INPADOC, which stands for International Patent Documentation, is a freely available international

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...

. It is produced and maintained by the

European Patent Office The European Patent Office (EPO) is one of the two organs of the European Patent Organisation (EPOrg), the other being the Administrative Council. The EPO acts as executive body for the organisation

(EPO). INPADOC developed a patent families classification, which groups together patent applications (and issued patents) originating from the same priority document(s). It also provides data about the legal status (pending, issued, abandoned, expired) for patent documents in many countries and for large time periods. Although INPADOC is not comprehensive, it keeps expanding the breadth and the depth of its coverage.

Historic timeline

INPADOC was founded by the

World Intellectual Property Organization The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO; (OMPI)) is one of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN). Pursuant to the 1967 Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO was created to pr ...

(WIPO) and the government of Austria under an agreement on May 2, 1972. The original database was offered to users in

microfiche A microform is a scaled-down reproduction of a document, typically either photographic film or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original d ...

format. Patent Family Service (PFS) grouping was introduced, where all the documents belonging to a specific

patent family 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 patent application, application in a country – the priority priority application – is extende ...

were identified, in 1973. Legal status information became available in 1978. INPADOC went

on-line In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity, and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed as "on li ...

1981. In 1988 INPADOC officials claimed, that the database "covers more than 98 % of all patent documents published yearly worldwide and the total number of documents is more than 13 million."

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

had the largest temporal coverage going back to 1945. The database provided bibliographic information from 55 patent issuing authorities (73 in 2023) and the legal status service from 12 as of 1990. INPADOC was integrated into the

(EPO) in 1991 with the Principal Directorate Patent Information of the EPO having been located in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, Austria since. In 2003 the backlog of the legal status database was cleared up, and the physical storage of electronic records was established in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

. Approximately 130,000 bibliographic records from

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

, the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

and

Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

covering years between 1990 and 2003 were added in 1991, albeit their availability was initially limited to

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...

format only. Patent data from

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and 19

Spanish-language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...

countries were added in 2004. In 2005, the database provided bibliographic information from 73 patent issuing authorities and the legal status service from 44. Also in 2005, several commercial database developers (e.g. Anacubis, Minesoft, PatentInformatics and Questel-Orbit) offered access to enhanced INPADOC data and search functionality for a fee. Source:INPADOC: 30 years of endeavours yet unmapped territories remain! 2005. World Pat Inf. 27/2, 105-11. D.G. Lingua. doi: 10.1016/j.wpi.2004.12.001

Notes

References

External links

INPADOC page
on the EPO web site
INPADOC content from STN
Patent search services {{International-law-stub

Historic timeline

See also

Notes

References

External links