Report:PatBase/Data Coverage/Patent Coverage/Legal Status Information

Legal Status Information

Legal status information for records in PatBase can be called up for free through the “status” link for each family record. The status window will display the INPADOC legal status data for the family, including a color-coded and searchable table of all recorded legal events (including PRS codes (PDF)) for family documents.^[1] The Legal Status table also include links (embedded in the document number for each event in the table) to external national legal status register sites, so that users can check the particular status of individual family members.

The Legal Status page presents a series of color-coded legal events and links to external sites .

Users can also access links to the external register sites directly from the table of family publications. The table of family members for each family record includes two icons beside each individual document, the first of which access a PDF view of the document and a second icon linked to the external legal register site. If an external legal register site for a document's publishing authority is not available, then a "register" icon is not listed beside the document number.

An icon beside most documents in a family record allows the user to access the external legal register of the document's publishing authority. If an external legal register for a publishing authority is not available, then an icon is not listed beside the document number.

For US family members, the user can select the "register" icon on the family table to view INPADOC legal status and current Reassignment Data from the USPTO.^[1]

Select the "register" icon for a US document to view INPADOC legal status and current Reassignment Data from the USPTO.

PatBase does provide convenient links to these other services (through both the links in the Legal Status table and the "register" icon), which consist of either Espacenet’s legal data (from the INPADOC file), or the relevant country’s online legal status register, if available (in October 2008, the system added links to China and Japan's legal status pages). Selecting these links will automatically query the external data source using the document number of interest, so there is no confusion caused by non-English portal interfaces or from having to determine unusual data input formats.

It is also worth noting that while some links take users directly to an external website, others do not. In October 2008, PatBase enabled links which retrieve legal status for JP documents directly from JAPIO. However, the information is loaded in the PatBase browser (still in a separate pop-up window) without directing the user to an external JAPIO site. The "help" link available on this page will load JAPIO's English-language help data. However, selecting legal status for most other countries, including the Chinese data, will in fact link the user out to an external web site.

Editor's Note:

In addition to maintaining the INPADOC legal status data, the PatBase system has also provided a fast and convenient way for users to check other legal status sources via external links. These external sources may lead users to more current legal status data than if PatBase attempted to provide it using only the EPO’s INPADOC legal files, as some systems do. This is because INPADOC legal data is updated weekly, while the national registers can be updated more frequently and thus provide more timely information. Note that not all countries host web-based legal information – for example, China, Germany, EPO, France, United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, the US, WIPO, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, India, Canada, and Australia currently host legal status information through their patent office websites, while all other countries listed in the coverage chart for PatBase do not.