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A patent family is a set of patents or patent applications in various countries in relation to a single invention, for example when a first application in a country – the priority application – is extended to other countries. In other words, a patent family is "the same invention disclosed by a common inventor(s) and patented in more than one country." Patent families can be regarded as a "fortuitous by-product of the concept of priorities for patent applications".

Definitions

The International Patent Documentation Centre (INPADOC), the European Patent Office (EPO) and WIPO recognize the following definitions of simple and extended patent families:

Simple patent family: All patent documents have exactly the same priority date or combination of priority dates.

Extended patent family: All patent documents are linked (directly or indirectly) via a priority document belonging to one patent family. The extended families allow for additional connectors to link other than strictly priority date. These include: domestic application numbers, countries that have not ratified the Paris Convention, or if the application was filed too late to claim priority.

Those are not the only possible definitions of a patent family, however. Another definition, which is broader than the "simple patent family" definition but narrower than the "extended patent family" definition, is to consider that "ll the documents having at least one common priority belong to the same patent family."

In general, "atent families are defined by databases, not by national or international laws, and family members for a particular invention can vary from database to database."

See also

• Continuing patent application
• Derwent World Patents Index patent family database
• Global Dossier
• INPADOC patent family database
• Triadic patent

References

1. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Economic Analysis and Statistics Division, OECD science, technology and industry scoreboard: towards a knowledge-based economy, OECD Publishing, 2001, ISBN 92-64-18648-4, ISBN 978-92-64-18648-4, page 60.
2. United States Patent and Trademark Office web site, Glossary Archived 2009-04-30 at the Wayback Machine. Consulted on April 27, 2009.
3. ^ "Beyond patent families – an updated perspective" (PDF). Patent Information News (1). European Patent Office: 4–5. March 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
4. "Patent families > Definitions". European Patent Office. Retrieved October 17, 2012.
5. "Patent families > The "extended" (INPADOC) patent family". European Patent Office. Retrieved October 17, 2012.
6. Simmons, E S (2009). ""Black Sheep" in the patent family". World Patent Information (31): 11–18. cited in "Beyond patent families – an updated perspective" (PDF). Patent Information News (1). European Patent Office: 4–5. March 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2014.

External links

• Patent families on the Espacenet web site
• Patent families on the European Patent Office web site
• Guidelines for Examination in the EPO, section b-ix, 2.4 : "Patent family system"

• Patent law