Number of claims coverage in patstat - 2015b update

This is an update to a previous post issued in 2012 (see here)

	EP	US
1975		0,981
1976		0,9856
1977		0,9962
1978	1	0,9969
1979	0,9995	0,997
1980	0,9224	0,9978
1981	0,885	0,997
1982	0,8428	0,9965
1983	0,8436	0,9956
1984	0,8116	0,9959
1985	0,7952	0,9959
1986	0,7545	0,9937
1987	0,7094	0,9941
1988	0,7166	0,992
1989	0,7169	0,992
1990	0,7006	0,9942
1991	0,6621	0,9939
1992	0,6767	0,9947
1993	0,733	0,9935
1994	0,7644	0,9934
1995	0,7275	0,9948
1996	0,7342	0,9956
1997	0,6783	0,9955
1998	0,6522	0,9954
1999	0,6209	0,9964
2000	0,5486	0,9956
2001	0,5827	0,7706
2002	0,5867	0,5061
2003	0,5828	0,4662
2004	0,5562	0,4202
2005	0,5646	0,3626
2006	0,5732	0,4103
2007	0,5609	0,3863
2008	0,55	0,3725
2009	0,5262	0,3743
2010	0,5404	0,4295
2011	0,583	0,4437
2012	0,5606	0,4657
2013	0,5594	0,4803
2014	0,5323	0,4788
2015	0,5023	0,4683

this is the sql query to get all coverage by publication authority
(this version has @ line 18 a filter for EP and US: you can remove it if you like to double check whether other patent offices data are loaded)

Select
  t11.PUBLN_AUTH,
  Year(t11.PUBLN_DATE) As pubyear,
  ifnull(a.n_pat_c,0)/Count(Distinct t11.APPLN_ID) As claim_perc
From
  patstat.tls211_pat_publn t11 left join
(Select
  t11.PUBLN_AUTH,
  Year(t11.PUBLN_DATE) As pubyear,
  Count(Distinct t11.APPLN_ID) As n_pat_c
From
  patstat.tls211_pat_publn t11
Where
  t11.PUBLN_CLAIMS > 0
Group By
  t11.PUBLN_AUTH, Year(t11.PUBLN_DATE)) as a
on a.publn_auth=t11.PUBLN_AUTH and a.pubyear=Year(t11.PUBLN_DATE)
where t11.PUBLN_AUTH in ("EP","US")
Group By
  t11.PUBLN_AUTH, Year(t11.PUBLN_DATE)

About number of claims in Patstat

A valuable piece of information contained in TLS212_pat_publn is the number of claims.

This info also can change with the publication status, following the examination procedure that may reduce their number.

Unfortunately this info is availabe only for EP and US published patents. Citing the Patstat data handbook:
"Data sources for number of claims: The number of claims for EPO and US publications are taken from special data feeds directly from EP and USPTO."

Patent claims in Patstat

Recently available, the count of patent claims in TLS211 in patstat, looks like a very promising piece of information.

Coverage of such data is quite good, here the counts for the two publication authorities covered:

 

EP	2669148
US	4574142

About time coverage here are the figures for last 30 yrs in percentage (consider obviously that some publication kinds do not have a figure for claims) on allover US and EP patstat publications, by publication year

1978	99,7%	1996	84,0%
1979	97,7%	1997	81,3%
1980	96,8%	1998	81,5%
1981	93,0%	1999	80,0%
1982	90,3%	2000	76,3%
1983	90,3%	2001	68,1%
1984	89,3%	2002	50,6%
1985	87,4%	2003	47,8%
1986	85,6%	2004	44,5%
1987	84,0%	2005	41,2%
1988	82,5%	2006	44,7%
1989	83,2%	2007	42,8%
1990	80,5%	2008	41,8%
1991	78,0%	2009	41,0%
1992	79,1%	2010	45,0%
1993	82,6%	2011	47,2%
1994	85,0%	2012	43,2%
1995	83,1%

Anyway several caveat must be introduced:

1) Number of claims depends on publication language
Same patent, issued in German may have 1 or 2 claims less than in English

2) Number of claims may be different in different publications of same patent

 Take FI patent EP  1186609; in TLS211 for october 2012 you will find

26, 'EP', '        1186609', 'B1', 10, '2008-12-03', 'DE', 1, '0008'
27, 'EP', '        1186609', 'A3', 10, '2002-10-02', 'DE', 0, ''
28, 'EP', '        1186609', 'A2', 10, '2002-03-13', 'DE', 0, '0009'

that means publication kind A2 lists 9 claims, while B1 lists only 8.

And if we check on original documents:

http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/claims?CC=EP&NR=1186609A2&KC=A2&FT=D&ND=3&date=20020313&DB=worldwide.espacenet.com&locale=en_EP


http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/claims?CC=EP&NR=1186609B1&KC=B1&FT=D&ND=4&date=20081203&DB=worldwide.espacenet.com&locale=en_EP

We see in phase B1 one claim has been withdrawn.
Now it depends from our research question to decide if it is better to consider older (A2) or more recent (B1) number of claims.