U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) _read_me_assignees_69_13.txt June 19, 2014 Questions --------- Questions concerning the contents of this product should be directed to: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Electronic Information Products Division -- Patent Technology Monitoring Team P.O. Box 1450 Alexandria, VA 22313-1450 tel- 571-272-5600 fax- 571-273-0110 HARMONIZATION OF NAMES OF ORGANIZATIONS (ASSIGNEES) OWNING UTILITY PATENTS -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - HARMONIZATION EFFORTS APPLY ONLY TO THE FIRST-NAMED ASSIGNEE - At the time of patent grant, the ownership of a patent may belong to an entity that is different from the named inventor(s). In such cases, the ownership of the patent is displayed on the patent front page in the section labeled, "Assignee". Due to typing and/or optical scanning inconsistencies that may occur during various stages of the patent issuing process, organizations that appear as assignees on issuing patents may be displayed with a variety of spellings on the different patents. These spelling variations can cause difficulties when trying to identify all patents having ownership assigned to an organization. The two files contained within the compressed file, "_assignee_harm_69_2013.zip", File (1) - pn_asg_uprd_69_13.txt File (2) - asg_names_uprd_69_13.txt are being made available to assist patent data customers who would like to identify the patents issued to organizations. Please note that the patent assignee or ownership information in these files is obtained from the front page of issuing patents in the section labeled, "Assignee". Assignment information corresponds to ownership at the time of grant and does not include changes in ownership that may occur after grant. *************************************************************************** * PLEASE NOTE THAT THE TWO IDENTIFIED FILES PROVIDE INFORMATION THAT * * CORRESPONDS ONLY TO THE FIRST-NAMED ASSIGNEE LISTED ON ISSUING UTILITY * * PATENTS. * *************************************************************************** PATENTS INCLUDED: Utility patents issued from 1969 through December 31, 2013 File (1) pn_asg_uprd_69_13.txt ------------------------- Number of Records: 5,665,596 Size : 141,639,900 bytes (MS-DOS) Date : This file reflects the contents of the TAF database as of 12-March-2014. This file consists of three data fields, as follows: Field Column positions Description ----- ---------------- ----------- (1) Patent number 1-7 The 7 digit patent number (2) Assignee code 9-15 A seven digit numeric code corresponding to the name of the assigned patent owner (3) Preferred assignee code 17-23 A seven digit numeric code corresponding to the preferred or harmonized name of the assigned patent owner File (2) asg_names_uprd_69_13.txt --------------------------------- Number of Records: 397,764 Size : 14,201,365 bytes (MS-DOS) Date : This file reflects the contents of the TAF database as of 12-March-2014. This file consists of two data fields, as follows: Field Column positions Description ----- ---------------- ----------- (1) Assignee code 1-7 A seven digit numeric code corresponding to the name of an assigned patent owner, as listed in either the "assignee code" or the "preferred assignee code" numeric fields of File (1). (2) Assignee name 9-263 The assignee name (either harmonized or non-harmonized) that corresponds to the "assignee code" numeric field displayed in Field (1). The Patent Technology Monitoring Team (PTMT) has been making efforts to combine variations in patent assignee names since the mid-1970's. These efforts consist of combining variations in organizational names under a single, harmonized identifying name. *************************************************************************** * PLEASE NOTE THAT THE TWO IDENTIFIED FILES PROVIDE INFORMATION THAT * * CORRESPONDS ONLY TO THE FIRST-NAMED ASSIGNEE LISTED ON ISSUING UTILITY * * PATENTS. * *************************************************************************** ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTES OF INTEREST: ------------------ UPDATING OF THE HARMONIZATION FILES ----------------------------------- The PTMT effort to harmonize the first-named assignee names that appear on issuing patents is an ongoing process. The contents of the two assignee harmonization files included here reflect the PTMT harmonization efforts as of March 12, 2014. The contents of these two files may differ slightly from the contents of other PTMT harmonization files that were produced at a different point in time. SUBSIDIARY ORGANIZATION RELATIONSHIPS ------------------------------------- In general, subsidiary relationships are not reflected in the name harmonization efforts of PTMT. If an organization has a subsidiary and it chooses to obtain a patent and list the subsidiary name as the assignee, then PTMT generally will associate the patent with the assignee name of the subsidiary. PTMT does not attempt to consolidate or harmonize such subsidiary assignee names under the assignee name of the parent organization. ORGANIZATIONAL NAME CHANGES --------------------------- In general, organizational name changes are not reflected in the name harmonization efforts of PTMT. If the name of an organization changes, then old organizational