offers a condensed view of multiple stages of an invention
establishes relationships between PCT and nationally filed documents
establishes relationships between nationally filed documents and translations filed with the EPO
introduces the concept of effective date (earliest applicable filing date)
algorithmically matches national application and document number formats to CLAIMS Direct ucids

Content

The content is represented by a 2-level tws_application structure. The first level contains all application-specific member information.

...

Member Sub-members Description

inventors^† inventor An array of all inventors

priority

Member	Description
ucid	CLAIMS Direct application ucid
country	Priority filing country
doc_number	Priority application number
kind	Priority kind code
date	Priority filing date

The earliest priority excluding provisional applications

publications

Member	Description
ucid	CLAIMS Direct publication ucid
country	Country code
doc_number	Publication number
kind	Publication kind code
date	Publication date
lang	Publication language

An array of all publications tied to the root application number

grant

Member	Description
ucid	CLAIMS Direct publication ucid
country	Country code
doc_number	Granted document number
kind	Grant kind code
date	Granted publication date
lang	Granted language of publication

The published granted patent

national_grant

Member	Description
ucid	CLAIMS Direct publication ucid
country	Country code
doc_number	National granted document number
kind	National grant kind code
date	National grant publication date
lang	Nation grant language of publication

The published national granted patent

titles

Member	Description
lang	Language of title
title	Text content of title

The titles array condenses the title(s) of all stages into a language-distinct array

simple_family^† ucid An array of ucids which make up a simple family

extended_family^† ucid An array of ucids which make up the extended inpadoc family

classifications^†

Member	Description
cpc	An array of all CPC
ecla	An array of all ECLA
ipcr	An array of all IPCR
ipc	An array of all IPC

The classifications array contains all classifications condensed into a unique set per classification type

claims_hierarchy^†

Member	Description
num	Claim number
type	Type of claim (`dependent` or `independent`)
refs	If a dependent claim, a list of claim numbers on which this claim depends

The claims_hierarchy member outlines the claim dependencies

Technical Details

Request

There are two request endpoints to tws: an and dn (application number lookup and document number lookup respectively).

...

Method	GET
Path
Parameter		Values	Description
	@id	String: ex. US-5551212[,EP 0700000]	One or more application or document numbers to retrieve. Multiple @ids are separated by commas.
	@include-optional	Integer: ex. 1	The default response contains a subset of available content. To include all available content (as denoted above under Content), set this parameter to 1.
	@include	String: ex. inventors	Include only a subset of optional content.
	@exclude	String: ex. publications	Exclude particular content.
	@include-only	String: ex. effective	Includes only the content specified. The top-level ucid member is always included by default.
	@origin	String: ex. EP or WO	When the origin of an application input is either EP or WO, this parameter should be specified. If there are multiple @ids, input of origin-per-id is accomplished through subscripts. For example, assume two input ids /custom/tws/an?id=US13/123456,FR12345678 You could specify `origin` specifically for the FR document as follows: `&origin.2=EP` If `origin` is specified without a subscript and there are multiple input ids, the `origin` specified applies to all inputs.
	@date	Integer: ex. 19960101	If given, this parameter increases performance and confidence in the input-matching process. The same method of explicitly targeting a specific input with `origin` applies to `date` as well, e.g., `&date.1=19900101`

Response

The tws response comes in two formats: JSON (the default) and XML (HTTP header: Accept:text/xml). For illustration purposes, the examples below show only JSON. The structure of the response is identical, with the exception of the following JSON-specific contructs:

underscores in JSON identifiers are replaced with hyphens, e.g.

Code Block
{ tws_application.doc_number : "12/123456"} => <tws-application doc-number="12/123456" />

Anonymous JSON arrays have singular child elements in XML

Code Block
{ inventors: [ 'Joe', 'Carl' ] } => <inventors><inventor>Joe</inventor><inventor>Carl</inventor></inventors>

Structure

Meta Information

The response structure is outlined as follows

...

