searching patents using espacenet david barford consultant ulaanbaatar march 2015

Searching patents using Espacenet

David Barford

Consultant

Ulaanbaatar

March 2015

Key points

Hosted by the European Patent Office http://worldwide.espacenet.com/?locale=en_EP

90 million patent documents

Patent family information

Legal status information

Citation information

European Patent Register

Free service; no log-in names or passwords required

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Collections and coverage

Currently, over 90 million patent documents:

International patent applications (WO documents published by WIPO under the PCT)

European patent applications (EP)

90 national collections

Five regional collections (ARIPO, EAPO, EPO, GCC, OAPI)

Coverage:

Full text of all WO and EP documents

Other collections vary eg abstracts from 1970 for many countries

Search optionsSmart search

Searches all collections

Flexible with wide choice of field identifiers and search operators

Can simply use without identifiers and operators

Advanced search

Need to select which collection is to be searched (WO, EP, Worldwide)

Has boxes corresponding to different fields

Classification search

Suggests appropriate classifications; then searches those selected

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Smart search

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Advanced search

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Classification search

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Example: search for ‘rotating building fisher’

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Seven results

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Earliest document

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A more complicated scenario

An automobile manufacturer intends to launch a new line of cars in Germany and would like to incorporate parking assist technologies into these cars.

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Scenario

Your task is to determine:

whether patent applications have been filed for parking assist technologies in Germany

what is the current status of these patent applications

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Task breakdown

Access Espacenet

Retrieve patent documents based on classification

Examine a specific patent document

Review legal status information

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Task breakdown

Access Espacenet

Retrieve patent documents based on classification

Examine a specific patent document

Review legal status information

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EPO Homepage

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EPO Homepage

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EPO Homepage

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Espacenet Portal

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Espacenet search page

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Task breakdown

Access Espacenet

Retrieve patent documents based on classification

Examine a specific patent document

Review legal status information

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Espacenet search page

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Classification search

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Classification search: Results

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Classification search: Results

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Classification search: Results

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Classification search: Results

/low: includes all "children" classifications/exact: includes only the specified classification symbol

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Classification search: Results

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Search: Results

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Scenario

The manufacturer has seen Volkswagen cars that have a system of particular interest and asks for a list of all these patents for information.

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Classification search: Results

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Advanced search interface

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Advanced search interface

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Advanced search interface

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Results

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Task breakdown

Access Espacenet

Retrieve patent documents based on classification

Examine a specific patent document

Review legal status information

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Search: Results

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Question

Where was this patent application filed?

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Record

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Question

If a patent has been granted for an invention related to parking assist technologies in the United States, can it be enforced in Germany?

No, unless an equivalent patent has been granted in Germany.

Patents are territorial in nature.

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Patent families

After filing an initial patent application, a patent applicant may file further applications while retaining the same priority date

Patent documents linked this way are members of a "patent family"

Useful for retrieving equivalent patent documents filed in different countries

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Record: Patent families

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Record: INPADOC patent family

Patent applications filed in Germany……and through the European Patent Office

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Task breakdown

Access Espacenet

Retrieve patent documents based on classification

Examine a specific patent document

Review legal status information

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Record: INPADOC patent family

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Record: Patent family member

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Record: INPADOC legal status

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Tip!

Legal status data may not always be up-to-date.

Always verify legal status data the responsible patent office before making critical decisions!

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Translations

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Translations

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Translation

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Translation

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Picture Mosaics

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Scenario

The automobile manufacturer has found a reference to a patent in the documentation of a car sold in the United States and would like you to retrieve this patent and any related patents.

The patent number is 6,223,847.

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Task breakdown

Retrieve a specific patent document

Retrieve closely related documents

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Task breakdown

Retrieve a specific patent document

Retrieve closely related documents

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Search: Advanced search interface

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Question

Is 6,223,847 an application number or a publication number?

