DOCUMENTATION FOR THE "NPLCITE_15.TXT" PATENT BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA EXTRACT FILE ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- NPLCITE_DOC_15.TXT 7/7/2016 5:32PM 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 Non-Patent Literature (Other) Citations --------------------------------------- Notes ----- The custom data extract file, "NPLCITE_15.TXT", is contained in the compressed file, "NPLCITE_15.ZIP". The data extract file has been placed in a compressed file due to limitations in the storage capacity of the dual-layer DVD-ROM disc. This data extract file, "NPLCITE_15.TXT", that is contained in the compressed file, "NPLCITE_15.ZIP", generally includes non-patent literature citations (also referred to as "other citations") for utility, design, plant, and reissue patents, defensive publications, and statutory invention registrations issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Non-patent literature citations are included for utility patents issued from 1/1/1975 to 12/31/2015. Non-patent literature citations are included for design, plant, and reissue patents, defensive publications, and statutory invention registrations issued from 1/1/1977 to 12/31/2015. Please note that a citing patent will not appear in this custom extract data file unless it includes at least one non-patent literature citation in the bibliographic section of the patent's front page. Further information concerning non-patent literature citations ("other references") ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (from documentation for the APS greenbook files which are the raw data files from which much of the older patent data were extracted) "Other References- Such as books, pamphlets, trade journals, pages from catalogues, etc., includes name of publication and article (if appropriate), edition and year, volume and issue, publisher, and pertinent pages if less than the entire publication is being relied on. If abstracts, such as Chemical Abstracts, are cited, the name of the abstracting company will also be given. Defensive Publications are cited under this category and are identified with "Def. Pub." before the document number (which is preceded by a "T", indicating a technical disclosure document, for those published after 12/16/69)." File name: NPLCITE_15.TXT (as contained in the compressed file, "NPLCITE_15.ZIP") Number of records: 25,914,484 for CY 2015 File size : 3,899,546,384 bytes (about 3.9 GB) Data are sorted first by citing patent document number and second by citation sequence number. - The file format is as follows: - Column positions 1-7 : Citing patent (i.e., issued patent that contains the citation references) (character field) - Column positions 9-13 : Citation sequence number (this number is not particularly meaningful and is provided merely to assist the user when working with the citation records) (integer field) - Column positions 15-4014 : Non-patent literature citation (a carriage return and line feed immediately follow at the end of each citation) (character field) The NPLCITE_15.TXT file is sorted by ascending patent number (primary) and citation sequence number (secondary). Each line is terminated with a carriage return and a line feed character (0D 0A in hexadecimal) after the last populated data field. - A list of the citing 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, as citing patents, from this custom extract data file. - Citing patents that are missing from the custom extract data file are listed in a separate file, "MISSING_15.TXT". In general, documents are missing from this file because the corresponding data were omitted from the original electronic text files produced for the patents issued each week. Most of the citing patents missing from the data file extract are utility patents granted in 1975. - A file "LASTPN_15.TXT" has been provided that displays the last patent number by year and patent document type. - A small sample of the data contained in this custom extract data file is included in a separate file, "SAMPLE_NPLCITE_15.TXT." - ** NOTE ** Although efforts have been made to remove duplicate citation entries, some duplicate entries may remain. Also, it is possible that some of the citation entries may be missing and that some listed citation entries in this file may include data inconsistencies or errors.