INPAFAMDB - Now available on STN for patent family searching

INPAFAMDB has been launched as a companion file to INPADOCDB and is particularly useful when performing comprehensive prior art searches in 1st level data using free text (from titles and abstracts) and/or classifications (IPC, ECLA, ICO, IDT, and national classifications, including US). INPAFAMDB and INPADOCDB share the same source data and content but differ with respect to data structure:

• INPAFAMDB - all data belonging to one invention (one family) are indexed as one record 
• INPADOCDB - all publications from one authority for one application are indexed as one record 

Patent families are defined in INPAFAMDB as the extended INPADOC patent family, i.e., all publications that are directly or indirectly linked via a priority application number. Approximately 36 million records (inventions) with 65 million publications are currently available in INPAFAMDB. 

INPAFAMDB records include: 

• Bibliographic information for all family members from 81 patent authorities, including 12.6 million English abstracts for 8.5 million families (approximately 30% of the database)
• Fully integrated legal status for 51 patent authorities, including the seven categories assigned by FIZ Karlsruhe to simplify legal status searches 
• Citations from 13 patent authorities