Definitions and Terms

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  • Patent Status Definitions

    Active
    A patent that is currently held by an organization and legally enforceable.

    Lapsed
    A patent previously held by an organization that is no longer legally enforceable.

    Pending
    A published document for an invention that a company is seeking to legally protect.

    Unknown
    A patent for which the status cannot be determined at this time.

  • Citation Definitions

    Forward Citations
    Indicator of how often other organizations or people cite a patent. The more forward citations, the more innovative a patent is and potentially more disruptive. Also tied to value, more citations often highlight more valuable patents.

    Backward Citations
    How many previously granted patents are cited in a patent. The more backward citations, the less innovative an invention is, signaling it is an incremental development and not a disruptive technology.

  • Patent Document Definitions and Related Terms

    Grant
    A granted patent.

    Application
    A request for a grant.

    Filing
    Process to file a new application, sometimes used interchangeably with application.

    Patent Families
    A measure which represents the number of inventions an organization holds. For protection, a company must file in every country they plan to make, use, or sell an invention. This metric allows analysts to remove duplications of the same invention in many countries.

    Patent Publications
    The number of patent filings or published documents an organization holds globally.

  • IFI Terms

    Ultimate Owner
    A corporate entity that has one or more subsidiaries with patent assets - i.e. subsidiaries that appear as either original or current patent applicants or assignees.

    IFI Name
    The official IFI Name for a patent-holding organization. The IFI Names Service provides a simple method to find the standardized form of a company name (the "IFI Name"). IFI's approach of using only patent-holding companies combined with our company name recognition ability has enabled a precise and accurate look at corporate parent companies' patent ownership.