Page History

June 2019: Six new full text countries added

Over the past few weeks we have added full text and PDF files for ARIPO, Bulgaria, Eurasia, OAPI and Romania to our Premium+ collection. Subscribers to either Premium or Premium+ also now have access to full text for Slovakia. Details can be seen in our data coverage table.

May 2019: Full text added for Czech Republic/Czechoslovakia

Full text and PDF files for Czech Republic (CZ) and the former Czechoslovakia (CS) are now available for Premium and Premium+ subscribers, respectively.

May 2019: Kind code changes in Norway and the Netherlands

Following EPO recommendations, we have changed the kind codes of some NL and NO records as follows:

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May 2019: Change in CS and CZ document numbers

As announced in April, CS and CZ records changed the format of their patent numbers following DocDB recommendations. Some of the changes included moving the year to the end for CZ publication numbers dating prior to 2000 and suppressing embedded zeroes for CZ publication numbers, applications, and priority numbers dating from 2000 onward. The following table illustrates the changes.

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The rekey, as initially described by the EPO, would have resulted in collisions. For example:

• CZ-9102003-A3 (published 19930113) would have been rekeyed as CZ-200391-A3
• CZ-20030091-A3 (published 20030618) would have been rekeyed as CZ-200391-A3

To avoid these collisions, the rekeyed ucids of 104 CS records delivered by the EPO match the application number and don't follow the rules above.

April 2019: Referenced images now available in Spanish front file

Beginning in January 2019, image files in our attachment server will include referenced images in TIFF format for ES patents and utility models.

April 2019: Five new full text countries added

Over the past week we have added full text and PDF files for Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Portugal, and Slovenia to our Premium+ collection. Details can be seen in our data coverage table.

April 2019: East German patents added

We have added description, claims and full document PDFs of DD granted patents published by the former East German patent office between 1980 and 2003. This content is available to Premium and Premium+ subscription levels.

March 2019: Canadian PDF backfile extended

Over the past few weeks we have expanded our collection of Canadian PDFs. Although there are still a few gaps, the addition extends our Canadian PDF coverage back to publication year 2000.

December 2018: Rekey of some IN apps

In March 2018 we solved most of the issues related to the numbering format of Indian records. Since then, publication numbers of records corresponding to Indian applications published before January 2016 have a publication number format of YYYYOONNNNN in CLAIMS Direct.

We recently discovered that there were still a few records which contained the old office codes. This created some duplicates such as IN-1992BO00073-A/IN-1992MU00073-A.

In order to solve this issue we rekeyed those records with the old office codes, following the Indian patent office rules:

BO --> MU
CA --> KO
MA --> CH

Examples:
IN-1992BO00073-A is now IN-1992MU00073-A
IN-1992CA00749-A is now IN-1992KO00749-A
IN-1998MA01586-A is now N-1998CH01586-A

As a result of this process 7998 IN records have been marked "deleted".

September 2018: Coverage of EP A4 documents

EP kind code A4 documents cover the supplementary search reports as issued by the EPO following PCT applications entering the EP regional phase. Until now these documents were not fully integrated into the normal EPO publication flow of A and B publications.

Now A4 data is available in CLAIMS Direct both in XML format as well as PDF. So far, the entire year 2017 and the first half of 2018 are covered.

The EPO plans to deliver future A4 documents in batches every half year.

August 2018: Release of CLAIMS Direct Web Services version 3.5

CLAIMS Direct Web Services version 3.5 was released Saturday August 25th. The following changes have been implemented in this release:

• RFC: if no first inventive CPC is available, use first inventive from IPCR
  The reporting column cpc-first-inventive will use the first inventive IPCR if no CPC first inventive value is present.
• RFC: create new endpoint that retrieves all associated attachments as a zip archive
  This new endpoint, /attachment/fetchall retrieves all attachments available for a specific ucid and bundles them into a single zip archive. Please see /attachment/fetchall for service details.
• RFC: (BETA) enable attachment manipulation of image type and size
  A new set of parameters is available on the /attachment/fetch endpoint that will convert image types to common web formats, including jpeg and png. Please see /attachment/fetch for the additional parameters.

July 2018: Extending PDF collection

In the last few weeks, we have added full document PDFs to the following countries:

• CA - Documents published from January 2018 now have full document PDFs. In the next few weeks, we will also be loading PDFs for the Canadian backfile.
• KR - We have added PDF files to the pre-2006 records which were loaded in January.
• RU - Full document PDFs are now available for Russian documents published from 2005 up to the current date. We have also loaded PDFs for some pre-2005 records, although this collection is not complete.
• WO - PCT documents now have PDF files.

We will soon expand our coverage even further by processing PDF files for India, focusing first on applications and later adding granted patents.

April 2018: WO records in Asian languages

We have processed a WIPO backfile of records in Asian languages. The total number of records included in this backfile with new or updated Asian language text is 211915 and the load-id is 304475. We are currently processing machine translations to English for these records.

April 2018: Translations for EP and WO records

As we announced in March, we have added English translations to EP and WO records that were filed in languages other than English.

