Patent Index and Concordance
The Patent Index provides
information about patents and patent families.
Key:
- 1 - Patent Number
- 2 - Application
information
- 3 - Earlier applications
- 4 - Date
- 5 - CA volume
and abstract number
- 6 - Designated
states
- 7 - Patent family
information
Patent families are very important.
Most individuals and/or companies applying for patent protection do so broadly
- that is, they want coverage in many countries. Since countries vary as to the
spped patent application are processed and patents issued, the first application
may not be the first issued patent. Patent family information is also useful in
finding a corresponding patent that may be in a language one can read.