Working with Patent Data

Patent data has a number of nuances which you would need to understand if you want to effectively work with it. The first thing you must learn about is a typical patent’s lifecycle.

The lifecycle of a patent can be segmented into 4 stages:

1. Filing
2. Examination
3. Post-grant
4. Expiry

Before we delve deeper into these stages, let’s take a moment to first recognize various entities (people and organizations) involved in the lifecycle of a patent.

Entities involved in the Life Cycle of Patent

1. Inventors – These are the people who originally came up with the idea behind the patent.

2. Companies – The organization that owns the patent. Typically, this is where the inventors work. In the patent world, these are referred to as assignees (because the patent ownership is assigned to them).
3. Law firm – which files the patent application on behalf of the company and the inventors. These law firms act as a bridge between the patent office (such as USPTO, EPO, WIPO, etc.) and the inventors/company. They specialize in patent drafting and handling the paperwork. Each patent application is typically handled by a patent attorney. These attorneys describe the patent application in terms that have high chances of being approved at the patent office and low probability of working-around by the competitors.
4. Patent office (e.g., USPTO) – These are government bodies responsible for examining the incoming patent applications and making sure that patents are only being granted to those inventions that satisfy the patent laws. Government officials who evaluate these inventions at the patent office are called patent examiners. They interact directly with the patent attorneys via written (and sometimes telephonic) communication.

Information Flow During the Patent Lifecycle

Now we are ready to take a close look at how the information flows in the entire process of getting a patent.

Suppose Alice and Bob work at Acme Corporation. One day they had an idea that they thought could be valuable and should be patented. So that makes Alice and Bob the inventors. Acme Corporation will be the assignee of the patent if they get one.

contd……

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