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Post by Christian Soltmann » Wed May 06, 2015 9:59 am
Patent information specialists are increasingly being asked to produce patent analyses which focus on general developments in a particular technological field or on the market environment of a particular company or institution.
In such cases, it is essential to get an overview of the activities of specific patent applicants. The value of the analysis will, however, depend very much on the quality of the patent data available, in particular the
applicant data.
Patent data suppliers and patent offices are applying a number of different measures to improve the quality of applicant data. The EPO, for example, has standardised most of the applicant names in its DOCDB database. And, since 2011, the applicant names in its PATSTAT database have been harmonised, and further information added, by the Catholic University of Leuven. These harmonised data are available free of charge (further information is available at https://www.ecoom.be/en/EEE-PPAT).
For other application authorities, the coverage may be less complete. To provide an example: For applications filed with the Japanese Patent Office, the country of residence is available for less than 5 per cent of the applicants and inventors. Address data for these applications is generally not available in the current PATSTAT edition.
Reflecting its quality and service orientation, the EPO is constantly aiming to improve the coverage and quality of the address data in PATSTAT. In this context, we suggest to follow the data coverage of future PATSTAT editions.
Christian Soltmann
Patent Information Promotion
EPO