The summary is one way of viewing results of a patent search. The summary allows you to examine your search results with extra information. Summary of an individual patent presents a quick extracted view of the most important pieces of information of the patent. It contains the key information about the patent.
Locations
Result List
The expanded view of each document on the result list page provides a summary of the document. Clicking on expand icon next to individual items will expand the patent summary information for an item on the result page.
Individual Patent
Clicking on each patent title on the result page will take you to the individual patent record page where the summary tab is the default display. This page provides you all the information on the individual patent document.
How To Use
Share Patent
On the toolbar of the patent summary you can find a “Share Patent” button. Clicking on the button will allow you to share the patent document to the major social media platform. You can also get the link to share the document. Get more information on sharing.
Add/Remove/Create Collection
On the toolbar of the summary you can find an option to create a collection, add individual documents to the collection or remove documents from the collection. You can find separate buttons for each of these actions. Get more information on Collection.
Add Note
“Make Note” button on the toolbar of the summary page allows you to annotate your finding with the note. A pop up will appear on clicking the button from where you can add a note to the document. Get more information on Notes.
Record Inventorship
Claiming an individual patent can be done via the inventor tool-tips on the summary tab of the patent. The inventor tool-tips will appear upon hovering over the name, press the Record Authorship button in the tool-tip to record inventorship and claim the patent inventorship.
Download Citation
In an individual patent page, you can click the “Download Citation” button in the toolbar. Clicking Download Citation will lead to a pop-up window with the title ‘Download Citation’. Here you will be able to select from a range of options to download your citation results. Get more information on Download Citation.
Summary View
Clicking on each patent on the result page will take you to the new page where the summary tab is the landing page. This page provides you all the information on the document.
Download PDF
If there is a PDF available for this document you can download the PDF file of the patent for your future use. To download, click the “Download PDF” button found on the top right corner of the summary view of the patent. Note that on some web browsers you may need to right-click the link and select “Save as..” or “Downloading Linked File as…”.
Anatomy of Summary Page
Title Bar (a)
The title bar for each document describes its key information. The title bar contains the following information about the patent:
- Title
The title of the document is shown at the top of its result box. The title of a patent does not need to describe what the patent is about with any degree of specificity. For example, US Patent Number 6,875,872 is simply titled “Compounds.” Because of this, people who work with patents almost always refer to patents by number, as it is the only consistent way to identify a patent. - Jurisdiction & Document Type
On the right of the result box you can see each patent’s Jurisdiction (flag and code), full document number, document type and Lens ID. Clicking on the document number will take you to that document’s Summary Page. - Publication Date
The publication date is displayed under the title, you can also see it on the right under the document history. - Family Size
The size of this document’s international simple family is shown next to the publication date below the title. Clicking on this number will take you to this document’s Family Information Page. - Non-Patent Citations
Next along the row under the title is the number of non-patent citations the document has. Clicking on this number will take you to the document’s Citations Page. - Number of Citations Within the Document
Next along the row under the title is the number of patents cited by the patent. Clicking on this number will take you to the document’s patent cited by page. - Number of Times this Document has been Cited
Next along the row under the title is the number of patents citing the patent. Clicking on this number will take you to the document’s patent citing page.
Tabs (b)
Just below the title bar you will find the various tabs for exploring the document. They are:
- Summary Tab
Contains key information about the document. - Full-Text Tab
Contains full OCR’d text from the patent where available. - Citations Tabs
Contains citations both to and from this document. - Family Information Tab
Contains information about this document’s simple family. - Sequences Tab
Contains all sequences declared within this document. - Legal Information Tab
Contains all legal information associated with this patent via OPS. - Collections Tab
Contains the list of all the public collections in which the patent document exists. - Notes Tab
Contains all the notes you have added to this patent. You can also add more notes by clicking on the “New Note” button available on the page.
Some of these tabs will not appear when there is no information displayed within them. For example, patents that do not declare sequences will not have a sequences tab.
Toolbar (c)
Just below the various tabs in the patent summary page you will find a toolbar with various functions to perform including share patent, create collection, add to collection, remove from collection, make note and download the patent citation. Get more information on Patent Toolbar.
- Share Patent
On the toolbar of the patent summary you can find a “Share Patent” button. Clicking on the button will allow you to share the patent document to the major social media platform. You can also get the link to share the document. Get more information on sharing. - Add/Remove/Create Collection
On the toolbar of the summary you can find an option to create a collection, add individual documents to the collection or remove documents from the collection. You can find separate buttons for each of these actions. Get more information on Collection. - Add Note
The “Make Note” button on the toolbar of the summary page allows you to annotate your finding with the note. A pop up will appear on clicking the button from where you can add a note to the document. Get more information on Notes. - Download Citation
In an individual patent page, you can click the “Download Citation” button in the toolbar. Clicking Download Citation will lead to a pop-up window with the title ‘Download Citation’. Here you will be able to select from a range of options to download your citation results. Get more information on Download Citation.
- Add Tags
The “Tags” button on the toolbar of the summary page allows you to add tags to label, organise and add filters to patents. You can type multiple tags separated by comma. Get more information on Tags. - Search Family
The “Search Family” button on the toolbar of the summary page allows you to search for the collection of patent application covering the same or similar technical content.
