patstat: counting applications by patent office

This is an answer to a very simple question: how many patent offices are listed in patstat and how many applications from each of them?
By aggregating the data we get the table I'm posting here below, containing 174 application authorities (data from 10/2009 patstat version). When considering instead only those who have more than 1000 applications, the figure decreases to 78 patent offices.
Some will notice that among the 174 the achronim WO (WIPO/PCT patent office) does not appear. This is because WO pubblications always result from an application to a local patent office (domestic or EP) where the PCT procedure is applied. The extent of this practice will be subject of one further post.

APPLN_AUTH	count
	1
AE	36
AF	1
AL	3
AM	147
AN	2
AP	4742
AR	79581
AT	1028408
AU	1553990
AZ	105
BA	344
BB	5
BD	9
BE	642989
BG	53602
BH	1
BI	9
BO	10
BR	496326
BS	2
BW	1
BX	105
BY	761
BZ	1
CA	2580140
CG	3
CH	1055204
CI	2
CL	4453
CM	7
CN	2803867
CO	222
CR	379
CS	166312
CU	2843
CY	2621
CZ	66921
DD	266209
DE	6792342
DK	429570
DM	12
DO	191
DZ	1547
EA	13114
EC	4949
EE	6251
EG	11450
EM	4254
EP	2388584
ER	6
ES	902689
FI	271371
FR	2917043
GA	2
GB	3319126
GC	420
GD	3
GE	186
GH	7
GI	5
GM	10
GN	8
GR	97444
GT	1301
HK	69450
HN	10
HR	11297
HT	7
HU	137061
IB	65369
ID	14768
IE	91248
IL	160970
IN	66238
IQ	14
IR	88
IS	7797
IT	708724
JM	6
JO	22
JP	16282860
KE	1392
KG	19
KP	60
KR	1659443
KZ	477
LB	109
LI	22
LK	152
LR	3
LS	3
LT	3651
LU	68491
LV	4835
LY	2
MA	10092
MC	2789
MD	4586
MG	1
MK	87
MN	246
MO	1
MR	1
MT	566
MU	7
MW	739
MX	162007
MY	11106
NE	3
NG	19
NI	207
NL	607873
NN	4
NO	226939
NP	2
NR	2
NZ	109638
OA	12934
OM	1
PA	2108
PE	431
PH	23261
PK	147
PL	233730
PT	81034
PY	12
RH	40
RO	61095
RS	73
RU	394084
SA	73
SB	1
SC	1
SD	67
SE	831377
SG	51063
SH	1
SI	17619
SK	23261
SL	2
SM	44
SN	10
SO	1
SR	3
ST	1
SU	1249050
SV	692
SY	44
SZ	4
TH	260
TJ	375
TM	2
TN	269
TR	42800
TT	52
TW	369739
TZ	1
UA	50213
US	11376401
UY	6573
UZ	53
VA	6
VE	100
VN	240
WO	5065
XH	1242
XP	16
YE	1
YU	33687
ZA	256542
ZM	2742
ZR	1
ZW	2909

converting patstat text fields into plain ascii

Due to the many different sources of data, the text fields in patstat (especially in table TLS206 containing names and adresses of applicants & inventors) would containg a lot of non-ascii chars;

In case anybody would need, this is a simple version for standardizing to plain ascii characters; be aware that using this table on patents titles or abstracts could lead to unexpected results.

-->

NONASCII	ASCII	DESCRIPTION
Ç	C	Ç CEDILLE
É	E	é
Ö	O	ö
Ü	U	ü
Ä	A	ä
À	A	à
Ú	U	ú
Á	A	á
Î	I	î
Å	A	å
È	E	è
Ã	A	Ã
Â	A	Â
Ë	E	Ë
Ø	O	Ø
Ó	O	Ó
Ñ	N	Ñ N TILDE
Ê	E	Ê
Ô	O	Ô
Æ	AE	Æ
ß	SS	ß
Í	I	I
Ï	I	Ï
Õ	O	Õ
¢	C	¢
Û	U	Û
†	A	Ä
š	U	ü
.O SLASHED.	O	Ø
.ANG.	A	å
{ACUTE OVER (M)}	M	M
{HACEK OVER (S)}	S	Š
{HACEK OVER (C)}	C	Č
{HACEK OVER (Z)}	Z	Ž
{UMLAUT OVER (S)}	S	S
{UMLAUT OVER (C)}	C	C

Obviously there is another problem that is "how non ascii characters are incorporated in the txt fields?"
If we deal with table TLS206_PERSON this problem has a high relevance but we can highlight it by seeking for the char  (FI « = AE) and we may use a table like the one made by Julio Raffo on
http://wiki.epfl.ch/patstat/corrupted

If we use TLS206_ascii the problem is not relevant.

Legal status forthcoming in patstat?

Legal status informations, taken from INPADOC database, describe designated states, extension, examination process and so on; in short refer to the entries and procedural steps occurring during the patent grant procedure and the subsequent life of a patent. These are normally published in the patent gazette of the patent-granting country or organisation concerned.

FI for patent EP 1.000.000 you can find here the legal status of the patent.

Each record is described by a PRS code.
For current code explanations please go to the download section under "Legal status codes in English".
Legal code classifications can be found in the download section under "Classification of recently used PRS codes" .

Nowadays this informations are not included in PATSTAT; this is what Geert Boedt posted on patstat forum.

Following the "Patent statistics for decision makers" conference, the EPO has had many requests to link legal status data to PATSTAT.
Some PATSTAT customers already have experience in linking these datasets and we understand several other users are considering carrying out work in this area.
In order to avoid unnecessary double work, the EPO is looking into possibilities to adapt the INPADOC database such that it could be easily linked to PATSTAT.
It would of course be helpful if you would like to share any experiences or user requests with the PATSTAT user community and the EPO.
If you have any suggestions on how you might like to use PATSTAT in conjunction with INPADOC Legal Status Data, we would like to hear from you.

So there's hope in the next future to see legal data inserted in PATSTAT.