Member	Description
method	The endpoint used to create this response
time	Time in seconds of the entire request/response
status	Enumeration: `success` or `error`
error	In the case of `status=error`, a message will describe the error.

`content` Container

The content member of the response contains the body. It is an anonymous structure whose key is the input id. When multiple ids are given as input, this structure will have multiple keys. The value of the structure is an anonymous structure containing meta information and the core object, the tws_applications array.

...

Member	Description
iid	The exact input given (input-id)
lookup_status	Enumeration of `found`, `not-found` or `found-duplicate`
confidence	A confidence level (0-100) of the input <=> output match. This is currently fixed at 100.

`tws_applications` Container

The tws_applications container is an anonymous array of distinct tws_application structures. Please see content description above for a detailed listing of all members.

Examples

The following are full example requests and responses.

Default US Application Number Lookup

Code Block

http://cdws21.ificlaims.com/custom/tws/an?id=US-08/25828

{
   "time" : "0.226",
   "status" : "success",
   "content" : {
      "US-08/25828" : {
         "tws_applications" : [
            {
               "priority" : {
                  "country" : "DE",
                  "kind" : "A",
                  "date" : "19900901",
                  "doc_number" : "4027762",
                  "ucid" : "DE-4027762-A"
               },
               "date" : "19930303",
               "doc_number" : "2582893",
               "ucid" : "US-2582893-A",
               "assignee" : "OSTMA Maschinenbau GmbH",
               "kind" : "A",
               "titles" : [
                  {
                     "lang" : "EN",
                     "title" : "Method of packaging articles"
                  }
               ],
               "country" : "US",
               "parent" : "US-74719691-A",
               "patent_status" : "LAPSED",
               "lang" : "EN",
               "format" : "ifi",
               "relation" : "continuation",
               "fam" : "6413406",
               "effective" : "19910816",
               "grant" : {
                  "country" : "US",
                  "kind" : "A",
                  "lang" : "EN",
                  "date" : "19960903",
                  "doc_number" : "5551212",
                  "ucid" : "US-5551212-A"
               }
            }
         ],
         "confidence" : 100,
         "lookup_status" : "found",
         "iid" : "US-08/25828"
      }
   },
   "method" : "custom/tws/an"
}

Explicitly Requesting Certain Content

Code Block

http://cdws21.ificlaims.com/custom/tws/an?id=US-08/25828&include=simple_family
{
   "time" : "0.166",
   "status" : "success",
   "content" : {
      "US-08/25828" : {
         "tws_applications" : [
            {
               "priority" : {
                  "country" : "DE",
                  "kind" : "A",
                  "date" : "19900901",
                  "doc_number" : "4027762",
                  "ucid" : "DE-4027762-A"
               },
               "simple_family" : [
                  "AT-96388-T",
                  "AU-636238-B2",
                  "AU-8174591-A",
                  "CA-2050271-A1",
                  "CA-2050271-C",
                  "DE-4027762-C1",
                  "DE-59100535-D1",
                  "DK-0477487-T3",
                  "EP-0477487-A1",
                  "EP-0477487-B1",
                  "ES-2046827-T3",
                  "JP-2113465-C",
                  "JP-H054613-A",
                  "JP-H0825524-B2",
                  "NO-913030-A",
                  "NO-913030-D0",
                  "TR-25401-A",
                  "US-5551212-A",
                  "ZA-9106183-A"
               ],
               "date" : "19930303",
               "doc_number" : "2582893",
               "ucid" : "US-2582893-A",
               "assignee" : "OSTMA Maschinenbau GmbH",
               "kind" : "A",
               "titles" : [
                  {
                     "lang" : "EN",
                     "title" : "Method of packaging articles"
                  }
               ],
               "country" : "US",
               "parent" : "US-74719691-A",
               "patent_status" : "LAPSED",
               "lang" : "EN",
               "format" : "ifi",
               "relation" : "continuation",
               "fam" : "6413406",
               "effective" : "19910816",
               "grant" : {
                  "country" : "US",
                  "kind" : "A",
                  "lang" : "EN",
                  "date" : "19960903",
                  "doc_number" : "5551212",
                  "ucid" : "US-5551212-A"
               }
            }
         ],
         "confidence" : 100,
         "lookup_status" : "found",
         "iid" : "US-08/25828"
      }
   },
   "method" : "custom/tws/an"
}

