NPL references cited in patent literature

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Joachim
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue May 23, 2017 9:56 am

NPL references cited in patent literature

Post by Joachim » Tue May 23, 2017 10:19 am

Dear all,

I am currently looking into the possibilities of tracking the impact of NPL on patent filing. In that context I am looking to identify NPL references that are cited in patents/patent applications.

I decided to take a look at the TLS214_NPL_PUBLN.NPL_BIBLIO to display the relevant references. However, these references only seem to relate to NPL references cited during the search and examination procedure.

1) Is it correctly understood that TLS214_NPL_PUBLN.NPL_BIBLIO only tracks NPL cited during the examination procedure?

2) If so, is there another possibility for recovering NPL references cited by the applicant in the patent/patent applications and how would one go about that if possible?

Best regards
Joachim


mkracker
Posts: 120
Joined: Wed Sep 04, 2013 6:17 am
Location: Vienna

Re: NPL references cited in patent literature

Post by mkracker » Tue May 23, 2017 2:05 pm

Dear Joachim,

Actually, your assumption is not correct. NPLs can be cited in any phase of the patent procedure. Just check attribute CITN_ORIGIN in table TLS212_CITATION.

Code: Select all

select citn_origin, count(*) as freq
from tls212_citation
where cited_npl_publn_id > 0
group by citn_origin
order by freq desc
This query retrieves the number of citations of each phase. For the meaning of the citation origin codes please see the PATSTAT Data Catalog.

Code: Select all

[b]citn_origin	freq[/b]
APP	22534887
SEA	8370774
ISR	1871847
PRS	774462
EXA	431159
TPO	21673
OPP	16259
FOP	13796
APL	7004
SUP	130
CH2	3
Another hint if you are interested in NPLs: In the 2017 Spring Edition (which is already available as raw data and PATSTAT Online will follow today) the NPL table TLS214_NPL_PUBLN has a much richer structure. So in addition of the NPL_BIBLIO string you will have 18 more attributes. Be aware that currently only 20% of the NPLs are available as rich structure.

I hope this helps,
Martin / EPO
-------------------------------------------
Martin Kracker / EPO


Joachim
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue May 23, 2017 9:56 am

Re: NPL references cited in patent literature

Post by Joachim » Wed May 24, 2017 12:48 pm

Dear Martin,

Thank you for the quick reply.

While the reply was partially helpful, I do not think it is the answer I was looking for. I will try to rephrase the question.

When a patent application is filed, it usually comprises references to background literature, sometimes other patents, sometimes NPL. I am interested in gathering information about the NPL that is referenced inside the text of the individual patent applications, not NPL that is referenced as part of the patent procedure.

Today, to test your suggestions in practice, I tried extracting the bibliographic data for NPL cited by the applicant for a specific application; 5318
I did a count of distinct publications cited by the applicant (Search string 1) in case of that specific application, which yielded 6 separate entries (named in short: Javitt, Kiritsy, Leidermann, Rison, Truon and Yaksh).
Then I separately displayed the Bibliographic data grouped along with the APPLN_ID (search string 2). Then I opened the actual full text patent document, via the outlink to espacenet and checked to see if the references were relevant or not.
The 6 references recovered are identical to the ones included in the document "List of References cited by applicant and considered by examiner" found via "bibliographic data - global dossier".

However, if you go through the fulltext patent document, you will encounter several other NPL references, for example:
Aicher, p. 6, paragraph [0118];
Pearson, p. 6 paragraph [0119];
and Jaques, Collet, and Wilen, p.4, paragraph [0092]

These references are not displayed in the Cited by applicant or NPL_biblio reference categories as far as I can see. Neither are they available if I display all the NPL_biblio references for the specific APPLN_ID.

I am trying to look into how many and which NPL documents that are cited inside patent fulltext documents and use that information as an indicator for how NPL influences patenting (technological development).

From what I can tell from this trial search, that is not currently feasible with the tracked data available in PATstat as PATstat does not track all NPL references in every patent fulltext. Is that assumption correct, or am I misunderstanding something?

The actual search strings that I performed can be found below. Please note that I am mainly interested in Patent with Danish Applicants, which is why there are several other data links joined in.

Once again, thank you for your assistance. It is much appreciated!

