We switched to MS SQL Server for a couple of technical reasons: • It is in line with our IT strategy. • The data preparation process for PATSTAT raw data is also based on MS SQL Server. • PATSTAT Online is an application on top of the DBMS. In this architecture, the JDBC driver is of crucial importa...

You might be interested in NACE2 as well. NACE2 is the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, Rev. 2 (2008) (in French: Nomenclature statistique des activités économiques dans la Communauté européenne). It serves a similar purpose than the SIC (Standard Industri...

“Register for PATSTAT” contains detailed bibliographic, legal, procedural and historical data for EP patents. Its Data Catalog, downloadable from http://www.epo.org/searching/subscription/raw/product-14-24-2.html , has recently be considerably revised. I hope the added content and improved readabili...

Due to a larger maintenance and re-installation effort, PATSTAT Online will not be available from May 26th - June 8th 2015. Among others, the database management system which is currently MySQL will be replaced by MS SQL Server. Because their SQL dialects differ slightly, you may have to adapt your ...

Thank you, Jos, for that interesting question. I checked with the expert, and indeed I learned something myself: The short answer: Corresponding documents are documents which have the same or substantially the same technical content, so they are stored in the same string, separated by the string “-&...

Hi Ricardo, What Nico wrote is correct, if you have created your own database by loading PATSTAT raw data. However, you wrote that you are using PATSTAT Online, which is the hosted version of PATSTAT. PATSTAT Online has some additional features, but also some limitations. Most notably, it is a read-...

I am glad to report that the PATSTAT Raw Data DVDs "2014 Autumn Edition" is currently shipped. You should receive the DVDs by Dec 15th at the latest. The production of this edition took longer than usual. The reason was that we changed the processing platform and significantly streamlined ...

Hi Nico, Roughly spoken, most offices publish their patents first as applications and later, if the applications are granted, as granted patents . I repeat your points and add my responses: ● Not all publications are grants (but all grants are publications). Correct - see above. ● Therefore, not all...

The PATSTAT Data Catalog describes table TLS218_DOCDB_FAM quite correctly: " Generally speaking, if two applications claim exactly the same prior applications as priorities (.....), then they are defined by the EPO as belonging to the same DOCDB simple family. The EPO reserves the right to clas...

PATSTAT does not compute the EPO simple families (table TLS218_DOCDB_FAM) by itself, but simply takes this information from the DOCDB backfile. Although the EPO simple family (also called DOCDB family) is very useful and widely used, the DOCDB manual states: " The business rules governing the f...