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Search: Smart search interface

6,223,847 6223847 (or US6223847)

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Search: Results

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Record

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Record: Document

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Task breakdown

Retrieve a specific patent document

Retrieve closely related documents

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Citations

References can be made from one document to another document by:

applicants

examiners

third parties

Useful for retrieving potentially relevant documents not retrieved directly through classification or keyword search

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Record: Document

Earlier related documents

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Record: Cited documents

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Record: Cited documents

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Record: Cited documents

Later related documents

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Record: Citing documents

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More about Espacenet

Operators

Collections and coverage

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Interfaces: Smart search

Basic or command line search

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Operators

Boolean operators : AND, OR, NOT

Proximity operators

Comparison operators

Range operator

Wildcard operators

? (zero or one characters)

# (one character exactly)

* (any number of characters)

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Proximity operators (Smart search only)

Find two words within n words of each other

mouse<n trap

Find two words in the same sentence

mouse prox/unit=sentence trap

Find two words in the same paragraph

mouse prox/unit=paragraph trap

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Comparison operators (Smart search only)

all – finds all the terms listed (in any order) in the field specified

ti all “paint brush hair”

any – finds any of the terms listed in the field specified

ti any “paint hair shoe tooth”

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Comparison operators (Smart search only)

pd >= 2005 … docs published in 2005 or later

pd<= 2005 … docs published in 2005 or earlier

pd within “2005 2006” … docs published in 2005 or 2006

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Wildcard operators

Any number of characters : *electr* electric, electron, electronic …

Zero or one characters: ?forge? forge, forges, forget …

Zero or two characters: ??car?? car, cars, cart, carts … (not carpet)

One character exactly : #ri# rid, rip, rim …foc## focus, focal …

Can only be used at the end of a term

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Collections and coverage

Currently, over 90 million patent documents

International patent applications (PCT)

90 national collections

Five regional collections (ARIPO, EAPO, EPO, GCC, OAPI)

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Thank you for your attention!

For more information, please contact:

tisc@wipo.int

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Practical exercises using ESPACENET

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Case study 1

Your client is a manufacturer of power tools. One of his products is an electric drill incorporating a level to show when the drill is truly horizontal (sometimes called a spirit level or bubble level).

The manufacturer has a letter saying he is infringing a patent protecting this idea.

The manufacturer wishes to challenge the validity of the patent.

The patent has a filing date of 1 January 2005 and a priority date of 2 January 2004.

There are no numbered references in the discussion of prior art in the patent. Also the examining Patent Office could find only background documents which you‘ve checked and confirm are not

citable against novelty or inventive step.

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Smart search

First search: electric drill level

Result: over 200 hits

many no good, but number 15 on the list CN203003207 describes the invention

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Example - CN203003207

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Smart search

However it was published on 19 June 2013 which was too late

Check IPC on this document B23B45/02; B25F5/02

B23B45/02= electric drills, so try that

Second search: B23B45/02 AND (“spirit level” OR “bubble level”)

Result: only four hits, all describe the invention, three of them were published before 2004

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Result list

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Example

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Case study 2

The client is a bicycle manufacturer who has been developing improved bicycle frames, and wants some advice on getting a patent.

The invention might be:

the construction of the frame

the material the frame is made of

the shape of the frame.

you need to understand which features are well known (=common knowledge) and which are potentially patentable

From discussion, it transpires that her main interest is in the patentability of using magnesium alloys in bicycle frames.

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Search

Smart search: bicycle frame AND (magnesium OR Mg)

Result: over 40 hits – example on next slide

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Example

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Meeting the Client To Discuss Results

Results: There are ample results showing that it is well known to use magnesium alloys in bicycle frames

Limitations: All is not lost

% composition of magnesium in the alloy?

ranges of %-compositions (5-10% or 1-2%)

tensile strengths?

Coatings? Structure?

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Case study 3

Your client – a health institution - wishes to know whether any solutions are emerging to handle fears that cell phones are dangerous

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Search

Smart search

(cellphone or “cell phone“ or “mobile phone“) and (health or protect or shield)

Over 1800 results

Select number 4

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Result

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Search again

Smart search

(cellphone or “cell phone“ or “mobile phone“) and (health or protect or shield) and user and H01Q [=IPC for aerials]

31 results, select numbers 4 and 15

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Example from results

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Example from results

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