DOCUMENTATION FOR THE BASIC_15.TXT + CONAME_BASIC_15.TXT PATENT BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA EXTRACT FILES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BASIC_DOC_15.TXT 6/30/2016 5:20PM 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 - Basic Data --------------------------------------------- Notes ----- **************************************************************************************** STARTING WITH THE 2012 CUSTOM PATENT DATA EXTRACT DVD, THE PERIOD OF COVERAGE HAS BEEN EXPANDED TO INCLUDE SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA FOR UTILITY PATENTS GRANTED SINCE 1963. **************************************************************************************** BASIC_15.TXT ------------ The custom extract data file, BASIC_15.TXT, includes selected bibliographic data for utility, design, plant, and reissue patents, defensive publications, and statutory invention registrations issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Selected bibliographic data are included as follows: - utility patents issued from 1/1/1963 to 12/31/2015; for the earlier years of this period, only data for a limited number of the data fields may be available. - design, plant, and reissue patents, defensive publications, and statutory invention registrations issued from 1/1/1977 to 12/31/2015. BASIC_15.TXT 6,666,686 records, CY 2015 File size: 360,001,044 bytes (about 360 MB) - The file format of the BASIC_15.TXT file is as follows: - Columns 1-7: Seven character identifier of the issued patent number - Column 8: Unused - Columns 9-11: Three character identifier of the state/country code corresponding to the residence of the first-named inventor listed on the issuing patent; see the ST_CTRY_15.TXT file for the state and country names corresponding to these codes - Column 12: Unused - Columns 13-20: Numeric assignee code corresponding to the first-named assigned owner listed on the issuing patent; see the CONAME_BASIC_15.TXT file for the assigned owner names corresponding to these codes - Column 21: Unused - Columns 22-28: Month and year that the application for patent was filed; the information is presented in "YYYY-MM" format where YYYY is the four digit year and MM is the two digit month (see below, for additional discussion regarding this field) - Column 29: Unused - Columns 30-39: Date that the patent was issued; the information is presented in "YYYY-MM-DD" format where YYYY is the four digit year, MM is the two digit month, and DD is the two digit day of the month - Column 40: Unused - Column 41: Assignment character code identifier corresponding to the patent ownership category at the time of patent issue; see the further discussion below for a description of these codes - Column 42: Unused - Column 43-45: Character identifier corresponding to the primary or "original" U.S. Patent Classification System class assigned to or otherwise associated with the patent as of 12/31/2015; see the CLASSES_BASIC_15.TXT file for the class titles corresponding to these class identifiers - Column 46: Unused - Column 47-52: Character identifier corresponding to the primary or "original" U.S. Patent Classification System subclass assigned to or otherwise associated with the patent as of 12/31/2015 The BASIC_15.TXT file is sorted by ascending patent number. Each line is terminated with a carriage return and a line feed character (0D 0A in hexadecimal) after the last populated data field. ************************************************************************************************** CONAME_BASIC_15.TXT ------------------- The custom extract data file, CONAME_BASIC_15.TXT, is used with the BASIC_15.TXT file to obtain the name of the first-named assigned patent owner of an issued patent. The CONAME_BASIC_15.TXT file lists the numeric assignee codes appearing in the BASIC_15.TXT file and the corresponding assigned patent owner names. CONAME_BASIC_15.TXT 351,353 records, CY 2015 File size: 12,450,732 bytes (about 12 MB) - The file format is as follows: - Columns 1-8: Numeric assignee code corresponding to the first-named assigned owner listed on the issuing patent, as contained in the BASIC_15.TXT file - Column 9: Unused - Columns 10-264: Name of the corresponding harmonized first-named assigned owner The CONAME_BASIC_15.TXT file is sorted by ascending numeric assignee 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. ************************************************************************************************** BASIC_15.TXT - Further discussion --------------------------------- - The patent number (columns 1-7) is a 7 character identifier for the patent. - The state/country character code data (columns 9-11) correspond to the residence of the first-named inventor listed on the issuing patent. STATE/COUNTRY CODES PRESENTED IN THIS FILE HAVE BEEN SUBJECT TO VERIFICATION AND DATA CORRECTION EFFORTS. State and country names corresponding to the codes can be obtained from the ST_CNTRY_15.TXT documentation file. IN SOME CASES, THE STATE/COUNTRY