What this article covers
- Explains the patent bibliographic data covered by PatentSight+ and how it aligns with the EPO's DOCDB database.
- Describes how Other IP Rights (such as utility models, design patents, and plant patents) are handled to ensure consistent portfolio comparisons.
- Explains where PatentSight+ legal status data comes from, including INPADOC, national patent offices, and IP DataDirect (IPDD).
Bibliographic Data Coverage
PatentSight’s current bibliographic data coverage equals that of DOCDB, the European Patent Office's database.
The ‘Contents and coverage of the DOCDB bibliographic’ file can be accessed through the following link:
https://www.epo.org/searching-for-patents/data/coverage/weekly.html
Other IP Rights
To improve the patent analysis, we filter all documents not relating to patented technical inventions in the strict sense behind the "Other IP Rights" toggle. In this way we guarantee that the portfolio size always refers to a consistent asset class and is thus comparable among companies and technologies.
When uploading lists of application, publication, or patent numbers, we also match design and plant patents as well as utility models. These are categorized as "Other IP Rights", as such, will only be found in any search or analysis performed in PatentSight if the "Other IP Rights" toggle is switched on.
Legal Status Coverage
Legal status coverage first relies on data from the European Patent Office's INPADOC database. We also add some information from national patent offices to the data stream as well as subsidiary information from corporate structure databases.
In addition, all patent offices around the world provide their patent data with the EPO, so we cover all relevant patent data worldwide. The PatentSight database currently covers patent data from more than 90 patent authorities.
Since PatentSight is part of LexisNexis®, our database also contains data from IP DataDirect (IPDD).
IPDD from LexisNexis® provides worldwide patent information in bulk. PatentSight currently works on integrating the entire IPDD content with improved bibliographic and legal status information.
Why It Matters
Knowing the scope and source of PatentSight+’s data helps you judge how much confidence to place in an analysis, for example, understanding that Other IP Rights are excluded by default explains why portfolio size figures are consistent and comparable across companies and technologies, rather than inflated by unrelated IP types.