Finding Documents by Priority Number on TotalPatent One

You can search by priority number on TotalPatent One^®.

Background: What is a Priority Number?
Common Uses for Priority Numbers
Finding Documents by Priority Number
 

Background: What is a Priority Number? 

Applicants may claim priority rights from earlier applications. There are two main concepts that allow an application to claim an earlier priority.

Priority by Foreign Filing: Suppose an inventor files a patent application in the US, then, files the same application in the European Patent Office three months later. Assuming it meets certain requirements, the EP application can claim priority from the US application. The EP patent is treated as if it were filed on the same day as the US application.

Continuation Applications: Suppose an inventor files a patent application in the US and then realizes an additional claim that they can include in the patent. Assuming it meets certain requirements, they can submit a second (child) application that claims priority to the first (parent) application. The child application receives a unique application number but claims priority to the parent's application number. If the application has been published and falls within the coverage of TotalPatent One, the application will be available.

A group of patents with the same priority is called a family. For more information, see Patent Families on TotalPatent One.

Formats are identical to application numbers. A priority number is the invention's own application number if it does not claim priority to a parent. If it does claims priority to another (parent) application, then the priority number is the parent's application number.
 

[ Top ]
 

Common Uses for Priority Numbers 

Priority numbers form families: To find a list of documents that share the same priority number, use the PRIORITY field. For more information, see Finding Documents by Priority Number, below. Alternatively, open a document with the priority number you are interested in and click Family. The Family View of a patent lists documents that share priority. Note: Some documents contain multiple priority numbers. For more information, see Patent Families on TotalPatent One.

Provisional applications: You may need to locate a provisional application. TotalPatent^® does not carry provisional applications, but published applications and/or granted patents may use the provisional application number to claim priority. For more information, see Finding Documents by Priority Number, below.
 

[ Top ]
 

Finding Documents by Priority Number 

Run the following search to find documents that claim priority to US provisional application 08603536:

Multiple Priority Dates

Documents may have multiple priority dates caused by provisional applicatons. When searching by priority date, the results list may show dates outside the scope of your search. Why? Because we can only show the earliest priority date for each document in the results list.  When you open the original PDF you find that the priority date you searched for is part of the array of priority information in the document.

For example, US20050186205A1.  The Bibliographic Information, at the top of the full-text patent, displays the latest priority date which is 10/04/2004 for this patent. However, the Related U.S. Application Data in the original PDF indicates that continuation data for this patent takes the priorty date back to 11/13/1992. It is recommended to display the Priority Date column in the results list so that you can view the earliest Priority Date. To display the Priority Date column, select Priority Date in the Preferred results fields section of Preferences.

[ Top ]