For EP records these are the translated fields that we added:

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For WO records:

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In the next few days, we plan to load a backfile of descriptions and claims for WO applications published in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, going back to 1978. This data will include both the original language and English translations.

April 2018: Correction of issues in the ifi-integrated-data section

• Unexpected expiration dates in applications

CLAIMS Direct provides calculated anticipated and adjusted expiration dates for granted patents (publication-type=G ). We recently discovered that some applications (publication-type=A) contained expiry dates in the ifi-integrated-content section. To maintain data consistency, we have removed those unexpected expiry dates as of load-id 302070.

• Incorrect status in some Japanese records with kind code U

The IFI calculated status of some JP applications with kind code U was showing as expired when the correct status should have been granted. The origin of the problem was that JP laws changed around 1994 and therefore kind code U has different meanings before and after the changes. Though this was considered in IFI's calculation rules, some JP records were still being calculated incorrectly as publication-type=G when they should have been publication-type=A. This error in the publication type caused the status to be calculated incorrectly. This has now been fixed in all affected records and they have been reloaded as of load-id 302163.

March 2018: Reload of some Australian and Indian records

In the last few days we have solved a couple of issues caused by problems in the raw data:

• Future AU publication dates

When processing data from the Australian national register, we found several records with OPI dates well into the future. According to the patent office, there was an issue with the optical character recognition for these dates. Although some of these dates have already been corrected, it's taking longer than expected for the patent office to fix the problem. To prevent this from happening again, we have changed these future dates to our default entry for dates that we know to be incorrect (00010101).

• IN numbering formats

For most Indian patent authorities, we receive data from the Indian patent office without a publication number, so we use the application number to fill the publication reference element and to build a UCID. In general, the application reference keeps the original application number format from the patent office and the publication reference (as well as UCID) is calculated by IFI rules.

From 2016 the Indian patent office changed the format of their application numbers. The EPO also recently started to deliver Indian applications in DocDB, but using a different number format. This created some inconsistencies in our data.

To solve this problem, we did a rekey of around 27192 records (load-id 300781).

Now, records corresponding to Indian applications published before January 2016 have a publication number format of YYYYOONNNNN:

YYYY: four-digit year
OO: two-character office code
NNNNN: sequence number zero padded to five digits

While from 2016, patent numbers will use the format YYYYOTNNNNNN:

YYYY: four-digit year
O: one-character office code (1 for Delhi, 2 for Mumbai, 3 for Kolkata, and 4 for Chennai)
T: type of application *
NNNNNN: sequence number

* type of application:
1 = Ordinary Application
2 = Ordinary-Divisional Application
3 = Ordinary-Patent of Addition Application
4 = Convention Application
5 = Convention-Divisional Application
6 = Convention-Patent of Addition Application
7 = PCT National Phase Application
8 = PCT National Phase-Divisional Application
9 = PCT National Phase Patent of Addition Application

March 2018: Updates to Brazil, Taiwan, EP, and WIPO

In the first week of March, we completed an update of Brazilian records which resolves a major delay in BR front file deliveries. This included around 10,000 Brazilian full text records, which contain both the original language as well as translations. These records include full document PDFs, but are still missing bibliographic data from DocDB since the EPO has not published them yet. We will update any information delivered by DocDB as soon as it is available. BR full text is now up-to-date as of 20180206. Going forward, we expect to maintain front file publications within two weeks of publication. 

Similarly, we are loading missing TW full text records published in the last quarter of 2017 and forward.

In parallel, we will be adding English translations to EP and WO records that were filed in languages other than English. We plan to start with EP documents filed in French or German.

January 2018: Korean backfile and Australian pharmaceutical data loaded

We have finished the Korean backfile load announced in December, which added full text to more than 2.2 million KR documents published between 1979 and 2005. English translations will be processed soon.

Pharmaceutical names from the AU register data are now available in the new ifi-annotated-data container. See ifi-annotated-data for more information.

January 2018: Translations for Spanish patents

We are starting a reload of the ES collection to integrate machine translations. This will add English descriptions and claims to more than 370,000 records that currently contain Spanish text only. We will also be completing English translations for titles and abstracts.

Below are translation totals per field after this reload:

invention-title = 1513825
abstract = 818939
description = 370798
claims = 371645

...

April 2024: Solr installations

Following a recent Solr upgrade, we have found that essentially every Solr implementation is unique. Therefore, pre-written installation instructions are likely to be misleading and we have removed them from our documentation. If you need assistance with a Solr installation, please contact your sales representative to discuss a consulting arrangement.

December 2023: DTD v2.7 released, adding attribute for Unitary Patents

We have released v2.7 of the DTD, which includes a new attribute to indicate whether Unitary Patent (UP) protection has been requested for EP-B records. The attribute, ep-up-requested, has been added to the ifi-patent-status element in the IFI Snapshot. It is marked "Yes" when the legal status code U01 has been delivered in the legal event codes. Once the UP is registered, a C0 record is created where annuity payments, appeals, and other post-grant procedures are tracked. This attribute provides an easy way to identify which applicants are seeking protection in all countries participating in the UP. We plan to begin loading the new attribute on March 23, 2024. The new DTD is available here.

