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In this highly competitive market, having access to accurate and comprehensive patent intelligence is critical to the decisions a company faces. IFI Patent Intelligence, the producer of the CLAIMS U.S. patent databases for more than 50 years, provides the information you need to make the right strategic moves. Dialog has a number of CLAIMS databases on its system. In this overview we'll focus most on the two CLAIMS free files of the month for July: CLAIMS/U.S. Patents (File 340) and CLAIMS/Current Patent Legal Status (File 123).
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Here is a comparison of two of the CLAIMS databases—File 340 and File 123, both free files for July on Dialog. Today, the database known as CLAIMS®/U.S. Patents (File 340) represents the largest, most reliable, text-searchable, computerized collection of U.S. patents in the world. File 340 contains more than 6.2 million U.S. patents issued from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) since 1950. File 340 also contains Pre-grant publications merged with Granted patents from 2001 forward. In addition, File 340 contains 90,000 missing patents from 1971-1975. The CLAIMS databases are produced by IFI Patent Intelligence, a Wolters Kluwer business. File 340 is updated twice weekly.
CLAIMS/Current Patent Legal Status contains over 2.01 million U.S. patents for which post-issuance legal status changes have been reported. There are eight types of post-issuance legal status in File 123. The file is useful for checking for patent validity, ownership and term changes. File 123 will be covered in more detail later. The database covers from 1980 to the present and is updated weekly.
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IFI produces the CLAIMS® family of online U.S. patent databases, providing reliable, comprehensive and current information on U.S. patents. The databases are noted for their broad coverage, in-depth indexing of chemical patents, and extensive standardization of company names. All of the CLAIMS databases on Dialog are listed here. The most inclusive file is CLAIMS/U.S. Patents (File 340) with approximately 6.2 million patents. CLAIMS/UNITERM (File 341) and CLAIMS/COMPREHENSIVE (File 942) contain exactly the same number of records, but these files also search and display valuable subscriber indexing. CLAIMS/Current Patent Legal Status (File 123) contains post-issuance legal status for U.S. patents. Other CLAIMS files include the CLAIMS/CITATION files (Files 220, 221, 222), designed to answer the question of which later patents cite another patent. Two other CLAIMS files are thesaurus-type indexes. CLAIMS/Reference (File 124) is a dictionary index to the two subject classifications searchable in the CLAIMS family of patent databases. File 242 is a thesaurus file containing 21,000 records describing chemical compounds. File 242 closely resembles File 124 — plus File 242 is only relevant to Files 341 and 942, whereas File 124 is applicable to all CLAIMS files.
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CLAIMS databases give you a total picture of U. S. patent ownership.
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Here are some of the reasons why researchers, attorneys, companies, health specialists and more search the CLAIMS databases. CLAIMS databases give you a total picture of U. S. patent ownership. For example, you can check the legal status file (File 123) for reassignment actions and also consider premature expirations, disclaimers, reexaminations, etc. Or, for the patent term, check both extensions on the face of the patent (File 340) and post-issuance actions (File 123).
These are just a few reasons for using CLAIMS databases.
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CLAIMS/U.S. Patents (File 340) contains four different types of patents with different dates of coverage. File 340 contains all granted U.S. chemical patents from 1950 forward. Mechanical and electrical patents, reissues, defensive publications, and statutory invention registrations (S.I.R.) are included from December 1963 forward. IFI editors also review Electrical and Mechanical patents for any chemical orientation and then tag the titles with /CM or /CE. Such patents may then get subscriber indexing. Design and plant patents are available from March 1976 forward. Pre-grant published applications are available from March 2001 forward.
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Earlier records in File 340 contain basic bibliographic data, such as title, patent number and issue date, assignee and inventor name, International patent classification codes and the exemplary claims only. Note the information on the left side of the screen.
