Press release

Recognising the increasing need for accurate, easily accessible and interpretable patent legal status data, Minesoft and RWS Group introduce enhanced legal status tools to PatBase, the global patent database.

In April 2013 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) launched a new project, known as Task 47, to implement standardisation and enhance the availability of patent legal status information from industrial property offices (IPOs).

The Legal Status Task Force, which has responsibility for this project, was made up of representatives from 25 organisations with one core objective – to set new standards promoting efficient exchange of patent legal status data between IPOs and patent information users. One of the key guidelines of this was to specify exactly what legal status data should be exchanged, and how it could be efficiently grouped to provide clear and comprehensive data to users.

In fact, standardisation of legal status events is already accessible to all users of PatBase, the global full text patent database developed by Minesoft and RWS Group.

The legal status events that have occurred during the lifetime of a patent application have been grouped into 17 main categories and colour-coded within the Legal Status Timeline and Table. This visualisation simplifies the presentation of this information when searching and viewing legal status data in PatBase. Furthermore, the Legal Status Timeline now displays more details on European granted patents entering the national phase, allowing users to quickly identify the status of an EP patent in the various designated states.

For a professional patent searcher a Freedom to Operate (FTO) analysis begins by searching patent literature for issued or pending patents. Bearing this in mind, a new Status Indicator has been added in the PatBase family table. A “Dead/Alive” tag on records indicates the status of a publication allowing efficient viewing, as well as the option to sort specifically on this field in the publication report when exporting. This newly added feature won much interest during demonstrations at the recent international conference for professional patent searchers IPI-ConfEx 2016 in Munich, Germany.

Legal status tools, amongst many other innovative features and functionalities within PatBase, highlight again the high value Minesoft and RWS Group place on continuous improvements and how they work successfully to stay one step ahead of even the latest developments within the IP industry.

Ann Chapman, Director at Minesoft, added

“In partnership with RWS, we continue to focus development efforts on Legal Status functionality in PatBase that will assist users in making informed decisions regarding freedom-to-operate in the marketplace, technology transfer and licensing opportunities and competitive intelligence. Used in conjunction with existing features such as direct national register links, these latest enhancements will benefit any searcher looking for concise legal status information for patents.”