August 2023: IP Profiles API released

IFI Corporate Intellectual Property Profiles are now available through an API service. This service provides a high-level summary of the intellectual property assets held by corporate entities, including metrics such as the number of patents and patent families owned, status information, and the number of citations associated with a company’s patents. See IP Profiles for more details about this service.

April 2023: Schema tools 2.0-2 released

This minor update adds additional stream functionality to all tools. As of this release, cdws, litigation, and entities are fully supported in extracting, counting and analyzing.

April 2023: Updated Solr to version 8.11.1 

On April 1, we updated our search API and CDWI search to Solr version 8.11.1.

March 2023: Entities stream released

The Entities stream provides company hierarchies and summary statistics. It is the foundation of our IP Profiles. It is available as a separate data subscription. See the Entities Schema and User-Defined Functions, Working with the Entities Stream and Installing Additional Streams for more information.

February 2023: CLAIMS Direct Client Tools 2.6-5 released

This latest minor release of the client tools adds a diagnostics utility. This new utility will gather important information in a CLAIMS Direct instance to better aid support in diagnosing issues.

October 2022: Support for Rocky Linux 8

CLAIMS Direct now supports Rocky Linux 8. Instructions for new instances have been incorporated into the PostgreSQL Installation Instructions and the repository information is provided in the Software Requirements on our PostgreSQL page.

September 2022: New CLAIMS Direct Client Tools support transition to HTTPS

We are transitioning the Shared Services API and on-site update client communication from the HTTP protocol to HTTPS exclusively. To support this transition, the new release of perl-Alexandria-Client-Tools defaults to HTTPS for both API communications and update package downloads. On-site customers should install the new client tools by November 1, 2022.

May 2022: CLAIMS Direct CDWI 2.9.1 released

The following fixes and enhancements are included:

• A new reporting option csv.datefmt was added to the New Report screen.
• A bug wherein attachments with identical names were suppressed from grid listing output has been fixed.
• Updated Privacy and Terms of Use

May 2022: CLAIMS Direct CDWS 3.9.1 released

The following fixes and enhancements are included:

• A bug that made the endpoint /attachment/update take minutes when no @limit parameter was given has been resolved.
• system/dwh/loading endpoint is now streams aware. This resolved an issue when a @load_id parameter was from a non-xml stream, the endpoint returned HTTP 204.
• In an effort to harmonize date output formats in the Reporting API, a new csv.datefmt option is available. Please see Reporting for more details.

May 2022: CLAIMS Direct Client Tools 2.6-3 released

The latest release of the client tools adds further enhancements to streams processing. In addition, package download integrity is maintained by the addition of an MD5 checksum.

April 2021: CLAIMS Direct Client Tools 2.6-1 released

This latest release introduces streams capability. This new feature allows the seamless integration of custom XML content, non-patent data sources and custom data filtering for on-site customers. Additionally, aidxd has a new argument --tolerate which directs aidxd to tolerate all errors and retry. This brings aidxd in line with the current behavior of apgupd. Due to the change of behavior, this argument is optional but future releases may make this the default behavior. If you wish to use it, simply add it to the CD_OTHER_OPTIONS option in /etc/alexandria/aidxd.conf ( CD_OTHER_OPTIONS='--tolerate'  ) and restart the daemon via systemctl.

March 2021: Attachment service enhancements

On March 20, 2021 we are releasing the following enhancements to the Shared Services /attachment endpoint:

•  @exclude has been added as a parameter to the /attachment/fetchall endpoint. This allows you to exclude specified extensions from the package. See /attachment/fetchall for full details.
• The attachment/abimage endpoint, which allows you to fetch a front page drawing or figure, has been enhanced to handle image manipulation. See /attachment/abimage for more details.

March 2021: Litigation API released

Global litigation data from MaxVal is now available on the CLAIMS Direct platform as an optional data subscription. Case details, outcomes, party data and more are available from multiple courts. The data is provided in a similar XML style to other CLAIMS Direct content, making it easy to integrate with other patent content. See Litigation to read more about how to access this service.

March 2021: Chinese Snapshots

From March through August, approximately 30 million IFI Snapshots will be added to our Chinese full text documents. This will allow Premium Plus subscribers to access IFI’s standardized names, patent status, expiration dates, and claims summaries for Chinese records. To read more about the IFI Snapshots and how they can help you, see IFI Snapshots Explained.

February 2021: IFI Snapshots

For over 70 years, IFI CLAIMS has created value-added data which provides an overview of a patent document at a particular moment. Our patent status, expiry dates, standardized names, and claims summaries have been relied upon by professionals for decades to provide the key information necessary to evaluate patents quickly and efficiently. We have now come up with a term which we feel captures the essence of this vital information: the IFI Snapshot. To read more about what IFI Snapshots are and how they can help you, see IFI Snapshots Explained.

Earlier Release Notes

Release notes prior to 2018 2020 can be seen in the Archived Release Notes section.