Result List- selection of reference documents

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Weydemann
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2016 11:08 am

Result List- selection of reference documents

Post by Weydemann » Wed Aug 31, 2016 12:46 pm

Espacenet mentions that only one patent document per patent family is shown in a search result list (duplicates eliminated). The selection criteria according to "http://www.epo.org/searching-for-patent ... ilies.html" is that a reference document is Chosen by EPO in the following priority: EP--US-GB
Could you please confirm?
Why do I get a CN patent application (only!) from one patent family- the assignee is a European company, priority was filed with EPO followed by PCT application, national Phase in US is available. Why is the “result list” not showing any of these- more representative-documents?

Thank you for your help.


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

Re: Result List- selection of reference documents

Post by EPO / OPS Support » Wed Aug 31, 2016 12:54 pm

Hi,

Can you please write here exact number of that CN document in order for us to have a look and give you correct reply?

Thank you in advance,

Patent Data and OPS team


Weydemann
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2016 11:08 am

Re: Result List- selection of reference documents

Post by Weydemann » Wed Aug 31, 2016 1:44 pm

Advanced search:
acinetobacter in Ti/abs and
Kenta in applicant;
Result CN104507499.

Thanks for the fast response, I really appreciate.


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

Re: Result List- selection of reference documents

Post by EPO / OPS Support » Thu Sep 01, 2016 1:21 pm

Dear Mr Weydemann,

Since this is not a case of a wrong patent family picture as we first presumed when reading your first post in your thread, we will leave it up to our colleagues from Espacenet to explain the difference between representative simple patent family member in general (described on our website) and the patent application representing certain patent family (due to a de duplication feature in Espacenet) when performing any kind of keyword search in Espacenet (your CN document represented in a hit list and displayed as the only result from your keyword search).

Best regards,
Patent Data and OPS support


EPO / Espacenet helpdesk
Site Admin
Posts: 327
Joined: Fri Aug 08, 2003 8:04 am

Re: Result List- selection of reference documents

Post by EPO / Espacenet helpdesk » Wed Sep 21, 2016 4:11 pm

Dear Mr. Weydemann

Thank you very much for your query! It has lead the Espacenet team to investigate the search behaviour of Espacenet and as a consequence of that to extensively update all documentation referring to the “reference document”.

Basically there are two factors to your question. Firstly, Espacenet will retrieve those patent applications that were last added to the database, in other words the last document that was uploaded. Whether it is a CN or EN patent application is irrelevant. With the implementation of Patent Translate and the documents displayed in the Also published as section, the search for an English “reference document” has been discontinued in Espacenet. Secondly, Espacenet always de-duplicates the results list. This means that the simple patent family members are automatically excluded from the results list and only the last uploaded family member is displayed instead. One could say that the one patent application displayed in the results list is the “representative” document for the other patent family members. These other members can then be viewed in the Also published as section of the Bibliographic data panel in Espacenet.

We apologise for our delayed reply, but as you can see we did not have a straight-forward answer immediately. We would like to send you a gift to show our appreciation for your valuable feedback. Please contact us via patentinformation@epo.org.
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Patent Information User Support Coordination and Tools
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bjurgens
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Jul 27, 2012 9:24 am

Re: Result List- selection of reference documents

Post by bjurgens » Thu Jan 05, 2017 9:14 am

Dear Espacenet Team
Since I had the same doubt about the reference documents I was quite glad to have found this thread.
I was wondering if you communicate these kind of operational changes in espacenet to the patent information community (e.g in the newsletters or the patent information bulletin).

To avoid future confusion I would suggest that you update the correspondent espacenet help pages where you explain the patent family reference document rule set (which, as I understood from your answer is no longer valid).

Best regards
Björn


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