CODE CONTAINED IN THIS FILE MAY NOT CORRESPOND TO THE DATA CONTAINED IN THE SEPARATE INVENTOR DATA FILE, INCLUDED ELSEWHERE IN THE CUSTOM EXTRACT FILES. IN SUCH CASES, THE DATA CONTAINED IN THE BASIC_15.TXT FILE IS CONSIDERED TO BE MORE RELIABLE. - The numeric assignee code included in the BASIC_15.TXT file (columns 13-20) corresponds to the first-named assigned owner listed on the issuing patent. The name of that first-named assigned owner can be identified by using the CONAME_BASIC_15.TXT file that includes each of the numeric assignee codes and its corresponding assigned owner name. If patent ownership was not assigned at the time of patent issue or was assigned to an individual (i.e., it was not assigned to an organization), then the numeric assignee code "0" ("~Individually Owned Patent") is associated with the patent. NO ATTEMPT HAS BEEN MADE TO COMBINE DATA BASED ON SUBSIDIARY RELATIONSHIPS. HOWEVER, WHERE POSSIBLE, SPELLING VARIATIONS AND 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 REPORT DATA BY A SINGLE ORGANIZATIONAL NAME, ACHIEVEMENT OF A TOTALLY CLEAN RECORD IS NOT EXPECTED, PARTICULARLY IN VIEW OF THE MANY VARIATIONS WHICH MAY OCCUR IN CORPORATE IDENTIFICATIONS. Please note that the numeric assignee codes do not appear in other U.S. Patent and Trademark Office databases, such as the Automated Patent Search System (APS). However, the codes do appear on the (now discontinued) USPTO CASSIS PATENTS-BIBLIOGRAPHIC optical disc product, although there may be slight differences in some of the code values because the data were not extracted from the source database at the same point in time. - Patent application dates (columns 22-28) are presented in "YYYY-MM" format where YYYY is the four digit year and MM is the two digit month. Please note that for many patents, the FULL application date (year, month, and day) is available elsewhere in the CUSTOM PATENT DATA EXTRACT files (see the related application data contained in the files in the RELATED_APPLS directory - see, in particular, the data file records with related application sequence numbers equal to 0). - Patent issue dates (columns 30-39) are presented in "YYYY-MM-DD" format where YYYY is the four digit year, MM is the two digit month, and DD is the two digit day. - The assignment code or patent ownership category (column 41) is a one-character code having the following meaning: 1 = unassigned 2 = assigned to a U.S. non-government organization 3 = assigned to a foreign non-government organization 4 = assigned to a U.S. individual 5 = assigned to a foreign individual 6 = assigned to the U.S. (Federal) Government 7 = assigned to a foreign government 8,9 = assigned to a U.S. non-Federal Government agency (8 and 9 generally does not appear in this file) Patent ownership category information reflects ownership at the time of patent grant and does not reflect subsequent changes in ownership. If more than one assignee (the entity, if any, to which the patent rights have been legally assigned) was declared at the time of grant, then a patent is attributed to the ownership category of the first-named assignee. The "unassigned" ownership category (code 1) includes patents for which no assignment of ownership was made at the time of grant (i.e., ownership was retained by the inventor(s)). The "U.S. non-government organization" and "foreign non-government organization" ownership categories (codes 2 and 3) count predominantly corporate patents; however, patents assigned to other organizations such as small businesses, nonprofit organizations, universities, etc. are also included in these categories. The "U.S. individual" and "foreign individual" ownership categories (codes 4 and 5) include patents for which ownership was assigned to an individual at the time of grant. While the "U.S. (Federal) Government" ownership category (code 6) includes only patents granted to the Federal Government, no such distinction is made for the "foreign government" ownership category (code 7). Therefore, while "foreign government" ownership patents should correspond to patents for which ownership was assigned to a foreign government, such foreign governments are not restricted to national (as compared to "local") governments. Patent ownership assignment is identified as "U.S." or "foreign" based on the listed location or residence of the assigned organization or, for unassigned patents, the first-listed individual inventor. - The class (columns 43-45) is a three character identifier that corresponds to the primary classification class (also known as the ORIGINAL classification class in USPTO-specific terminology) in the U.S. Patent Classification System, as of 12/31/2015. Class titles corresponding to the three character class identifier can be obtained from the CLASSES_BASIC_15.TXT documentation file. Classes are major divisions of technology in the U.S. Patent Classification System (USPCS). Each class is further divided into smaller divisions of technology called subclasses. The USPCS currently contains approximately 475 total