Search string 1:

Select
count(distinct tls214_npl_publn.npl_biblio)
FROM tls201_appln
JOIN tls211_pat_publn
ON tls201_appln.appln_id = tls211_pat_publn.appln_id
JOIN tls212_citation
ON tls211_pat_publn.pat_publn_id = tls212_citation.pat_publn_id
JOIN tls214_npl_publn
ON tls212_citation.cited_npl_publn_id = tls214_npl_publn.npl_publn_id
JOIN tls207_pers_appln
ON tls201_appln.appln_id = tls207_pers_appln.appln_id
JOIN tls206_person
ON tls206_person.person_id = tls207_pers_appln.person_id
JOIN tls226_person_orig
ON tls206_person.person_id = tls226_person_orig.person_id
JOIN tls209_appln_ipc
ON tls209_appln_ipc.appln_id = tls201_appln.appln_id
WHERE
IPR_type = 'PI'
AND tls201_appln.appln_id in ('53812411')
AND tls226_person_orig.person_ctry_code = 'DK'
AND tls207_pers_appln.applt_seq_nr >= 1
AND tls201_appln.earliest_filing_year between '2000' and '2010'
AND tls209_appln_ipc.ipc_class_symbol = 'A61K'
AND cited_npl_publn_id > 0
AND citn_origin = 'APP'

Search string 2:

Select
tls201_appln.appln_id,
tls214_npl_publn.npl_biblio
FROM tls201_appln
JOIN tls211_pat_publn
ON tls201_appln.appln_id = tls211_pat_publn.appln_id
JOIN tls212_citation
ON tls211_pat_publn.pat_publn_id = tls212_citation.pat_publn_id
JOIN tls214_npl_publn
ON tls212_citation.cited_npl_publn_id = tls214_npl_publn.npl_publn_id
JOIN tls207_pers_appln
ON tls201_appln.appln_id = tls207_pers_appln.appln_id
JOIN tls206_person
ON tls206_person.person_id = tls207_pers_appln.person_id
JOIN tls226_person_orig
ON tls206_person.person_id = tls226_person_orig.person_id
JOIN tls209_appln_ipc
ON tls209_appln_ipc.appln_id = tls201_appln.appln_id
WHERE
IPR_type = 'PI'
AND tls201_appln.appln_id in ('53812411')
AND tls226_person_orig.person_ctry_code = 'DK'
AND tls207_pers_appln.applt_seq_nr >= 1
AND tls201_appln.earliest_filing_year between '2000' and '2010'
AND tls209_appln_ipc.ipc_class_symbol = 'A61K'
AND cited_npl_publn_id > 0
AND citn_origin = 'APP'

group by
tls201_appln.appln_id,
tls214_npl_publn.npl_biblio


Best regards,
Joachim


mkracker
Posts: 120
Joined: Wed Sep 04, 2013 6:17 am
Location: Vienna

Re: NPL references cited in patent literature

Post by mkracker » Wed May 24, 2017 2:32 pm

Dear Joachim,

Thanks for the specific example, which was publication US 7067501 B2.
In short: PATSTAT gets its data more or less indirectly from the US office. I have no reason to believe that information gets lost on the way because the 6 NPLs listed by the applicant in the US form "Information Disclosure Statement by Applicant" you mentioned (retrievable as "List of References cited by applicant and considered by examiner" via "bibliographic data - global dossier" of Espacenet) are the same 6 application-NPLs as in PATSTAT. The EPO is not doing text analysis on the full text, but we get the citations from the offices already in a structured form.

Still, there are 3 additional NPLs in the publication. I know the US procedure not too well. But it might be the case that the applicant regarded only the 6 NPLs as relevant for this filing, and the additional 3 NPLs are included for the sake of completeness / readability/ .... But this is just my assumption. In other offices the situation might be different. You could check whether these additional NPLs are essential for your type of analysis or whether they could safely be ignored.

It would be great if somebody with knowledge about the US procedures could shed some light on this.

Best regards,
Martin / EPO
-------------------------------------------
Martin Kracker / EPO


Joachim
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue May 23, 2017 9:56 am

Re: NPL references cited in patent literature

Post by Joachim » Wed May 24, 2017 8:17 pm

Dear Martin,

Thank you again for your quick reply.

I agree completely that I have to ask myself the question if the loss of these NPL references will impact my analysis.

So I took a look at another application. EP 2140862 (APPLN_ID 266772431). This document has an EP application and an EP priority date, although the earliest priority date appears to be a US priority document.

Again using the same method as above, recover only 1 NPL document referenced by the applicant; "American Psychiatric Association, 1994".

Considering that the patent is a chemistry patent with the title "Use of GAL 3 receptor antagonists for the treatment of depression and /or anxiety and compounds useful in such methods" and one can find at least 10 NPL references on page 4 of the fulltext patent document (not to mention the NPL reference list on pages 296-298), there does not always seem to be a correlation between technological relevance and the application NPL references available trough the patSTAT database.

Of course this also warrants a consideration of how to use the presently available data most effectively. But there is certain a pitfall to be aware of here.

In any case, thank you for your assistance.

Best regards,
Joachim


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