Assigned Portfolio | PatentBuddy

A portfolio is a user-created list of patents shown under the Porfolio(s) tab for your review, which may also lead to analytics specifically tailored to that list. You can use the Portfolio(s) tab's search functions to quickly add patents either on their own, from owners/inventors or portfolios you have previously created, it's quick and easy to build a portfolio that suits you. The portfolio naming convention is also user-selected. You can create a portfolio of your own patents, patents you want to study, competitors' patents you want to track and more. In addition, you can use tags to put your own labels on patents to more easily sort them.

Add/Manage Portfolios

Patents

1. Add Patents:Use this option to search for patents to add to your portfolio by searching for a specific patent or publication number. The search does not require an exact match and will search through all patents that begin with the exact digits the user enters. After running the search you can choose from the listed results, which patents to add by checking the box to their left and by clicking "Add Selected to My Portfolio" at the bottom of the page. Patents can also be added through any other method of search. Once the desired patent is found just click the green "Add to Portfolios" button to add to the selected portfolio.

2. Add All Patents from an Owner: Use this option to search for a specific patent owner or assignee. It operates much the same as the patent owner search function, where you can type in part or the entire name. The search does not require an exact match and will search through all owners and assignees that begin with the characters the user enters. After running the search you can choose from the listed results which owners or assignees and their associated patents to add. You may also create a portfolio and add all of the patents from a patent owner or assignee by using the search tool for patent owners. Once the desired patent is found, click on the green "Create Portfolio" button to add all of the patent owner's patents into a newly created portfolio.

3. Add all Patents from an Inventor: Use this option to search for a specific Inventor. It operates almost the same as the inventor search where you must enter an exact match of their first or last name. After running the search you can choose from the listed results which inventors to add by checking the respective boxes and clicking "Add Selected to My Portfolio" at the bottom of the page. You may also create a portfolio and add all of the patents from that inventor by using the search tool for inventors. Once the desired inventor is found click on the green "Create Portfolio" button to add all of the inventor's patents into the newly created portfolio.

4. Add Patents from Portfolio: Use this option to add patents from portfolios you have created previously to the portfolio you are currently editing. You can select portfolios using the drop-down function as well as "migrate" the tags you have placed on patents within those portfolios. You can either transfer all of the patents within a portfolio or select specific patents to transfer from a portfolio by clicking the box on the left. To finish the transfer for either all or only some of the patents you must click "Add Selected to Portfolio" at the bottom of the page. You can also search for patents with specific tags and transfer those to your portfolio by typing the tag in the search bar and clicking "Search." This will find only the patents with that specific tag, and then you may select those patents you would like to add by checking the box to the left and clicking "Add Selected to Portfolio."

Delete Patents/Apps from Portfolio

Sort

Refine and Filter

Tags

Follow

Load PAIR Data

Portfolio Owners

Portfolio Inventors

The website's front page is a convenient landing page for visitors of all kinds; both newly registered and/or experienced users. This page not only quickly guides new users to register, but also provides immediate access to most of the search options provided inside the site as well as some unique search features. Users can see right away the great breadth and depth of the website's data.

Patents

Inventors

Patent Owner

Technology

The Update Summary tab includes status updates for each followed category and the associated aggregated update total. Selecting a link will take you to the Watches tab where you can see a list of the selected status update type. For a more detailed account about what is shown when you follow a page, see the Watches tab. (Reference: Watches Tab).

Patent Status Updates

Patent Owner Status Updates

Inventor Status Updates

Technology Status Updates

Technology Subclass Status Updates

PTO File (PAIR) Status Updates

The website's analytics are not limited to pages with official patent information. In a way, you are getting the analytics you are looking for customized to a selection that is not limited to a specific owner or inventor. The Portfolio Analytics tab provides multiple ways for you to analyze the patents placed into a portfolio. All the different types of analytics are supplied in a bar directly beneath the Portfolio Analytics tab once clicked.

Overview

Each portfolio will have its own Overview page. Using the arrow at the top right of the section can collapse each section.

The top section lists how many applications have been filed, the total applications pending, the total U.S. patents in force and the date of the most recent publication. This summary provides a quick overview of the patents in your portfolio.

Details shows the total citation count in the portfolio, the total number of patents that have expired and the total number of patents that have been abandoned.

Technologies section shows what technology classes the patents in the current portfolio belong to, listing them by class, description, number of patents and rank in class. Rank in class identifies where this portfolio ranks as to the number of applications and issued patents in that technology class. This organization allows you to quickly see a graphical breakdown of the major technology classes in which patents within your portfolio belong, starting with the largest. The links underneath each technology allows you to see subclasses and top owners of that class. It also allows you to quickly begin review on either that class or the top owners of that class.

The next section lists top patents by forward citation. This is a convenient way to compare the significance of the patents in your portfolio without having to dig to find the number of citations for each, as well as an informal ranking. They are listed by patent number, title, filing date, issue/publication date, international class, and total number of times cited.

The next section includes the most recent forward citations. This is an excellent way to track citations to portfolio patents as they occur. The patents are listed by patent number, title, total number of citations and the month/year of last citation.

The last section lists the top inventors for the patents included in the current portfolio. This is useful if you want to see a comparison of the more prolific inventors for the patents you have added. They are listed by name (last name/first name), address (city/state/country) and number of patents in force within the portfolio.

