Patent Kind Codes
Each INPADOCDB/INPAFAMDB publication has a Patent Kind Code (/PK) to distinguish different kinds of patent documents. As most countries use the same or similar kind code designations the country code must be considered for a search. An excerpt from the /PK index in the example below shows that a string consisting of the country code and kind code is indexed. The Patent Information Type (/PIT) display and search field includes the description of the kind code. A complete list of patent kind codes is available in INPADOC Kind Codes.
Data Availability and Patent Stage
The over 1000 different patent kind codes have been classified in 13 publication type categories and indexed in the Data Availability (/DAV) field.
The DAV categories are not necessarily directly related to the PIT-information and can be used to interpret (uncommon) patent kind codes. They are displayed next to the publication date.
The publication type categories were further classified as “pre-grant publication”, which may be pending or withdrawn applications, “granted” and a small number as “unknown”. These three stages are indexed in the field Patent Stage ((/STA).
| Data Availability Category | Comment | Patent Stage |
| Abstract-reference | Date of separate publication of an abstract. | Pre-Grant Publication |
| Claims-only-available | Date of publication by printing or similar process of the claims only of a document dates-of-availability. | Pre-Grant Publication |
| Examined-not-printed-without-grant | Date of making available to the public by viewing or copying on request, an examined document on which no grant has taken place on or before the said date. | Pre-Grant Publication |
| Examined-printed-without-grant | Date of publication by printing or similar process of an unexamined document on which no grant has taken place on or before the said date. | Pre-Grant Publication |
| Gazette-reference | Date of announcement of filed application in gazette. | Pre-Grant Publication |
| Modified-complete-spec-pub | date of separate publication of a modified complete specification report | Pre-Grant Publication |
| Modified-first-page-pub | Date of separate publication of a modified first page report. | Pre-Grant Publication |
| Supplemental-srep-reference | Date of separate publication of a supplementary search report. |
Pre-Grant Publication |
| Unexamined-not-printed-without-grant | Date of making available to the public by viewing or copying on request, an examined document on which no grant has taken place on or before the said date. | Pre-Grant Publication |
| Unexamined-printed-without-grant | Date of publication by printing or similar process of an unexamined document on which no grant has taken place on or before the said date. | Pre-Grant Publication |
| Gazette-pub-announcement/grant | Date of announcement of a granted application in a gazette. | Granted |
| Printed-with-grant | Date of publication by printing or similar process of document on which grant has taken place on or before the said date. | Granted |
| Not-printed-with-grant | Date of making available to the public by viewing or copying on request of a document on which grant has taken place on or before the said date. | Granted |
Any search, e.g. a text search can be combined with the search in the /STA field to limit search results e.g., to granted patents.
=> S Laser beam/BI AND US/PC AND GRANTED/STA L1 28072 LASER BEAM/BI AND US/PC AND GRANTED/STA