Excluding Certain Content

Code Block

http://cdws21.ificlaims.com/custom/tws/an?id=US-08/25828&exclude=priority

{
   "time" : "0.169",
   "status" : "success",
   "content" : {
      "US-08/25828" : {
         "tws_applications" : [
            {
               "date" : "19930303",
               "doc_number" : "2582893",
               "ucid" : "US-2582893-A",
               "assignee" : "OSTMA Maschinenbau GmbH",
               "kind" : "A",
               "titles" : [
                  {
                     "lang" : "EN",
                     "title" : "Method of packaging articles"
                  }
               ],
               "country" : "US",
               "parent" : "US-74719691-A",
               "patent_status" : "LAPSED",
               "lang" : "EN",
               "format" : "ifi",
               "relation" : "continuation",
               "fam" : "6413406",
               "effective" : "19910816",
               "grant" : {
                  "country" : "US",
                  "kind" : "A",
                  "lang" : "EN",
                  "date" : "19960903",
                  "doc_number" : "5551212",
                  "ucid" : "US-5551212-A"
               }
            }
         ],
         "confidence" : 100,
         "lookup_status" : "found",
         "iid" : "US-08/25828"
      }
   },
   "method" : "custom/tws/an"
}

Using Origin and Date Parameters

Code Block

http://cdws21.ificlaims.com/custom/tws/an?id=US-14/240125&origin=WO&date=20120820'
{
   "time" : "0.096",
   "status" : "success",
   "content" : {
      "US-14/240125" : {
         "tws_applications" : [
            {
               "date" : "20120820",
               "doc_number" : "201214240125",
               "ucid" : "US-201214240125-A",
               "kind" : "A",
               "titles" : [
                  {
                     "lang" : "EN",
                     "title" : "Bicycle, modifiable for uphill, downhill and/or trail conditions"
                  }
               ],
               "doc_number_original" : "14/240125",
               "publications" : [
                  {
                     "country" : "US",
                     "kind" : "A1",
                     "lang" : "EN",
                     "date" : "20140731",
                     "doc_number" : "20140210180",
                     "ucid" : "US-20140210180-A1"
                  }
               ],
               "country" : "US",
               "patent_status" : "ALIVE",
               "lang" : "EN",
               "origin" : "WO",
               "format" : "ifi",
               "fam" : "50382849",
               "effective" : "20120820",
               "grant" : {
                  "country" : "US",
                  "kind" : "B2",
                  "lang" : "EN",
                  "date" : "20150616",
                  "doc_number" : "9056644",
                  "ucid" : "US-9056644-B2"
               }
            }
         ],
         "confidence" : 100,
         "lookup_status" : "found",
         "iid" : "US-14/240125"
      }
   },
   "method" : "custom/tws/an"
}

...

Page tree

Versions Compared

Old Version 12

New Version 13

Key

Content

Technical Details

Request

Response

Structure

Meta Information

`content` Container

`tws_applications` Container

Examples

Default US Application Number Lookup

Explicitly Requesting Certain Content

Excluding Certain Content

Using Origin and Date Parameters

Page tree

Page History

Versions Compared

Old Version 12

New Version 13

Key

Content

Technical Details

Request

Response

Structure

Meta Information

content Container

tws_applications Container

Examples

Default US Application Number Lookup

Explicitly Requesting Certain Content

Excluding Certain Content

Using Origin and Date Parameters

`content` Container

`tws_applications` Container