classes and 165,000 total subclasses. Copies of each patent are placed (classified) in those subclasses which have been identified as pertinent to the information disclosed in the patent. One, and only one, of these subclasses is designated as the "original classification" (OR), and the remainder (if any) are designated as "cross-reference classifications" (XR). The "original" classification of a patent may be considered to be its "primary" classification. This classification need not correspond to any classification that was assigned to the patent at the time of issue since the classification system has undergone revision over time and since classifications that are assigned to patents have been updated to reflect these revisions. Counting patents by "original" classifications will ensure that each patent is counted only once. However, if a patent teaches more than one concept, e.g., table and chair, only one concept, e.g., table, will be counted. Patent classifications used to produce this report are those assigned to patents as of December 31, 2015. Please refer to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Manual of Patent Classification for further information concerning the U.S. Patent Classification System. - The subclass (columns 47-52) is a six character identifier that corresponds to the primary classification subclass (also known as the ORIGINAL classification subclass) in the U.S. Patent Classification System, as of 12/31/2015. The subclass is contained within the class that is identified in the same data record (columns 43-45, see above). Please note that there is an implied decimal point between the third and fourth positions of the subclass. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE U.S. PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE HAS TRANSITIONED FROM THE U.S. PATENT CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM (USPC) TO THE COOPERATIVE PATENT CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM (CPC) AND THAT USPC CLASSIFICATIONS GENERALLY ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE FOR U.S. UTILITY PATENTS THAT ISSUED AFTER EARLY JUNE, 2015. THEREFORE, IN THIS FILE, USPC CLASSIFICATIONS FOR UTILITY PATENTS ISSUING AFTER EARLY JUNE 2015 HAVE BEEN DETERMINED AS A BEST ESTIMATE BASED ON USPC CLASSIFICATIONS THAT WERE ASSIGNED TO THE ASSOCIATED PATENT APPLICATIONS DURING EARLY PROCESSING STAGES AND BASED ON OTHER INFORMATION, AS AVAILABLE. ABOUT 90% OF ALL PATENT DOCUMENTS GRANTED BY USPTO (I.E., INCLUDING UTILITY, DESIGN, PLANT, AND REISSUE PATENTS, STATUTORY INVENTION REGISTRATIONS, AND DEFENSIVE PUBLICATIONS) ARE UTILITY PATENT GRANTS. ************************************************************************************************** CONAME_BASIC_15.TXT - Further discussion ---------------------------------------- - The numeric assignee codes included in the CONAME_BASIC_15.TXT file (columns 1-8) correspond to the numeric assignee codes appearing in the BASIC_15.TXT file. These codes represent the first-named assignee, or assigned owner, of each patent at the time of patent grant. - The name of the first-named assigned patent owner at the time of grant can be obtained from the second field of the CONAME_BASIC_15.TXT file (columns 10-264). If patent ownership was not assigned at the time of patent issue or was assigned to an individual (i.e., it was not assigned to an organization), then the numeric assignee code "0" ("~Individually Owned Patent") is associated with the patent. NO ATTEMPT HAS BEEN MADE TO COMBINE DATA BASED ON SUBSIDIARY RELATIONSHIPS. HOWEVER, WHERE POSSIBLE, SPELLING VARIATIONS AND 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 REPORT DATA BY A SINGLE ORGANIZATIONAL NAME, ACHIEVEMENT OF A TOTALLY CLEAN RECORD IS NOT EXPECTED, PARTICULARLY IN VIEW OF THE MANY VARIATIONS WHICH MAY OCCUR IN CORPORATE IDENTIFICATIONS. Please note that the numeric assignee codes do not appear in other U.S. Patent and Trademark Office databases, such as the Automated Patent Search System (APS). However, the codes do appear on the (now discontinued) USPTO CASSIS PATENTS-BIBLIOGRAPHIC optical disc product, although there may be slight differences in some of the code values because the data were not extracted at the same point in time. ************************************************************************************************** ADDITIONAL NOTES ---------------- - A list of the patent numbers that do not correspond to actual patents is supplied in the file, "WITHDRAWN_63_15_PN.TXT". Since these "withdrawn" patent numbers do not correspond to valid documents, they are excluded from the data file on this optical disc. - A file "LASTPN_15.TXT" has been provided that displays the last patent number by grant year and patent document type. - A small sample of the data contained in the BASIC_15.TXT data file is included in a separate file, "SAMPLE_BASIC_15.TXT". - A small sample of the data contained in the CONAME_BASIC_15.TXT data file is included in a separate file, "SAMPLE_CONAME_BASIC_15.TXT".