Identifying priority filings

[ertop]

Hello everybody

I have a subset of PAT_PUBLN_IDs, and I would like to identify among them those who are indeed the first publication of a "direct patent family" (ie first publication worldwide). I am a little confused by the existence of different elements regarding the "priority" aspect of a publication:
-PUBLN_FIRST_GRANT in TLS211,
-the EARLIEST_ fields in TLS201,
-INTERNAT_APPLN_ID in TLS201
-TLS204

In particular, is it equivalent to have, for a PAT_PUBLN_ID p
- PUBLN_FIRST_GRANT = 1
and for the APPLN_ID of p
- INTERNAT_APPLN_ID = 0, EARLIEST_FILING_DATE/YEAR = APPLN_FILING_DATE/YEAR, and no entry in TLS204 for this appln_id

Thank you

[mkracker]

You mention several similar, but distinctive data items. Please let me explain each of them:

• EARLIEST_PAT_PUBLN_ID, EARLIEST_PUBLN_DATE, EARLIEST_PUBLN_YEAR in table TLS201_APPLN:
  An application can have multiple publication, like first A2, the A3, followed by B1 and finally B8. These attributes simply give the dates of the earliest publication of an application. This information relates to a single application and not at all to families.
• PUBLN_FIRST_GRANT in TLS211_PAT_PUBLN:
  This attributes indicates which - if any - of the publications of a patent application is the granting publication. For EP patents, this would be the B1 publication.
  Again, this indicator is not related to families. It only considers 1 patent application and its publications. If an application has not be granted (yet), no publication will have PUBLN_FIRST_GRANT = 1. If an application has been granted, exactly 1 publication (= the granting publication) will have PUBLN_FIRST_GRANT = 1.
• INTERNAT_APPLN_ID in TLS201
  If a regional (e.g. EP) or national application originates from an international application (i.e. PCT application), then the attribute INTERNAT_APPLN_ID will contain a value > 0. In fact, the attribute INTERNAT_APPLN_ID of the regional / national application will contain the value of the APPLN_ID of its international application.
  Even if the filing dates are identical (because the regional / national application inherits the filing date of the international application), the international application was there "first".
• TLS204_APPLN_PRIOR
  This tables relates an application to other application, if the first application claims priority of the latter application according to the Paris Convention (http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/paris/).
  This Paris convention priority is what we typically mean when we talk about priorities, but it is not the only relation which links applications to "earlier" applications. These (Paris Convention) priorities are an important - but usually not the only - aspect when computing families.
• EARLIEST_ FILING_ID, EARLIEST_FILING_DATE and EARLIEST_FILING_YEAR of table TLS201_APPLN:
  These attributes refer to the earliest application, considering the application itself, its international applications (attribute INTERNAT_APLN_ID in TLS201_APPLN), its Paris Convention priority applications ( = TLS204), the applications with which it is related via technical relations (= TLS205) and its application continuations (= TLS216). Only directly related applications are considered; this is unlike the INPADOC family, where applications might also be indirectly related.
  In short: We define the group (one might also call it some sort of family) of all the applications which are directly linked to a specific application and then we take the "earliest" application of this group. For details please see the Data Catalog.
  In general, everybody can compute his own "earliest " application, depending on his needs. The attributes explained here are pre-computed by PATSTAT itself, because some users found it useful.
• DOCDB_FAMILY_ID:
  Applications which have the same DOCDB_FAMILY_ID (if DOCDB_FAMILY_ID > 0) belong to the same EPO simple family, also called DOCDB family. This family is identical to the list "also published as" as displayed in Espacenet. The business rules for the family building process are internal to the EPO (I do not know them myself).

Hope I could clarify a bit. I will take this as an opportunity to make some clarifications in the next version of he Data Catalog.
Martin

[ertop]

Thank you for all these precise answers