Download PDF (d)
If there is a PDF available for this document you can download the PDF file of the patent for your future use. To download, click the “Download PDF” button found on the top right corner of the summary view of the patent. Note that on some web browsers you may need to right-click the link and select “Save as..” or “Downloading Linked File as…”.
Document Preview (e)
Below the document history is the document preview, shown when a preview is available. By clicking on a page shown in the document preview you can browse through the original patent document in image form. Here you are provided with the following options:
- View As a PDF
To the left of the document preview page you can find the button “View as PDF” which allows you to view the document in the pdf format. You can view the image form of the document clicking on the same button.
- Download PDF
You can download the PDF file of the patent for your future use from the document preview page as well. To download, click “Download PDF” button on the left of the document preview page.
- Add New Note
You can attach notes to the individual patent document from the document preview page as well. To add note you can merely click on the “Add New Note” button available on the left of the page. All your notes added to the document will be shown on the left of the page.
Document History (f)
On the right-hand side of the document’s result box is the document history. This section displays the publication date / document number, application date / document number, and priority date/ document number.
Abstract (g)
The abstract of a patent is a short summary that communicates the essence of the invention. Abstracts are written so that those with a background in the field can easily understand it. Abstracts are useful mainly for searching patent databases. The person searching should quickly be able to get a sense of what the invention is about so that they can decide whether they need to read the rest of the document. While the abstract describes your invention and says how it can be used, it does not discuss the scope of your claims. In the individual patent page the abstract of the document is displayed if it is available in our database. Search terms found in this text will be highlighted in red.
Claims (h)
The claims define the scope of the protection conferred by a patent, or the protection sought in a patent application. In most modern patent laws, patent applications must have at least one claim, which are critical defining elements of the patent and the primary subject of examination. In some patent laws however, a date of filing may be obtained for an application which does not contain any claim. The claims of the document are listed here for viewing. Search terms found in this text will be highlighted in red.
Owners (i)
According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the patent owner is the entity who has authority to file patent applications and take action in a pending application. Once the patent issues, the owner of a patent enjoys significant commercial benefits, as they have the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the claimed invention. In the summary page of the patent provided by the Lens, hovering over the owner name will give you two options: you can filter your current search to only include documents where this owner is listed, or you can create a new search for all patent documents with this owner.
Applicants (j)
The “applicant” is the person and/or entity that submits a patent application to a national or international patent office. Applicants are typically the inventors along with the institution that sponsored the research, such as the university or company for which one or more of the inventor’s work. In the US, the applicant must be an inventor, but this is not true in most other jurisdictions. In Lens, the applicants for the patent are displayed in the summary of an individual patent document. Upon hovering over an applicant name you can filter your current search to only include documents where this applicant is listed, or you can create a new search for all patent documents with this applicant.
Inventors (k)
In the United States, an inventor is someone who made a contribution to the conception of the invention. The inventor of a patent is legally determined. The Inventors for the patent are displayed here. Hovering over an inventor’s name will give you two options: you can filter your current search to only include documents where this inventor is listed, or you can create a new search for all patent documents with this inventor. You can also record your inventorship for the patent upon hovering over an applicant name. Get more information on inventorship.
- Recording Inventorship
Claiming an individual patent can be done via the inventor tooltips on the summary tab of the patent. The inventor tooltips will appear upon hovering over the name, press the Record Authorship button in the tooltip to record inventorship and claim the patent inventorship.
Examiners
Examiner information has been extracted from the front page of full text US patent documents. Here the name and department of the primary, assistant and all listed examiners is displayed.
Agent and Attorney Details
Agent and Attorney information has been extracted from the front page of full text patent documents. You can launch new search or filter current search by agents from here. Address and the country of the agent / attorney is also provided here.
IPC Classifications (l)
The International Patent Classification (IPC) provides for a hierarchical system of language independent symbols for the classification of patents and utility models according to the different areas of technology to which they pertain. The IPC classifications the document has been classified under are listed here. Hovering over a classification number will give you three options: you can filter your current search to only include documents which have this classification, or you can create a new search for all patent documents with this classification, or you can view the patent classification in patent classification viewer.
CPC Classification
The Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) is a patent classification system, which has been jointly developed by the European Patent Office (EPO) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The CPC classification this document has been classified under are listed here. Hovering over a classification number will give you three options: you can filter your current search to only include documents which have this classification, or you can create a new search for all patent documents with this classification, or you can view the patent classification in patent classification viewer.
US Classifications
The US classifications this document has been classified under are listed here. Hovering over a classification number will give you two options: you can filter your current search to only include documents which have this classification, or you can create a new search for all patent documents with this classification.
N.B. Patent Family
A patent family is a collection of patent applications covering the same or similar technical content. The EPO uses an automated process to build patent families based on applications’ priority claims. In the Lens, in some cases, we only have limited information for a patent. When this happens, the system will automatically check for simple family members which we do have information for. If a simple family member with better information is found, a note explaining this is added to the document’s result box linking to the family member. We also use this document as a replacement for the PDF download and document preview.