Search Legal Status and Simplified Legal Status
In the Invention Navigator solutions the so called “simplified” legal status is displayed. This legal status (published, granted, lapsed (dead) not specified and utility models) is created by specific rules. This legal status is defined by SIP depending on document type, patent age/utility model and INPADOC codes.
Under certain circumstances some countries or technologies, for example the pharmaceutical/chemical sector, can extend a patent’s term of protection from 20 to 25 years. Therefore a granted patent in the SIP solutions will only be set to “dead” once a period of 25 years has passed and no lapsed-code has been sent by the INPADOC database.
The INPADOC database is created by the European Patent Office and contains so called PRS Codes which provide information on the legal status. You will get a good overview about legal status codes on the website of the European Patent Office.
Legal status information is sent to the European Patent Office by the national offices. Which legal status codes are provided in which period of time and the currency of legal status data varies significantly from office to office. This also applies to the completeness and accuracy of the data. Therefore it can occur that a patent still set as granted in the SIP solutions can already be lapsed, as information has not yet been provided by the national office. Thus in critical cases where a certain activity is conducted or a decision is made depending on the legal status it is always necessary to check the current legal status with the national office.
Display in the Result List
The simplified legal status can be displayed in the result list. To do this, select the simplified legal status in the menu tab “View”.
In the list the legal status of the patent displayed is stated. If the list displays “granted” and “one patent per family” has been set, it means that only the patent displayed (number) has been granted. It does not mean that all family members have been granted.
By clicking on the top of the column, the list can be sorted by simplified legal status.
Searching for Simplified Legal Status
With Invention Navigator versions from version 7.0 it is possible to search for the simplified legal status in addition to the detailed search for legal status codes.
In order to do this drag the field “legal status” into the search mask. The search mask for the simplified legal status will automatically be displayed. Select the simplified legal statuses you want to search for by checking one or multiple boxes.
As usual you can also search for individual legal status codes. Click the button “Select”. A new window will open in which you can select specific legal status codes and search for them.
Simplified Legal Status in Detail View
In detail view the simplified legal status for a patent is displayed on the top next to the patent number. If, for example, you want the application in the patent family to be displayed the patent number will change. However, the legal status will remain “patent status: granted”. Legal status always refers to the SIP-Patent (SIP-Patent: all publication stages of an invention in the same country).
Display of INPADOC legal status information
In detail view you see an icon with a paragraph symbol on the top right of the icon tab left of the image. By clicking this icon you get directly to the detailed legal status display on the SIP-Homepage.