Patent Family

Patent Search
Patent Family

Patent Family Research

Patents are usually granted to each country.For example, an invention patented by United States patent office can not protect the invention in other countries automatically.If one want to protect the invention in a country, one must apply for and gain a patent of the invention in the country.

Therefore, many patent assignee sometimes file applications of the same invention to many countrie's patent office.We call the bundle of these patent application "Patent Family".Accurately, "Patent Family" means a bundle of patents applied to each country on the basis of a priority of a patent application.

If one find a patent which might exclude his new product, he can Patent Infringement Search of the same aspect of the product in a broad area efficiently by researching patent family of that patent.

Unless patent family, it si difficult to judge whether a invention is protected in world-wide or a specified region. And we must research patent infringement in each country. Then we might unexpected to infringe patents.Patent family research is recognized to important because we can sometimes find invalidity materials (prior arts) of a patents in a country from a research of the patent transaction history (office action) of other countries.

Patent Family Research

We can easy to research patent family (INPADOC patent family) by Patent Integration.We can view patent family by an "Abstract WIndow", "Patent View Function", "Patent Preview Function".

How to conduct a patent family research.

We introduce how to conduct a patent family research.At first, we input a patent number to the input box at the upper right of the window.

For example, we research patent family of United States Patent (USP) 7453038.

After input of the patent number, please hit a enter key or click the button next to the input box.

Then the screen is change to the "Patent View Function".And the full-text of the USP7453038 is loaded in a tab of the patent view (See below).After some seconds, the button at the upper left become red.It means the loaded patent has its own patent family (Unless patent family, the button does not change.).

You can overview patent family of USP7453038 by put a mouse cursor on the button.The patent family of USP7453038 is as follows;

CN101025985A (China)
EPA1821225 (Europe)
JPA2007-219178 (Japan)
JPA2007-219178 (Japan)
KR20070082529A (Korea)
USP7453038 (United States Patent Granted)
USP7531735 (United States Patent Granted)
USA2007/0186751 (United States Patent Application)
USA2008/0236367 (United States Patent Application)

Overview Patent Family

For example, if we want to view Europe patent EPA1821225, click the right side of the red button. Then a menu including EPA1821225 will open.Then we choose EPA1821225.

Then a new tab is created and a full-text of the EPA1821225 is loaded to the tab.We can read the patent by using highlighting function of the patent view function.

We can research patent family by switching these tabs (ctrl+f or ctrl+g) and comparing claims of these patents in each country.

Overview patent family

If you click left-side of red button,

We can overview patent family of USP7453038 with publication date.You can confirm what patent application is the earliest published patents by overview patent family.And you can view patent family by click icon .

The coverage of patent integration is discribed in "Patent Database".We can not read uncovered patents.

Patent family research in an Abstract WIndow.

In Patent Searchwe may view Patent Search result on an abstract window.Patent integration research patent family automatically, when the patent is loaded on the abstract window.

If there is a patent family of the loaded patent, the upper left button become red.If the loaded patent does not have a patent family, the button does not become red and we cannot click it.If we put a mouse cursor on the red button, we can overview patent family (See below).

View Patent Family

When we click the right side of the red button, we can choose a paten in the patent family (See below.).For example, we choose the EPA1821225.

Then the EPA1821225 is loaded to the new tab (See below).You can view full-text of the patent EPA1821225 on the "Patent View Function" by click "FULL-TEXT" button.Thus, we can research patent family easily by using Patent Integration.

View patent family in detail.

We might want to overview a structure of a patent family with viewing publication date and abstract of each patent of the patent family compared with viewing full-text of a patent of the patent family.When we click the left side of the red button, we can choose a paten in the patent family (See below.).

Then the patent family window made pop up, and we can overview titles, assignees, inventors, abstracts, publication date of patents in the patent family.And we can view abstract of the patent by put a mouse cursor on the icon .

We can click the icon to load a patent of the patent family into an abstract window.For example, we click USP7453038.

USP7453038 is loaded to the new tab of the abstract window.We can view patent by closing the patent family window.We can load plural patents of the patent family on the abstract window on showing patent family window.

Patent Family Research in the Patent Preview Function.

Similarly we can research a patent family in the patent view function.

The patent family research button is placed on the upper left of the patent in the patent preview function. If there is a patent family, the button become red. And we can research the patent family by put the mouse cursor on the button.