IFI CLAIMS
From Intellogist
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Contents |
Overview
IFI Patent Intelligence is a company that produces the IFI collection of data files, which are based on United States (US) patent documents. These data files can be accessed through the IFI CLAIMS© Patent Services website, or more commonly through a number of providers such as Dialog, STN, and Questel-Orbit (including Qweb and QPAT). IFI Claims files include:
- US granted patent and published application coverage
- IPC to US classification concordance
- US class revision information
- Controlled vocabulary (special indexing for assignees, chemical terms, and subjects)
- Legal status information
- Citations on US patents
- US granted patent and published application coverage
On STN, the IFI files include:[1]
- IFI Comprehensive Database
- IFI Current Patent Legal Status Database
- IFI Patent Database
- IFI Uniterm and U.S. Class Reference File
- IFI Uniterm Database
- IFI Comprehensive Database
On Dialog, the IFI files include:[2]
- CLAIMS®/Citation (1790-1946)
- CLAIMS®/Citation (1947-1970)
- CLAIMS®/Citation (1971-present)
- CLAIMS®/Compound Registry
- CLAIMS®/Comprehensive
- CLAIMS®/Current Patent Legal Status
- CLAIMS®/Reference
- CLAIMS®/U.S. Patents
- CLAIMS®/UNITERM
- CLAIMS®/Citation (1790-1946)
On Questel-Orbit (including Qweb and QPAT), the IFI files include:[3]
- CLAIMS® Current Patent Legal Status
- CLAIMS® U.S. Patents Database
- CLAIMS® Uniterm Database
- CLAIMS® Comprehensive Database
- CLAIMS® Registry
- CLAIMS® Current Patent Legal Status
Some features of IFI Claims Patent Services site, such as IFI "Fragment Codes" and "Role Indicators" for chemical structure data, are only available for users subscribing directly to IFI Claims and are not available through access solely to any system (e.g. Dialog or Questel) that houses the various IFI files. Fragment Codes serve as a tagging system for Markush structures, similar to the system used in the Derwent World Patents Index file. Role Indicators identify functions of chemical substances, similar to indexing that is used in the CAplus file, produced by the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS).[4]
IFI Patent Intelligence, currently owned by Wolters Kluwer, was originally started as an industry collaboration and was one of the earliest electronic databases covering US patents.[5]
Major Recent Updates
In November 2009, the IFI brand files were re-loaded on STN. According to the STN news bulletin, both display and content enhancements were made. Content enhancements include retroactively classifying the backfile data with new controlled vocabulary terms related to green technologies. The full announcement states:
Search and display enhancements in this reload include addition of the DISPLAY SCAN format to help evaluate usefulness of answer sets. Content enhancements include indexing for more than 70,000 additional published applications, indexing with new terms for various green technology areas such as biofuels and biodegradable polymers, back file posting for new indexing terms, and back file postings for many FDA Orange Book listed patents. [6]
Patent Coverage
The IFI Claims group of data files features coverage of United States (US) patents dating:[7]
- From 1950 for chemical patents
- From 1963 for all utility patents
- From 1976 for design and plant patents
- From March 15, 2001 for pre-grant publications (applications)
- From 1950 for chemical patents
Additionally, the IFI Claims group of data files features a complete collection of US patents from 1971 to 1974. This collection is notable because it includes 96,000 documents that were never made available electronically by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). IFI asserts that these patents are "not available in any other database" [8]
According to the CAS database summary sheet for the IFI Claims file, coverage consists of all "front page and bibliographic data and the text of the abstract and/or all claims" for patents in the file[9]
Update schedules vary for each of the specific IFI Claims files, but can range from twice-weekly updates for patent documents to quarterly updates for the chemical compound registry. Yearly reloads of these files are common.
Probable Assignee Prediction
Less than 30% of all US pre-grant publications are issued with assignee information on the front page of the document. For most databases, this information is never filled in for these records, meaning that most assignee name searches within this collection will be based on incomplete information.
To address this problem, IFI offers an additional field in their database called the Probable Patent Assignee field. This field is filled in with the probable assignee based on information taken from the Agent/Legal Rep field on the document face, the USPTO daily assignment file, or assignee information from any granted patents that have resulted from the application.[10] The Agent/Legal Rep field often contains the name and address of a corporate legal office, from which ownership can be inferred. In addition, assignment changes are sometimes filed with the USPTO after the application publishes.
As a result of this effort, IFI asserts that they offer probable assignee information for over 80% of their US pre-grant documents, as opposed to the less than 30% which are published with assignees on the document face.
Concordance of IPC8 to US Classifications
IFI Patent Intelligence offers an IPC-8 to US (and vice-versa) classification concordance through the IFI Claims© Patent Services site. The concordance is built on IPC and US classes given to granted US patents by United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) examiners.[11] The concordance extends to subclass-level detail.