names, identified as assignees, are not generally harmonized to reflect the new organizational names. While this is generally the case, please note that there are instances where an old organizational name has been harmonized to reflect the new organizational name and where all associated patents have been associated with the new name. These instances generally correspond to cases where the name change was minor, for example, cases where "Company A, Inc." has changed its name to "Company A, LLC". RENUMBERING OF NUMERIC ASSIGNEE CODES ------------------------------------- Until early 1992, PTMT periodically renumbered all of the numeric assignee codes. Since the association between an assignee and its numeric assignee code would change each time the codes were renumbered, it was not possible, over time, to associate a single numeric assignee code or numerical identifier with a particular assignee. However, starting in early 1992, PTMT began to capture the non-harmonized assignee name associated with each newly issuing patent. These non-harmonized assignee names and associated numeric codes have not changed over time except in rare cases where a change was necessary to address an inconsistency identified in the data. Note that harmonized assignee names and their associated numeric assignee codes still can and do change, as more appropriate harmonized names are identified. However, such changes to the harmonized assignee names and their codes usually are limited and the overwhelming majority of the harmonized names and associated codes existing in early 1992 and created since that time have remained unchanged. USE OF THE DATA FILES ==> --------------------- FIND THE PREFERRED OR HARMONIZED ASSIGNEE NAME FOR A PATENT: To determine the harmonized assignee name associated with a patent, go to File (1) and find the data record containing the patent number. Identify the preferred or harmonized numeric assignee code in field (3) in that same data record. The corresponding harmonized assignee name for the patent then can be found by going to File (2) and viewing the data record containing the identified numeric assignee code in field (1). The harmonized assignee name is displayed in field (2). FIND THE NON-HARMONIZED ASSIGNEE NAME FOR A PATENT: To determine the non-harmonized assignee name associated with a patent, go to File (1) and find the data record containing the patent number. Identify the non-harmonized numeric assignee code in field (2) in that same data record. The corresponding non-harmonized assignee name for the patent then can be found by going to File (2) and viewing the data record containing the identified numeric assignee code in field (1). The non-harmonized assignee name is displayed in field (2). For patents issued prior to early 1992, the non-harmonized assignee name may not be available. Please refer to the discussion, above, in the section "RENUMBERING OF NUMERIC ASSIGNEE CODES" concerning non-harmonized assignee names for patents issued prior to early 1992. FIND THE PATENTS ASSOCIATED WITH A HARMONIZED ASSIGNEE NAME: Identify the harmonized assignee name, go to File (2), and find the data record containing that harmonized name in field (2). Obtain the numeric assignee code associated with that name from field (1) in that same data record. The patents associated with that harmonized assignee name can be found in File (1) by identifying all data records that contain that harmonized numeric assignee code in data field (3). Data field (1) of each of those matching data records will contain the numbers of the patents associated with the harmonized assignee name. CAVEAT ------ No attempt has been made to combine data based on subsidiary relationships. However, where possible, spelling variations and some variations based on name changes (e.g., ESSO to EXXON) have been merged into a single name. While every effort is made to accurately identify all organizational entities and associate patents with a single harmonized organizational name, achievement of a totally clean record is not expected, particularly in view of the many variations that may occur in corporate identifications. USPTO CASSIS-PATENTS BIB DVD-ROMS --------------------------------- Please note that the patent number and associated harmonized (or preferred) assignee code also are available on USPTO CASSIS-PATENTS BIB DVD-ROM subscription products (discontinued as of December, 2011). These products were updated every two months and may still be available for use at many of the Patent and Trademark Resource Centers located across the United States (see: http://www.uspto.gov/products/library/ptdl/locations/index.jsp). Most of the harmonized codes on this CASSIS product will match the harmonized codes in this set of 2013 assignee harmonization data files. However, some differences exist since PTMT's effort to harmonize assignee names is ongoing and since the different products reflect the results of PTMT's harmonization efforts at differing points in time. For information about the possible availability of the discontinued CASSIS-PATENTS BIB DVD-ROM products, contact the Electronic Information Products Division at: U.S Patent and Trademark Office Electronic Information Products Division Randolph Square 5A22B Alexandria, VA 22206 tel (571) 272-5600 fax (571) 273-0110 e-mail: ipd@uspto.gov