Glossary

This glossary includes definitions for common terms used within CLAIMS Direct.

API (Application Programming Interface): a software interface which allows two or more applications to communicate using a specific set of rules or commands

Applicant: person or organization who/which has filed a patent application, may or may not be the inventor

Application: a document requesting the grant of a patent for an invention

Assignee: owner of the patent rights, the person or organization to whom the inventor has assigned rights

Assignment: transfer by a party of all or part of the rights, title, and interest in a patent for which an application has been filed

Attachments: drawings, chemistry files, full page images, and other non-textual files delivered by patent offices

Bibliographic data: information that is typically on the front page of a patent document such as parties, classifications, priorities, application and publication numbers, titles, and abstracts

CDWI (CLAIMS Direct Web Interface): a user interface that allows interactive exploration of CLAIMS Direct data from a web browser

CDWS (CLAIMS Direct Web Services): REST services which serve as the main access points to CLAIMS Direct by providing a comprehensive API that allows for querying, XML data retrieval, reporting and otherwise interacting with the data-store, index, and attachment repositories, as well as specialized services such as family and citation look-ups

Citations (backward): references included in a patent document by the applicant or examiner to explain the relevant prior art/background technology, which may be other patents or non-patent materials such as journal articles

Citations (forward): references made to a previously existing patent in subsequently filed patents, used as an indicator of the importance of the previously existing patent

Claims summary: an easy-to-view summary of the total number of claims as well as the number of independent claims in a document

DOCDB: the master documentation database maintained by the European Patent Office containing bibliographic data, abstracts, citations, and DOCDB simple patent families from over 100 countries

Entity: an organization that, either directly or through a subsidiary, owns patents

Entity hierarchy: a group of entities which are related to each other, i.e., by being either an Ultimate Owner, a subsidiary, a former name, or a merged name

Family (simple): a group of patent records which share the same family ID, as assigned by the EPO; generally, all records which share the same priorities

Family (extended): a group of patent records which have at least one priority in common with at least one other member, either directly or indirectly

Full text: the complete text of the claims and description of a patent document including amended claims (optionally) and translations when the text is not originally in English

Grant: a property right granted by a patent authority in exchange for disclosing an invention

IFI Patent Status: indication of whether a patent is still in force or, in the case of applications, whether a document is pending, granted, or inactive

IFI Snapshot: a concise summary of a patent document including IFI Standardized Names, patent status, expiration estimates, and claims summaries

IFI Standardized Name: an organization name which has been standardized to eliminate variations such as misspellings and name changes, allowing users to map patent publications to the correct original and current assignees

INPADOC (International Patent Documentation): a free database maintained by the European Patent Office that contains information about patents and legal events from around the world

Inventor: the creator of the invention

Licensing: transfer of a bundle of rights which is less than the entire ownership interest, e.g., rights may be limited as to time, geographical area, or field of use. Note: Licensing arrangements are often not publicly available, and CLAIMS Direct does not contain licensing information

Parties: individuals and organizations involved in the application and/or ownership of a patent, such as applicants, assignees, inventors, agents, examiners, and correspondents

PITR (Patent Intelligence & Technology Report): service which offers users the ability to quickly produce listings of the top patent owners in a variety of countries over the past several years through pivot tables of data using the Solr JSON facet, available through CDWI and CDWS

Stream: an architectural concept describing differing flows of content for clients with on-site instances, which may include any type of content such as normal patent data, manufactured owner hierarchies, or data warehouse patches

Subsidiary: a company that is more than 50% owned by a parent company and holds patents

Ultimate Owner: a corporate entity that has one or more subsidiaries with patent assets, i.e., subsidiaries that appear as either original or current patent applicants or assignees, and is the highest-level legal entity with an ownership interest of greater than 50% in the subsidiary