specific technical concept of interest. It is a specific search driven by the (potential) patent claims.  

• There is no restriction of the type of publication, hence the prior art must be explored in patent and non-patent publications such as newspaper, journal presentations, websites, etc. 
• There is no local restriction of the publication. Worldwide publications must always be taken into consideration 
• There is no restriction to the language of the publication 
• There is no time limit for prior art. Hence the search must not be restricted to the last 20-25 years (as is e.g. the case for an FTO search) 
• The search can never be 100% accurate as it is, by nature, not possible to explore all relevant publications / literature 
• Patent applications are published 18 months after filing, which leads to a risk that relevant prior art is overlooked asit is not yet published 
• There might be a lag in the search databases or relevant documents may not be searchable as they are not ocr published 

Prior art searches not only give information on the prior art and the patentability of the invention but also help to understand how broadly a new invention can be claimed. In general, comprehensive prior art searches also help us to better understand the market conditions and the important competitors in the field of technical interest. 

The prior art search should be performed by: 

• Brainstorming keywords that define the invention and searching for them in a patent database 
• Taking classification (such as CPC and IPC) into consideration 
• Expanding the search to non-patent databases and resources 
• Searching for patents of competitors in the same technical field 

Options if prior art is found 

If, during a search, prior art is found, the invention (claims) turns out to not be new (novel), 

• and no third-party rights are potentially infringed, the invention can be commercialized without having the possibility of filing a patent 
• and third-party rights are potentially infringed, a freedom to operate search should be conducted 
• the invention is potentially patentable 
• a freedom to operate search should be performed 

What does a prior art search cost?  

A prior art search can either be performed in-house (e.g. in the R&D department), or externally by a patent lawyer. It will typically cost between 500€ and 5000€ but strongly depends on the level of detail needed.  

The difference between prior art search and freedom to operate search 

The focus of a prior art search is to understand if a potential invention is new. A freedom to operate search tries to clarify whether a potential invention is infringing on other IP rights. 

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The number can be seen on the patent document under INID code 11. The format of this number identifier may vary depending on the issuing office and the type of patent application. However, the most general outline of all patent numbers contains a combination of some or all of the following sections (see also the image below). This general format can change during the life time of the patent for different reasons. 

• A two-letter code identifier for the country where the patent is filed.Also referred to as the country code. 
• A special (type/class code) 1-2 digit or letter code which is typically used to indicate the type of the patent i.e. patent, utility model, design etc. (this code is determined by the relevant patent office and is only used by some offices). 
• The year identifier (typically 2 or 4 digits) referring to the year the patent was issued. (This is not used by all offices or during the whole application process) 
• A unique serial number containing several digits (typically 5-8 digits). (This could be a continuous series or an annual series if the year identifier is used) 
• A kind code, which indicates the type of publication, and status of the patent (typically 1 letter appended by 1 optional digit). 

Patent offices may change (have changed) the format of its patent numbering system over the years. Therefore, one may see a different patent number format from the same patent office depending on the time period when the patent was issued. Also note that some patent offices may use a different format after the patent is granted as compared to when the patent application is under examination (e.g. the US patent office), while others (e.g. EPO or China) keep the same number series but use the kind code to distinguish them. 

A patent number indicates that a product or invention is protected by a patent application, which means that the patent owner has all the rights to this invention and can stop others from using it without a license. It is therefore usual to find patent numbers inscribed on a commercial product or in the product documentation to indicate ownership of the rights and to prevent others from unlawfully copying the solution.  

The following table shows the currently used patent number formats from selected patent offices. For earlier number systems please consult the relevant patent office. 

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CPC is an extension of the IPC and is jointly managed by the European Patent Office (EPO) and the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). CPC additionally includes the section, “Y”, related to general tagging of new technological developments. The main sections are: 

• A: Human Necessities 
• B: Performing Operations; Transporting 
• C: Chemistry; Metallurgy 
• D: Textiles; Paper 
• E: Fixed Constructions 
• F: Mechanical Engineering; Lighting; Heating; Weapons; Blasting Engines or Pumps 
• G: Physics 
• H: Electricity 
• Y: General Tagging of New Technological Developments 

The EPO and USPTO both had highly developed patent classification systems, the European CLAssification (ECLA) and the United States Patent Classification (USPC) respectively. CPC is the outcome of an ambitious harmonization effort to bring the best practices from each Office together.  

CPC codes categorize patents by general subjects. The CPC codes are divided into sections A through Y, which are sub-divided into classes, subclasses, groups, and subgroups. For more details see: CPC Classification Search, CPC Bulk data 
The codes are hierarchical; therefore, the longer the code, the more specific the concept.  

Every patent document, regardless of whether it is an application or a granted patent, is given a classification symbol by the patent examiner indicating its allocation to a specific area of technology. 

The classifications are mainly used when performing patent searches and looking for prior art. It is therefore highly recommended to make use of these classifications as it will help minimize the amount of data to analyze. Instead of searching within over 100 million patents the search can be narrowed down to your area of interest.  

Not all patent offices use CPC. For example the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) and the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) use IPC and their own classification systems like  DEKLA und FI Codes und F-terms. 

Some of the patent offices that use CPC are:  

• USPTO (US patent and trademark office) 
• EPO (European Patent Office) 
• KIPO (Korean Intellectual Property Office ) 
• SIPO (Chinese Patent Office) 
• ROSPATENT (Russian Patent Office) 
• INPI (Brasilien) 
• IMPI (Mexiko) 

IamIP Platform: 

In the IamIP platform, all IPC and CPC codes are summarized in the search view. Analyzing classifications of known patents is a good way to perform searches in the technical area of interest: 

The different sections and classes of a CPC code can be easily visualized by clicking on them: 

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