DOCUMENTATION FOR THE INVENTOR_15.TXT PATENT BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA EXTRACT FILE ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- INVENTOR_DOC_15.TXT 6/30/2016 8:21PM Questions about the custom patent data extract files should be directed to: US Patent and Trademark Office Electronic Information Products Division Patent Technology Monitoring Team P.O. Box 1450 Alexandria, VA 22313-1450 tel : (571) 272-5600 e-mail : oeip@uspto.gov Patent Bibliographic Information - Inventor Data ------------------------------------------------ Notes ----- The custom extract data file, "INVENTOR_15.TXT", generally includes inventor data for utility, design, plant, and reissue patents, defensive publications, and statutory invention registrations issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Inventor data are included for utility patents issued from 1/1/1975 to 12/31/2015. Inventor data are included for design, plant, and reissue patents, defensive publications, and statutory invention registrations issued from 1/1/1977 to 12/31/2015. The INVENTOR file includes the patent number, inventor sequence number (the order in which the inventor is listed on the front page of the issuing patent), the inventor name, street address (if present in the patent record), city, state/country code, and zip code (where available). Inventor street address data are missing from the data extract file when patent rights have been assigned to an organization or other entity at the time of grant; in such cases, the street address information also does not appear on the front page of the patent grant. For patents granted on or after March 1, 2011, only inventor city and state/country of residence data are provided in the data extract file and on the patent grant; i.e., NO inventor street address or zip code information is included. Please note that an inventor may appear several times in the INVENTOR file when they have received more than one patent during a specified time period. This occurs because an inventor is listed once for each patent received during the time period. - The file format is as follows: *********************************************************** PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FORMAT OF THE INVENTOR FILE IS REVISED FOR THE 2009 AND LATER CUSTOM DATA EXTRACTS *********************************************************** File name: INVENTOR_15.TXT Recording Mode: ASCII File Size: 1,703,680,470 bytes (about 1.7 GB) Number of Records: 13,539,648 Begin/Char End Char Field Data Position Position Length Type Description 1 7 7 char Patent Number 8 8 1 Unused 9 11 3 integer Inventor Sequence Number 12 12 1 Unused 13 32 20 char Last Name of Inventor 33 33 1 Unused 34 48 15 char First Name of Inventor 49 49 1 Unused 50 64 15 char Middle Name of Inventor 65 65 1 Unused 66 68 3 char Surname Modifier (e.g.,"Jr.") 69 69 1 Unused 70 99 30 char Street Address 100 100 1 Unused 101 120 20 char City 121 121 1 Unused 122 124 3 char State/Country Code 125 125 1 Unused 126 130 5 char Zip Code Each line is terminated with a carriage return and a line feed character (0D 0A in hexadecimal) after the last populated data field. Trailing blank spaces in each record may be removed to reduce the size of the file. The INVENTOR file is sorted first by ascending patent number (primary) and second by ascending inventor sequence number (sequence in which the inventor name appears on the printed patent) (secondary). - A list of the patent numbers that do not correspond to actual patents is supplied in the file, "WITHDRAWN_75_15_PN.TXT". Since these "withdrawn" patent numbers do not correspond to valid documents, they are excluded from the data extract file. - Patents that are missing from the data extract file are listed in a separate file, "MISSING_INVENTOR_15.TXT." Inventor data for the identified patent documents appear to be substantially complete with each patent document having at least one identified inventor in the data file extract. However, it's noted that a limited number of patents may be missing one or more inventors listed on the patent front page due to issues that have occurred during the data capture process and during the process of loading the captured data into the USPTO's TAF database. - State-country code data generally correspond to the data that appeared in the original electronic text files. A file, "ST_CNTRY_15.TXT" contains state-country codes and corresponding U.S. state and country names. THE USER SHOULD NOTE THAT EFFORTS HAVE BEEN MADE TO VERIFY AND TO CORRECT THE INVENTOR STATE-COUNTRY CODES DISPLAYED IN THE "INVENTOR_15.TXT" DATA FILE. THE PRIMARY FOCUS OF THE CORRECTION EFFORTS HAS BEEN ON STATE-COUNTRY CODES OF THE FIRST-NAMED INVENTOR (INVENTOR SEQUENCE NUMBER 1) LISTED ON EACH PATENT. HOWEVER, SOME INCONSISTENCIES IN THE STATE-COUNTRY CODES DISPLAYED IN THE "INVENTOR_15.TXT" DATA FILE MAY REMAIN. IN A LIMITED NUMBER OF CASES, THE STATE/COUNTRY CODE FOR THE FIRST-NAMED INVENTOR CONTAINED IN THIS FILE MAY NOT CORRESPOND TO THE STATE/COUNTRY CODE DATA CONTAINED IN THE SEPARATE "BASIC_15.TXT" PATENT DATA EXTRACT FILE (SEE THE BASIC_BIB_YY DIRECTORY FOR THIS FILE). IN SUCH CASES, THE DATA CONTAINED IN THE "BASIC_15.TXT" FILE IS CONSIDERED TO BE MORE RELIABLE. - A file "LASTPN_15.TXT" has been provided that displays the last patent number by year of patent grant and by patent document type. - A small sample of the data contained in this data file is included in a separate file, "SAMPLE_INVENTOR_15.TXT".