Support : Publications : Chronolog Archives : January 2002

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Finding Published U.S. Applications

The United States used to be a "slow-publishing" country, in which patent applications were kept confidential until they were examined and then published as patents, a process that would take several years. In 1995, the law changed, allowing patent applications to be published eighteen months after the priority date. As of March of 2001, approximately 21,000 applications have been published and can be found in several Dialog databases. However, there are still about 250,000 applications under the older system that will not be published until they issue as patents. Many of these applications were also filed in countries other than the United States. Therefore, by searching in an international database of patents such as Derwent World Patents Index (Files 351/352/350) or INPADOC/Family and Legal Status (File 345) you may find information that will not be made available in the United States for many months.

The following strategy, illustrated in File 351, allows you to find both published U.S. patent applications under the new system and patent applications that have been published internationally as part of the old system. A similar strategy can be used in File 345, as indicated in the search notes.

?b 351

File 351:Derwent WPI  1963-2001/UD,UM &UP=200175
       (c) 2001 Derwent Info Ltd 
 
      Set  Items  Description
      ---  -----  -----------

By EXPANDing the Patent Assignee (PA=) field, it is possible to find the assignee code, in this case, "METD." Only use codes that are four characters as longer codes may yield different assignees. Search the code as CK= (for code kind). (In File 345, search only the PA= field, since assignee codes are not available). (See Figure 1.)

Find patents applied for in the U.S., (AC=is Application Country), not patented in the U.S. (PC= is Patent Country). This will find applications published overseas under the old system.

?s s1 and ac=us not pc=us
            2078  S1 
         2527763  AC=US  (United States of America) 
         2554022  PC=US  (United States of America) 
      S2     262  S1 AND AC=US NOT PC=US 
	  

To find published U.S. patent applications, use the US A1 kind code with PC= prefix code. (In File 345, use PC=US AA kind code.) (See Figure 2.)

This is the US A1 document.

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