Hidden chars in "List of standardised applicant names" CSV

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nisseknudsen
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2016 12:10 pm

Hidden chars in "List of standardised applicant names" CSV

Post by nisseknudsen » Tue Feb 21, 2017 2:20 pm

Dear EPO team, dear community,

please be aware that the "List of standardised applicant names" csv file (you can find it here: https://www.epo.org/searching-for-paten ... gular.html) contains some hidden characters which leads to problems during CSV import into other systems.

Image


You can easily remove these characters by using VIM and the command shown in this answer: http://superuser.com/a/449310/542975

@EPO: Could you possibly exclude such characters during your export to CSV? I tried different encodings, but I am sure it is UTF-8, but let me know if I made a mistake.

Thanks,
Nisse


EPO / OPS Support
Posts: 1298
Joined: Thu Feb 22, 2007 5:32 pm

Re: Hidden chars in "List of standardised applicant names" C

Post by EPO / OPS Support » Tue Feb 21, 2017 2:26 pm

Dear users,

I am not sure what exactly you need this data for or why are you processing this cvs file because as an OPS user you do have standardised names in all your OPS responses already. Docdb users also have this data in their feeds and same data is also available in Espacenet.

The only reason why we keep this list in our tables is because some other stakeholders have interest in that data. But all raw data and web services users already have this same data in their respective products,

Regarsd,
OPS support


nisseknudsen
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2016 12:10 pm

Re: Hidden chars in "List of standardised applicant names" C

Post by nisseknudsen » Tue Feb 21, 2017 3:20 pm

Dear OPS support,

for us it is a way to know which applicant names exist in EPO and can be queried with the pa=XXX attribute.

Best,
Nisse


EPO / OPS Support
Posts: 1298
Joined: Thu Feb 22, 2007 5:32 pm

Re: Hidden chars in "List of standardised applicant names" C

Post by EPO / OPS Support » Tue Feb 21, 2017 3:29 pm

Thanks for leting us know.

We find out practically daily about some new n or different ways our data is used by users :-)

I have asked a team that provides us with this CSV extraction if they can fix this for the future and as soon as I get some reply from them I will let you know.

Regards,
OPS support


EPO / OPS Support
Posts: 1298
Joined: Thu Feb 22, 2007 5:32 pm

Re: Hidden chars in "List of standardised applicant names" C

Post by EPO / OPS Support » Thu Feb 23, 2017 9:10 am

Hi,

I've just spoke to the expert in charge and he will investigate this issue within the next few days so by the time we upload the update at least those characters will not be present any longer.

Regards,
OPS support


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