Legal status at the epo latipat

Wistre Rodriguez Del Amo

PREPARING LEGAL STATUS DATA

FOR EXCHANGE

LATIPATNovember 2012

Wistre Rodriguez Del AmoFenny Versloot-Spoelstra

PREPARING LEGAL STATUS DATAFOR EXCHANGE

The data flow at the EPO

The data flow at your place of work

Examples of "good practice"

What we would wish for ...


DATA FLOW AT THE EPOLegal Status - Back Stage

Getting the data from A to B

Maintaining the master database

Delivering legal status to the world


Getting the data from A to B ...

Sources internet sites

FTP servers

E-mail attachments

EPO front office

Formats gazettes and bulletins in PDF format

data in TXT or CSV format

data in SGML or XML format


PRS MASTER

DATABASE

FTP Servers

Internet Sites

E-mailover 40 offices

80.6 Mio events

raw data

"cooked" data valid data

services &

products

quality issues

new datanew providerchange of format

EPO Front Office


Challenges ...

Variety in delivery methods data sources, data formats

Ever-changing environments change of patent law

change of data format

change of delivery policy

Human resources manual intervention

intellectual effort


MasterDatabase

dedicated processes

"cooking" the data

powerful enginevalidating the data

triggeringdatabase update

polling websites

and servers pulling data maintenan

ce

monitoring

intellectual

intervention

customersupport

managingchanging

parameters

manage delivery methodsmanage changing environmentsreduce manual effort


Maintaining the master database

Office-specific nature of the data language issues

event codes used

meta-data provided

Availability of the bibliographic data pre-requisite for exchange of legal status

contains data elements with legal implications


Challenges ...

Identifying the nature of the event events of the same nature identified by different

codes

code descriptions in "exotic" languages

Identifying data items in the input tidiness of the data

quality of the documentation

Linking to the bibliographic data publication kind-code not provided

ambiguous number series across IPR-types


PRSMaster

DOCDBMaster

Define rules to identify legal events by country-specific

codesStill need careful analysis of the content

Still be relying on the tidiness of the data the quality of the documentationStill be confronted with language issues

Define rules to : support access without kind-code resolve ambiguous number seriesStill be a certain degree of "second guessing"

Business Rules Engine


One particular challenge ...

Trend to exchange complete "life of a file" all legal events in the life of a file every time

the most recent as well as all previous events

Challenge ? Identifying the new events !! no indication which event is the new event

no date of capture, no reliable date of capture

Why not take the new life and dump the old ? invested time and effort in improving the quality

improved and corrected data would be overwritten


Delivering legal status to the world

On-line services OPS, ESPACEnet, EPO Patent Register

free of charge

available 24 x 7

Raw data product INPADOC Worldwide Legal Status

by subscription only

updates once a week


INPADOCWORLD WIDE

LEGAL STATUS

EPOPATENT INFORMATION

RESOURCE

EXTENDEDFAMILIES

EPOREGISTER

End Users

EPODOC

INPADOC Worldwide Legal Status

OpenPatentServices

Commercial Hosts

ESPACEnet


Products & Services

Open Patent Services Raw data provided on-line through web-services

Designed for automated queries returning fair amounts of data

ESPACEnet - EPO Patent Register Patent information provided on-line in end-user format

Designed for use by the general public

INPADOC Worldwide Legal Status Raw data provided weekly through the down-load area

Designed for use by commercial hosts and patent professionals


FACTS of LIFE

We can only give as much as we get ... depend on the accuracy and timeliness of data

providers

cannot guarantee that ALL legal events are covered

It is not uncommon ... NOT to receive a notification of reinstatement after a

lapse

to receive a LATE notification of reinstatement after a lapse


FACTS of LIFE

What we give is as good as we get ... do not insert legal events unless received from

the provider

do not remove legal events once received from the provider

do not correct legal events unless requested by the provider

That means that ... "lapse due to non-payment of fees" will not be

removed from the database when followed by a late "payment of fees"

"notification of reinstatement" will not be added to the database on evidence provided by 3rd parties


EPO does not accept any responsibility for the accuracy of data and information originating from other authorities

EPO does not guarantee that they are complete, up-to-date or fit for specific purposes

DISCLAIMER


Why this "Disclaimer" ... ?

Worldwide Legal Status is as good as the data it gets

notification of a lapse may not have been given

notification of reinstatement may be late

notification of reinstatement may not have arrived

Worldwide Legal Status cannot guarantee legal certainty

inside worldwide legal status the patent might be "dead"

out there the patent may be "alive and kicking"


Business decision to make ... ??

Use Worldwide Legal Status to get a general idea

Double-check against the national register at all times


So .... this is how the data flows at the EPO

How does the data flow at your office ?


Couple of questions for you :

How have you organised your data flow ?

How do you make your data available ?

data-format : PDF, XML, SGML, ... , other?

medium : internet, E-mail, electronic file transfer?

If in PDF - what format was it in before it became PDF ?

mark-up language: XML, SGML or even INID-code?

any other format that allows electronic transfer?


