number service original conversion to epodoc

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TomB
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Oct 07, 2017 5:45 pm

number service original conversion to epodoc

Post by TomB » Sat Oct 07, 2017 6:25 pm

Dear OPS support,

I have a unittest that tests the number-service I use to convert patent identifiers that I retrieve externally to the epodoc format so that I can use the OPS service to retrieve data about these patents. This test started failing since september 21 after working for about a year. I still used v3.1 of the API but it also fails on v3.2.

For example, the following inputs do not work anymore:
WO2001093983 -> I expect it to return 'WO0193983' but just returns the input as being the epodoc number.
US20030170799 -> I expect it to return 'US2003170799' but this also just returns the input as the epodoc number.

When I try to use the biblio or family retrieval service with the output from this number-service I receive this error:
"<code>SERVER.EntityNotFound</code>
<message>No results found</message>"


I did not use Kind codes in this conversion step as I do not always have them available. I feel the number-service should indicate when a number cannot be converted instead of returning the input as the result.

Additionally I was wondering if there is a way to convert multiple numbers at once, as it seems inefficient to have to make a call for each number conversion.

I would very much appreciate it if you can help me with this issue.

Thanks for your reply,
regards,
Tom
Last edited by TomB on Wed Oct 11, 2017 9:52 am, edited 1 time in total.


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

Re: number service original conversion to epodoc

Post by EPO / OPS Support » Mon Oct 09, 2017 10:51 am

Hi,

Does your query looks like this?
epo.org/3.2/rest-services/number-service/publication/original/US.2003/0170799.A1.20030911/epodoc
Because I do get proper results. Please check again user documentation on how query to Number service must be formed. I have tested few and they all worked ok in 3.2

As far as multiple conversion, no, that does not work. Also, conversions should always have dates included, only dates can garantee that numbers were properly converted, as stated in OPS documentation.
Regards,
OPS support


TomB
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Oct 07, 2017 5:45 pm

Re: number service original conversion to epodoc

Post by TomB » Mon Oct 09, 2017 2:41 pm

Hi,

Thanks for your quick reply.

No, my format did not look like that the one you provided. It looked like this:
ops.epo.org/3.2/rest-services/number-service/publication/original/US20030170799/epodoc
Up until 2 weeks ago this used to work with the number-service (on v3.1 at least). Unfortunately I do not have dates available for these records so I cannot use it in the conversion. I did notice that providing the Kind code does make it work again:
ops.epo.org/3.2/rest-services/number-service/publication/original/US20030170799A1/epodoc
Often I do have kind codes available so I will incorporate those in my calls. But sometimes I only have the country code and publication number without the Kind Code. Is there any way I can use the OPS to find the kind code and publication dates for such patent publication numbers?
Last edited by TomB on Wed Oct 11, 2017 9:51 am, edited 1 time in total.


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

Re: number service original conversion to epodoc

Post by EPO / OPS Support » Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:49 am

Hi,

If you are in doubt about original format then it's really difficult. OPS and our other databases really only use EPODOC or DOCDB formats due to the diversity of all existing formats available worldwide and especially their length, not to mention all special characters and imbedded letters in serial numbers.

I don't have any good advice for that because I at least will have a copy of the first page of the document at my disposal. Maybe someone reading this forum thread will have some good advice.

Regards,


TomB
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Oct 07, 2017 5:45 pm

Re: number service original conversion to epodoc

Post by TomB » Wed Oct 11, 2017 10:20 am

Hi,

Again, thanks for the quick reply. I understand the OPS cannot support all possible formats, but my confusion is mainly caused because it was working before.

I tried to use the full original format call of your example on the WO patent I showed above, but I do not get that call to respond the correct epodoc id, see below. Am I doing something wrong in this call?
epo.org/3.2/rest-services/number-service/publication/original/WO.2001093983.A1.20011213/epodoc
This results in 'WO2001093983' instead of the expected 'WO0193983'.
This is confirmed by a follow-up call to the biblio service that does return the correct patent document with 'WO0193983' but shows no results for the original 'WO2001093983' call.
Fails:
ops.epo.org/3.2/rest-services/published-data/publication/epodoc/WO2001093983/biblio
Works:
ops.epo.org/3.2/rest-services/published-data/publication/epodoc/WO0193983/biblio
I apologise for pressing the issue but I do believe something broke as this was working for over a year. I also realise it is far from perfect that I do not always have the date and kind code available, I retrieve these patent id's from a protein sequence search that can result in hundreds of patents and therefore it is difficult to first manually retrieve the kind codes and publication dates for all documents.


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

Re: number service original conversion to epodoc

Post by EPO / OPS Support » Wed Oct 11, 2017 12:45 pm

Hi,

It seems you are not using real WO original format. If you use proper original format you will get this response:
REQUEST:
ops.epo.org/3.2/rest-services/number-service/publication/original/WO01/93983.A1.20011213/epodoc

RESPONSE:
Number Service (original > epodoc)

inputFormat: original -
outputFormat: epodoc

meta: status:original/docdb: SUCCESS
input:
original:
country: WO
doc-number: 01/93983
kind: A1
date: 20011213
output:
epodoc:
doc-number: WO0193983
kind: A1
date: 20011213
I am very surprised that this would work more flexible before, I can only imagine that you were using such original formats that were obviously closer to our formats. In any case, I am very familiar with the issue of numbering at the EPO and I can assure you that it would be very dangerous to perform any number conversions without a kind code and publication/application date because many jurisdictions change serial numbers throughout different stages of patenting process . If you just have a look at our Concordance table and Publication/Application tables on our website you will see how many different changes were done only in our format over last years for specific collections in specific time periods and you can imagine that national offices had just the same amount of changes done to original format. Usually only Epodoc can work fine without a kind code (A code or in certain cases B, but even EPODOC format needs kind codes from C code on).

I am sorry if you don't find the numbering very useful at this point, but no matter how it had work before, the way it works now is really correct and is so described in documentation. The only thing that will probably be a bit of a comfort to you is that with technology advancing and the EPO using better and better tools we are now in a better position to load data with original number formats, with only slight changes so you will in the future have much easier time searching databases with one and the same number format throughout.

Regards,

OPS support


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