From 1971 forward, located on the right side of the screen, the CLAIMS records now include all information found on the front page of a U.S. patent document, plus exemplary and non-exemplary claims. The record also contains application information, priority filing date, assignee and inventor addresses, name of examiner and legal representative, plus the earlier bibliographic information.
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IFI adds value to many different parts of its records. Here are some reasons why File 340 is an important database for reviewing U.S. patents.
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Here's one example of value-added data in File 340. Created by chemical and biological indexers on most chemical and biotech patents, the enhanced title supplements the original document title. It focuses on novelty, use, improvement and displays in the title field. Notice here the original titles are shown in black, separated by a semi-colon, from the blue enhanced IFI titles. The black text shows how vague many titles can be. Therefore, it is difficult to find the technology you want by searching the title of a patent. However, with the IFI enhanced title the invention is better described. Notice too that several of the titles have very similar general titles but the enhanced titles, created by the IFI editors, differentiate between the patents. Thus, IFI expanded titles help decipher the patent focus.
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The following example illustrates the type of information you can find in File 340. Notice this is a utility patent with a merged record that identifies pre-grant publications with A1 and granted patents with B2 so changes between those two publication levels are immediately obvious. This part of the record also includes inventors' and assignees' names and addresses. The attorney and the firm's address are also given, as well as the examiner name.
Application and publication numbers and dates are listed in tabular format. This patent is a division of the earlier patent shown here; note that a continuation-in-part was considered and abandoned. Note too that a provisional application was filed in advance of the first. The record also gives a calculated expiration date and the Notes indicates that the term of the granted patent was extended by 235 days beyond the normal 20 years from date of application.
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The record also has the Exemplary claim and non-exemplary claims for both patents. Note that the content of claims can change between A1 and B2 publication stages. In this record, the changes are apparent in the non-exemplary claims 4-7 where additional detail has been added in the B2 claims.
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File 340 records contain the U.S. main class code and other cross-referenced U.S. class codes as well as the IPC8 International class codes. The next part of the record includes the U.S. and other cited references, which can be extensive, as well as descriptions of the drawings included for both patents.
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File 123 contains post-issuance USPTO actions affecting: validity and-or scope of protection, patent term, and ownership. IFI's Legal Status data provides assignment changes (reassignments) that occur after the grant of a patent. Pre-issuance assignments are included in IFI's Legal Status database if there is no company name on the face of the patent at the time of grant.
Each record in CLAIMS/Current Patent Legal Status (File 123) contains the following post-issuance U.S. legal status information: certificates of correction, reassignment, reexamination requests and certificates, extensions, expirations, reinstatements, reissue requests, adverse decisions on interference actions, and disclaimer/dedication data. All records contain the original patent assignee, patent number, and publication date. Reassignment data consists of the former assignee (i.e., assignor), new assignee, reassignment action (e.g., full interest, quarter interest, etc.), date of reassignment, reel and frame number of the USPTO microfilm record, and the correspondence address. Other post-issuance status information typically contains the date of the legal action, the date it was recorded in the Official Gazette and any additional applicable information such as request number, descriptive text, etc. Reexamination records also contain the text of any modified claims.
IFI's Legal Status data is structured so you can search by document type (e.g. DT=reassigned, or expired, or extended). IFI displays reexamination results.
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The following example illustrates the type of information you can find in File 123. This is a legal status record showing the different status changes for the drug Lipitor. The final change was an extension. Notice the reassigned assignee is Warner-Lambert Co. The patent number and issue date, along with the extension information, including the new expiration date coming up in September are given. Note that drug trade names are usually not found in patent/published application records or in legal status records, unless a post issuance extension has occurred
The reexamination data and the reassignment to Warner-Lambert Co. is also included. The last part of the record provides the exemplary claim.
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As you can see, the CLAIMS files (File 340 and 123 on Dialog) bring you comprehensive information on U.S. patents including much value-added information.
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This completes our overview of the CLAIMS files. Thank you for your interest in these comprehensive U.S. patent databases and put them on your list to try for free in July.
