differentiate between assignee and inventor

[nieves_y]

Hello,

Is there a way to differentiate between assignee and inventor for non-USPTO patent data ?

Thanks !

[EPO / PATSTAT Support]

Hello,
the short answer is YES; by setting correct applt_seq_nr and invt_seq_nr conditions.

The term "assignee" is mainly used when talking about patent applications filed at the US patent office.
At the EPO we rather use "applicant" in conjunction with patent application and "patent owner" or "proprietor" in conjunction with a granted patent. The EPO register uses the term "applicant" but a "change of ownership" can be registered even before the application is granted.

PATSTAT: the tls206_person table contains the names of the patent applicants and the inventors. Inventors can also be applicant. Table tls206_person is linked to the application table via the tls207_pers_appln table which allows you to select applicants or inventors, both or excluding one or the other by setting different conditions on the applt_seq_nr or invt_seq_nr attributes in the WHERE clause.
Try out the query below which looks at all applicants and inventors from 1 single EP application; by activating the different examples in the WHERE clause you will see the different result lists.

Code: Select all

SELECT tls201_appln.appln_id, appln_auth, appln_nr, appln_filing_date,
 invt_seq_nr, applt_seq_nr,psn_name, person_ctry_code, person_address
FROM tls201_appln  join tls207_pers_appln on tls201_appln.appln_id = tls207_pers_appln.appln_id
  join tls206_person on tls207_pers_appln.person_id = tls206_person.person_id
where tls201_appln.appln_auth = 'EP'  and appln_nr = '10163483'
--and applt_seq_nr > 0 --will select all 3 applicants, also the ones that are inventors
--and invt_seq_nr > 0 --will select all 3 inventors, also the inventor that is registered as an applicant
--and applt_seq_nr = 0 and invt_seq_nr > 0 --will only select inventors that are not applicant
--and applt_seq_nr > 0 and invt_seq_nr > 0 --will only select applicants who are also inventor
--and applt_seq_nr > 0 and invt_seq_nr = 0 --will only applicants that are not inventor ->will exclude many natural persons
order by applt_seq_nr, invt_seq_nr