Annual Technical Report on Patent Information Activities in 2016 submitted by Japan Patent Office
Recommended Contents of Annual Technical Reports (ATR)
on Patent Information Activities
I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN PATENT INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
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Providing patent information via the Internet
a-1) Providing official gazettes via the Internet.
See 3.(1).
a-2) J-PlatPat
The JPO started to provide the Industrial Property Digital Library (IPDL) service through the Internet in March 1999. This service has enabled users to search patent information by using document numbers and classifications as search keys. This service was transferred to the INPIT as of October 2004, and has been operated by the INPIT since then.
In order to meet advancing and diversifying user needs for patent information, the INPIT renovated the IPDL and started providing the J-PlatPat in March 2015, a new service to provide patent information via user-friendly interface. The J-PlatPat currently stores about 116 million cases of patent information and can be searched by document numbers, various classifications, keywords, etc.
(Japanese) https://www.j-platpat.inpit.go.jp/web/all/top/BTmTopPage
(English) https://www.j-platpat.inpit.go.jp/web/all/top/BTmTopEnglishPage
a-3) Chinese and Korean Gazette Translation and Search System
In January 2015, the JPO built the “Chinese and Korean Gazette Translation and Search System” which enables users to search machine translated full-text data (machine translation into Japanese) of Chinese/Korean patent/utility model documents by using Japanese text and made it available to examiners and the general users. Full texts (machine translation into Japanese) of Chinese Published Unexamined Patent Applications (CN-A), Chinese patent gazettes (CN-B and CN-C), Chinese Published registered utility model applications (CN-U and CN-Y), Korean Published Unexamined Patent Applications (KR-A), Korean patent gazettes (KR-B), Korean Published Unexamined Utility Model Applications (KR-U), and Korean Published registered utility model applications (KR-Y) published from 2003 onwards can be searched in Japanese. As of the end of June 2017, about 18 million Chinese and Korean patent/utility model documents are stored in the system.
a-4) FOPISER
In August 2015, the JPO launched the FOPISER, a search service to promptly provide the general users with patent information obtained from foreign IP Offices by data exchange between foreign IP Offices. Patent/utility model documents of Russia, Taiwan, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand which are not available for a search on the J-PlatPat, are available for simplified search by using document numbers and English key words via Japanese user interface.
Providing JPO data
The following types of data is currently provided to commercial providers in Japan by bulk download service on the J-PlatPat.
b-1) Standardized data
The JPO provides the JPO’s bibliographical and status information to external users by organizing and converting it into a standard format (Standardized data) for better usability for external users. This data has been provided to external users on a weekly basis.
b-2) PAJ
See 2.(4)b)
b-3) Japanese abstracts of European and U.S. patent data
Japanese abstracts of U.S. patent descriptions, U.S. patent descriptions of unexamined patent applications, and European descriptions of unexamined patent applications prepared by translators by comprehending scope of claims and contents of the descriptions/drawings and by summarizing contents of the inventions.
b-4) Japanese abstracts of Chinese patent documents
Three types of data manually translated in Japanese are as below:
- Abstracts of Chinese Published Unexamined Patent Applications published between 2010 and 2015.
- Excerpts of a part of Chinese Patent gazettes with the purpose of complementing machine translation. The material is extracted from claims, descriptions, etc., which are necessary to comprehend the contents of inventions.
- Full-text data of a part of Chinese Published Unexamined Patent Applications and Chinese Patent gazettes which were cited in the international search report.
b-5) Machine-translated text data of Chinese-Korean documents
Machine-translated full-text data of Chinese and Korean patent documents provided on the “Chinese and Korean Gazette Translation and Search System”.
Chinese Published Unexamined Patent Applications, Chinese patent gazettes, Chinese Published registered utility model applications, Korean Published Unexamined Patent Applications, Korean patent gazettes, Korean Published Unexamined Utility Model Applications, and Korean Published registered utility model applications published from 2003 onwards are subject to this machine translation.
Reference to Official Gazettes on Patent
The INPIT has 42 access devices, including those capable of conducting advanced searches, which is available in the Public gazettes reading room on the second floor of the JPO office building. This allows free public access to “a search service for patent gazettes,” the J-PlatPat Service, gazettes on CD-ROM/DVD-ROM, etc.Reference to examination and trial documents
The INPIT is collecting various technical documents (books, etc.), which are used in the examinations and trials by the JPO, widely from within and outside Japan and is making them available to the public.
Provision of Licensable Patent Information
In order to ensure a smooth transfer of patents owned by companies, universities and public research institutes and prepared for rights transfers or licenses (licensable patents) and to promote their commercialization, the INPIT built a database of licensable patents, and made them available to the public on-line as the Patent Licensing Information Database.
The number of licensable patents registered in the Patent Licensing Information Database is estimated to be approximately 30,000 patents as of the end of March 2017.
http://plidb.inpit.go.jp/PDDB/Service/PDDBService
Provision of Research Tool Patent Information
In order to promote use of research tool patents in a life science field, the INPIT has computerized information on the research tool patents owned by universities and public research institutes, enterprises, etc. and their license terms, and provides the information in “Research Tool Patent Database”.
The number of registrations in Research Tool Patent Database is about 500 as of the end of March 2017.
https://plidb.inpit.go.jp/research/home
Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.), Event history information
Legal status information of applications filed in January 1990 onwards can be searched on the J-PlatPat by using document numbers such as application numbers, publication numbers and registration numbers. In addition, applications filed in 1989 and before can be searched if any data (e.g. publication of Gazettes, requests for examination, registration for establishment of rights, requests for trials/appeals) was renewed in April 1998 onwards.
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