Searching for patents Why does patent information matter? Espacenet The European Patent Register Dominique Winne Examiner (ICT) 8 November 2017 Contents Presentation Why patent information matters Espacenet The European Patent Register 2 1
Why patent information matters 3 At least seven good reasons 4 2
Because patent information helps you to Avoid duplication 1 of R&D expenditure 5 6 3
Because patent information helps you to 2 Find out what technology already exists and build on it 7 More and more applications every year 2 500 000 2 000 000 1 500 000 1 000 000 500 000 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 Year of application Source: EPO Worldwide Patent Statistical Database (PATSTAT), October 2013 edition 8 4
Four applications a minute - every hour of the day and night! 9 Applications in the 5 biggest offices Applications 900000 800000 700000 600000 500000 400000 300000 China United States of America Japan Republic of Korea 200000 100000 0 1883 1893 1903 1913 1923 1933 1943 1953 1963 1973 1983 1993 2003 2013 Application year 10 5
Over 50% of applications are in an Asian language 11 Translate documents 12 6
Searching technical information in Espacenet More than 95 million patent documents (applications, granted patents, search reports, non-patent literature) Data from 90 patent authorities worldwide Data from 1836 to today Source of technical information Available free-of-charge via the internet at Secure access (https) www.epo.org/espacenet 13 The old days: Paper documentation papers groups central library 14 7
Where to find Espacenet URL to remember: www.epo.org/espacenet 15 Espacenet landing page 16 8
Espacenet - Smart search Free text entries: Command line format using field identifiers: 17 Espacenet - Smart search 18 9
Example Spectacles with liquid lens to adjust focal length Source: http://www.eyejusters.com 19 Espacenet truncations (wildcards)? Replaces 0 or 1 character car? car, cars, card, cards, carrier # Replaces exactly 1 character * Replaces a character string of any length Only right-hand truncation car# car, cars, card, cards, carrier car* car, cars, card, cards, carrier car* car, cars, card, carrier; car*s 20 10
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23 Excursion: Classification systems www.epo.org/pi-tour 24 12
International Patent Classification (IPC) www.wipo.int/ipcpub/ 25 Classification systems The IPC has a hierarchical structure: Sections Classes Sub-classes Groups Sub-groups CPC A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H e.g. A47 e.g. A47J e.g. A47J37 e.g. A47J37/08 e.g. A47J37/0821 26 13
Espacenet - Classification search Search by keyword or a classification symbol 27 more at www.cpcinfo.org 28 14
... back to our example 29 30 15
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Claim reading 2 unclear part 1 3 Claim reading 2 unclear part 1 3 scope of the claim 17
In practice A classes/concepts C B a b key words c In practice A classes/concepts C B key words a c b 18
In practice A classes/concepts C B In practice A classes/concepts C B 19
In practice re-focus 40 20
Name searches Hint: Use phrase search for natural persons, i.e. "<LastName> <FirstName>", to avoid hits with first/last names belonging to different persons 41 Because patent information helps you to Check out where an invention is protected by a 3 patent, and where it is not 42 21
Looking up legal information in the European Patent Register Free online access to: legal status information procedural status information of patent applications at the EPO post-grant information of European patents Secure access Register alert monitoring tool 43 www.epo.org/register 44 22
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Federated Register EP Register National register data links to national registers 47 European patent register Advanced search 48 24
All documents = online public file inspection 49 Worldwide legal status information (INPADOC) The EPO collects legal status data from over 40 countries. In Espacenet, Register, OPS, GPI, PATSTAT In commercial databases 50 25
51 Because patent information helps you to Avoid infringing other 4 people's patent rights 52 26
More than1 million patents granted each YEAR 1 400 000 1 200 000 1 000 000 800 000 600 000 400 000 200 000 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 Year of grant Source: EPO Worldwide Patent Statistical Database (PATSTAT), October 2013 edition 53 Nearly 50% of all applications filed each year are granted 54 27
Highest damages awarded Top ten damages awards in US Federal District courts since 1995: Year Plaintiff Defendant Technology Award (in USDm) 2009 Centocor Ortho Biotech Inc. Abbott Laboratories Arthritis drugs 1 673 2007 Lucent Technologies Inc. Microsoft Corp. MP3 technology 1 538 Noise reduction on 2012 Carnegie Mellon University Marvell Technology Group circuits for disk drives 1 169 2012 Apple Inc. Samsung Electronics Co. Smartphone software 1 049 2012 Monsanto Company E.I. Dupont De Nemours and Company Genetically modified soybean seeds 1 000 2010 Mirror WorldsLLC Apple Inc. Operating system 626 2005 Cordis Corp. Medtronic Vascular, Inc. Vascular stents 595 2004 Eolas Technologies Inc. Microsoft Corp. Internet browser 521 2011 Bruce N. Saffran M.D. Johnson & Johnson Drug-eluting stents 482 2008 Bruce N. Saffran M.D. Boston Scientific Corp. Drug-eluting stents 432 Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2014 patent litigation study 55 Because patent information helps you to Keep track of what other inventors and companies 5 are doing 56 28
57 Where is it happening? Europe Australia Canada China Japan Korea Singapore Taiwan USA 29
Because patent information helps you to Identify new partners for 6 licensing IP 59 60 30
Because patent information helps you to Spot trends in technology or 7 the market at an early stage 61 Statistics/trends E.g. energy storage: Energy storage: Patent applications to the 800 700 600 500 400 300 Applicants from European Union (28 countries) Japan United States 200 100 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Year of application Source: stats.oecd.org/ 62 31
European patent applications (Annual report 2015) 63 Free EPO resources at www.epo.org 64 32
Technical information at www.epo.org 65 Legal information at www.epo.org 66 33
Business information at www.epo.org 67 Asian patent information at www.epo.org 68 34
Take-home message Use (free) patent databases to retrieve strategic information. Consult them before and during research, development and commercialisation. Remember that patent information is an important source of technical, legal and business-related information. Use Espacenet and other free sources to identify existing technologies, gaps in technology, key players, potential infringement and trends. 69 Thank you for your attention! 70 35