We will give the floor to the participants

Wistre Rodriguez Del Amo

EXAMPLES OF

GOOD PRACTICE

LATIPATNovember 2012


We will take the participants through

some examples ...


OUR "WISH LIST" ...

Delivery Method Internet site with stable URL

FTP server

Data Format generally any mark-up language will do

preferably data in XML

not desirable are formats like TXT or PDF

Content ....


if you provide us with more than just the new event

tell us which of the events is the new event

clearly indicate when the event was made public

identify nature of the event by unique code

description in your own language

if possible translation in English


clearly indicate when the event has become effective

clearly indicate the application / publication

that this event is relating to

change of ownership, assignments, ...clearly indicate previous and new

ownerwhen in "exotic" original character setprovide names and addresses

transliteratedsupplementary protection certificatesclearly indicate the vital components


THUMBS UP for :

Posting your data on the internet or on FTP

Providing your data in structured mark-up language

Clearly identifying the nature of the legal event

Supporting consistent and unambiguous number series

Making sure that we understand what we get :

documentation is vital

English language translations are helpful


What is a legal event?

Can you give me some examples

of legal events?


A legal event can be

• Any kind of invalidation, e.g. lapses, expiries, withdrawals, revocations, etc.

• Limitations• Reinstatements• Fee payments• Grant • Change of ownerships• Change of representatives• Licensing information , e.g. willing to license, star of license

contract, etc.• Pledges• Opposition information, e.g. filing opposition, withdrawal of

opposition, etc.• Entry/non-entry into regional phase (PCT or EP)• Change of specifications (change of classification, inventors,

etc.)• Corrections• etc.


Which legal events are in the worldwide legal event database?

In the worldwide legal event database are no legal events that are in DOCdb (i.e. bibliographic data)

Which legal eventscan be coupled with bibliographic data?


Events received by bibliographic data• Priorities• Filing an application• Each publication step (i.e. normally also

grant)• For EP documents also

– previously files application– preceding publication date– coming into force

We produce Extended legal event data to cover these events as raw data



Why are different legal events collected

for each country?

(i.e. not always the same kind of events for each country)


The reasons for different kind of data are

•Each country has a different patent law•Each patent office sent us different data•The collection of each country started at the different moment

Side effectWe receive data from very different sources andnone of them can guarantee completeness and correctness of their data

We cannot guarantee the completeness and correctness of our data



How many patent authorities are covered by legal event data?

How many records are in the legal event database?


Statistical data of the legal event database

• Number of records March 2012: – 100 000 000

• Expected number of records end of 2012:– 120 000 000

• Number of patent authorities we have received data from 2012:– 42

• Overall number of patent authorities we have data from:– 62

• PCT entry data from WIPO (not sent directly to us)

• not existing countries (like GDR)• patent office stopped sending us data


Which information is in a legal event record?

Here is a legal event from espacenet:

Which information can you see in this example?

Application Number

Country C

ode

Publication Date

Legal Event (what happened)


Which information is in a legal event record?

Here is the same legal event from espacenet:

Which data is here minimum information of a legal event and which is an attribute?


Where can you find worldwide legal event data?

Where can you search for legal

event data?


Legal events can be received via

EPO tools–espacenet–OPS–PATSTAT (add on)–European Register (only EP patents)–as raw data, sent to subscribers

Commercial partners−STN−Thomson Scientific−Questel/Orbit−Dialog−SIP−Micropatent−LexisNexis−OPS applications−etc.


What is a legal event with PRS code "REG "?

....

In espacenet one can see this information

Which patent office has provided this information?

Why has this information a code "REG " before the real code?

IE = Ireland


Why there are "REG " codes?

In the PRS database only the country code of the patent is included.

The PRS code consists also of these 2 parts:Country Code4 digit event code

The country code of the PRS code is not included in PRS and most of the tools you can search for legal event data

=> Country code is taken from patent identification

Therefore an original European patent has to have an EP Code(= "REG ") and the real national code is hidden in an attribute.

=> in our example: EP REG IE FG4A


How should "REG " codes be interpreted?

Something happens with a patent filed in a regional office or of a country with a number (here EPO patent 1456342) of another patent authority

The patent office the event happened or has been announced by is the country (in espacenet) behind "REG " (here Ireland)

What happened says the code behind the country (here entry of EP patent into the Irish national phase)

All attributes rely on the "real code" (here original document was published in French)


My further question?

For what are legal event data useful?

(also in combination with another patent information)


My further question - use for legal status data?

• Where (in which countries) is an invention still protected?

• Where is the present owner of an invention and where?

• How long is a patent protected?– in a technical field– by an applicant– etc.

• What happened with an invention in different countries?

• etc.


Résumé

Worldwide legal event data is a valuablesource to answer interesting questions

(especially for the industry) for the protection of inventions and for

patents.

Wistre Rodriguez Del AmoFenny Versloot-Spoelstra 10/04/23

Questions ?

Comments ?

Legal status at the epo latipat

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