How do you tell if a patent is in force in a European country? IFI CLAIMS can now provide an easy answer.
The IFI Patent Status indicator is a value added patent data field produced by IFI CLAIMS and available in our XML database. For patent grants, the value can be:
- “Active”
- “Active – Reinstated”
- “Expired – Fee Related“
- “Expired - Lifetime”
- “Ceased” (no longer active due to failure to complete a task, such as non-payment of a renewal fee)
- “Revoked” (invalidated)
For applications, the value can be:
- “Pending”
- “Granted”
- “Abandoned”
- “Withdrawn”
IFI also provides estimated expiration dates, and standardized assignee names and applicant names. IFI CLAIMS has maintained these value added fields for US patents for many years.
IFI is currently in the process of extending the coverage of our value added data. We recently extended coverage to Germany and the EPO. For Germany, an indicator value of “Active” for a granted patent is easy to interpret – the German patent is active in Germany. But what does it mean for an EP patent that may or may not be in force in individual member states?
For the recently released EP Legal Status Indicator, “Active” means active in at least one designated state. An indicator value of “Expired” means that the patent in not in force in any member state. The indicator provides a useful way to filter in-force patents, but does not provide any detail about the specific countries where the patent is in force.
To get to the details, developers and analysts need to look at the IFI patent data XML. Let’s look at an example: EP-1343473-B1.
Patent: EP-1343473-B1 IFI Standardized Assignee: Sanofi-Aventis Title: PHARMACEUTICAL DRONEDARONE COMPOSITION FOR PARENTERAL ADMINISTRATION Publication Date: 20061220 Filing Date: 20011210 IFI Patent Status: Active IFI Anticipated Patent Expiration: 20211210 Designated States: AL, AT, BE, CH, CY, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, IE, IT, LI, LT, LU, LV, MC, MK, NL, PT, RO, SE, SI, TR, WO
The IFI Patent Status Indicator tells us that the EP-B1 grant is active in at least one of the designated states. To see which ones, you need to look at the XML. The actual XML is shown in an appendix to this post. A formatted version of the country level legal status is:
AL Active
AT Expired - Fee Related
BE Expired - Fee Related
CH Ceased
CY Expired - Fee Related
DE Active
DK Expired - Fee Related
ES Expired - Fee Related
FI Expired - Fee Related
FR Active
GB Active
GR Expired - Fee Related
HK Active
IE Active - Reinstated
IT Expired - Fee Related
LI Expired - Fee Related
LT Active
LU Expired - Fee Related
LV Active
MC Expired - Fee Related
MK Active
NL Expired - Fee Related
PT Expired - Fee Related
RO Active
SE Expired - Fee Related
SI Active
TR Expired - Fee Related
So, the patent is in force in Germany, France, Great Britain and seven other countries. It has been abandoned in Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and twelve other countries. It was reinstated in Ireland and ceased in Switzerland. The patent status indicator is useful for identifying patents that are in force in at least one member EP state. It is available as a reportable field in the IFI CLAIMS Direct reporting API, and in the CLAIMS Direct Web Interface (CDWI) CSV reports. Detailed information about where the patent is in force is available in the IFI XML which is available through the CLAIMS Direct “text” interface. The indicator is also searchable through the “ifi_patstat” field.
Developers of IP legal applications can take advantage of this data through a CLAIMS Direct license. Please contact us to learn more about our developer friendly patent data API.
Appendix: ifi-integrated-content for EP-1343473-B1:
<ifi-integrated-content publication-type="G" subject-area="Chemical">
<ifi-patent-status anticipated-expiration="20211210">
<ifi-patent-status-description country="EP">Active</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="AL">Active</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="AT">Expired - Fee Related</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="BE">Expired - Fee Related</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="CH">Ceased</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="CY">Expired - Fee Related</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="DE">Active</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="DK">Expired - Fee Related</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="ES">Expired - Fee Related</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="FI">Expired - Fee Related</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="FR">Active</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="GB">Active</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="GR">Expired - Fee Related</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="HK">Active</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="IE">Active - Reinstated</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="IT">Expired - Fee Related</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="LI">Expired - Fee Related</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="LT">Active</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="LU">Expired - Fee Related</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="LV">Active</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="MC">Expired - Fee Related</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="MK">Active</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="NL">Expired - Fee Related</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="PT">Expired - Fee Related</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="RO">Active</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="SE">Expired - Fee Related</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="SI">Active</ifi-patent-status-description>
<ifi-patent-status-description country="TR">Expired - Fee Related</ifi-patent-status-description>
</ifi-patent-status>
<ifi-parties>
<ifi-standardized-name country="FR" number="051774">
<addressbook>
<name>Sanofi-Aventis</name>
</addressbook>
</ifi-standardized-name>
<ifi-standardized-name-current country="FR" number="051774">
<addressbook>
<name>Sanofi-Aventis</name>
</addressbook>
</ifi-standardized-name-current>
</ifi-parties>
</ifi-integrated-content>