Additionally, IFI provides IPCs for all US patents in its various databases, including those issued prior to when the USPTO began assigning IPC classification codes in 1971.
US Classification Revision Orders
IFI offers US Classification Revision Orders, an index of information about the US Classification system's structure and the various revisions made to it since its inception. All US patent documents in the IFI Claims group of data files contain up to date US classification information. When accessed through the IFI Claims© Patent Services website, users can view source classes, current classes, most referenced classes, a summary of classes changed in the latest revision, and a detailed listing of established and abolished classes in a hyperlinked format.
Controlled Vocabulary
The IFI Claims group of data files offers controlled vocabulary used to index and tag individual patents. The following are the different types of controlled vocabulary used for chemical patents:
- Uniterm – this controlled index is updated monthly with the Uniterm chemical indexing
- CA references
- Foreign chemical equivalents
- CAS Registry numbers
- General and compound numbers and terms
- Fragmentation codes and terms
- Roles
- Uniterm – this controlled index is updated monthly with the Uniterm chemical indexing
IFI Claims also has assignee name standardization/correction as well as human-generated expanded patent titles.
Legal Status
The IFI Current Patent Legal Status Database is a well known companion to the patent, classification, and controlled indexing coverage of the IFI Claims group of data files. This database provides information on the legal status of US patents, including:
- Reassignments
- Reexaminations
- Extensions
- Expirations
- Reinstatements
- Reassignments
Also included are "records on adverse decision in interference, disclaimer/dedication information, reexamination request[s], reissue request[s], reissued patents, and certificate[s] of correction"[12]
Citations
The IFI Claims Citation data file provides continuously updated forward and backward citations for all US granted patents since 1947. Citations include reissues, defensive publications, and/or non-patent literature only when these are cited against the patent by an examiner. US and non-US patent citations included by the applicant are also present.
Indexing, Database Creation, and Database Management
IFI offers services for any company looking to create and manage its own private in-house database. Services that IFI offers include:
- Indexing documents using internal indexing
- Indexing documents using IFI's chemical indexing
- Database security
- Indexing documents using internal indexing
For more information see the IFI Claims site.
Contact Info
- IFI Patent Intelligence
- A Wolters Kluwer business
- 3202 Kirkwood Highway, Suite 203
- Wilmington, DE 19808
- Phone: (302) 998-0478
- (800) 331-4955
- Fax: (302) 998-0733
- E-mail: info@ificlaims.com
Sources
- ↑ "STN Database Summary Sheets." STN Website, http://www.cas.org/support/stngen/dbss/index.html. Accessed on January 8, 2009.
- ↑ "Bluesheets by Name." Dialog Website, http://library.dialog.com/bluesheets/html/blf.html. Accessed on January 8, 2009.
- ↑ "Questel Database Catalog." Questel Website, http://www.questel.com/en/customersupport/userdoc/docpdf/Databasecatalog.pdf. Accessed on January 8, 2009.
- ↑ "Intellectual Indexing for Chemical Patents." IFI Claims Website, http://www.ificlaims.com/ifienhancements.swf. Accessed January 8, 2009.
- ↑ Adams,Stephen R.. Information Sources in Patents. 2 ed.. Munich: K G Sauer, 2006.
- ↑ "Annual Reload of IFI Databases." STN news update posted November 23, 2009. STN International website, http://www.stn-international.com/stn_news_message_09.html?&L=class%3Dl&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=977&tx_ttnews[backPid]=137&cHash=c058058ae2. Accessed on December 03, 2009.
- ↑ "Patent Coverage." IFI Website, http://www.ificlaims.com/ifienhancements.swf. Accessed October 17, 2008.
- ↑ "Patent Coverage." IFI Website, http://www.ificlaims.com/ifienhancements.swf. Accessed October 17, 2008.
- ↑ "IFI Comprehensive Database Summary Sheet." July 2008. CAS Website, http://www.cas.org/ASSETS/514D78FBAF7D4D4E939589B6DA12F653/ificdb.pdf Accessed October 17, 2008.
- ↑ Brown, Jim. Message posted to PIUG Listserv. Original Post August 16, 2007 at 11:26 am. Re-posted to PIUG wiki by Robert W. March, http://wiki.piug.org/display/PIUG/US+Patent+Applications+with+no+assignee+name?focusedCommentId=10125407&#comment-10125407. Accessed June 23, 2009.
- ↑ "About IFI Patent Intelligence IPC-8/USPTO Classification Concordance." IFI Website, http://ificlaims.com/ificls/IPC8_Concordance_helpmenu_final.asp. Accessed October 17, 2008.
- ↑ "IFI Current Patent Legal Status Database Summary Sheet." September, 2008. CAS Website, http://www.cas.org/ASSETS/0231C68D3B434FDFA6767DDE64E29EC2/ificls.pdf. Accessed October 17, 2008.