Patents

Portfolio Owners

Citations

Composition and Trends

The Composition & Trends section will provide you with many different analytics such as global distribution and portfolio age. The top section specifies the number of U.S. patents filed and U.S. patents granted within each portfolio. The following section is a bar graph comparing the total filing and issuance activity by year. The default is the number of matters filed over the year range provided. However, if you click “U.S.: Patents Granted” below the graph a second grouping of bars will be added to the graph indicating the number of patents granted. You can also just look at the number of patents granted by clicking “U.S.: Filings” below the graph to remove all bars representing the patent filings.

Clicking the magnifying glass in the upper right hand corner of the graph may enlarge this graph. If you hover your cursor over any of the bars it will show you the number of matters for that specific year; clicking the bar will bring you to a separate screen listing all of the patent filings or grants dependent upon which bar is selected. In addition, you can view this graph by tags you have placed on patents within your portfolio. By clicking “On” next to the “Show By Tag” link and clicking on the desired tag to view within the graph, you can view the bar graph by tags.

Next, the Portfolio Age section allows you to see the number of pending matters and granted matters by year in two separate bar graphs. The bar graph on the left displays pending matters by year and the bar graph on the right shows granted matters by year. If you hover your cursor above a bar it will provide you with the number of matters pending or granted for that specific year. By clicking one of the bars, the site will take you to a screen listing the patents either granted or pending for that year. Lastly, the Global Portfolio Distribution section highlights the countries the patents in your portfolio are issued or pending. The locations in which the patent is issued or pending are indicated in black.

Portfolio Inventors

PAIR Analytics

The PAIR Analytics section provides users with a wealth of information concerning the prosecution and file type. This is the only section of the site that relies on PAIR information. If you have not downloaded PAIR information for a portfolio, PAIR analytics will not show complete information. As previously stated in Analytics;Patents, you can load the PAIR data for an entire portfolio or only the pending applications, which can be done in the PAIR Analytics section using the same procedure as performed on the Patent page. However, you are unable to enable automatic updates from this page, which must be done from the Patent page itself. You can also purchase the entire PAIR history for a patent.

The PAIR Analytics section begins with a drop-down box, which allows you to either analyze the data by “All Pending Apps” or “All Dispositions.” The following sections are highly affected by the category chosen from the drop-down box. If you chose “All Pending Apps” the next section is titled “U.S. Prosecution Summary.” The summary will provide you with the number of applications awaiting prosecution, presently in prosecution, under appeal and currently allowed.

Subsequently, you will find 5 bar graphs that explain the prosecution of the pending applications in more detail. The first graph provides the number of matters in prosecution by the number of office actions received. An office action is the USPTO’s response to a filed patent application.

The next graph allows you to see the number of matters by the number of responses and case interviews. The following graph provides you with the number of matters in prosecution with a restriction requirement per year. A restriction requirement exists when a patent was filed and the examiner saw two or more ideas within the application. The patents with a restriction requirement may not have all of their ideas patented yet, as the patent applicant may have only chosen one idea to patent and the applicant did not follow up the other ideas.

The subsequent graph shows the number of matters by the number of RCEs (request for continued examination) filed. A request for continued examination is a filing that asks the USPTO to continue examining an application after it has been rejected.

The fifth graph shows the number of allowances by the number of office action responses filed. An allowance is when the patent examiner determines that the patent application’s subject matter is patentable. After this it is procedural for the USPTO to have the application become a patent. However, between these periods an applicant can return to examination for a variety of reasons.

All of the graphs in this section can be magnified by clicking the magnifying glass in the upper right hand corner of each graph. In addition, if you hover your cursor above any bar it will provide you with the number the bar represents and if clicked it will take you to a list of the patents the bar represents.

The above section on PAIR analytics dealt with pending applications while the following portion discusses PAIR analytics for all dispositions during a specific date range. If you chose “All Dispositions” in the drop-down box, a date range will appear next to this box. This allows you to chose the time frame from which you would like to see the dispositions. Your choices are within the past year, within the past two years or custom, which allows you to choose a start and end date. The section following this will be titled “U.S. Prosecution Disposition Summary.” The summary gives you the total dispositions, the number granted and the number abandoned within the date range chosen.

Next, you will find 6 bar graphs explaining the prosecution of the dispositions in more detail. Similar to “All Pending Apps” you will be provided with bar graphs pertaining to number of dispositions by office actions received, the number of dispositions by office action and case interview responses filed, the number of matters with restriction requirements during the specified period, the number of dispositions by number of RCEs filed and the number of allowances by the number of office action responses filed for the period. The sixth graph displays the percentage of time a response leads to an allowance. This is a helpful tool because it shows how effectively office action responses lead to issued patents upon the number of office actions.

Both “All Pending Apps” and “All Dispositions” display the same File Breakdown section below the bar graphs provided. First, you will see five different categories in which pending applications are sorted into. The first is “U.S. Pending PRV Apps,” which provides the number of pending provisional applications within the US. A provisional application is an informal patent application that gives the patent applicant a year to provide the USPTO with a non-provisional or formal application. The second category is “Pending US NPRV-Converted Apps,” which is the number of pending converted non-provisional applications. A converted non-provisional application is a patent application that was previously a provisional application, but a formal application has since been filed with the USPTO.

Third is the “Pending U.S. NPRV-No Priority Apps,” which are non-provisional applications that do not have a previously filed provisional application. The fourth category is “Pending U.S. CON/DIV/CIP Apps.” A CON/DIV/CIP application is a technical “descendant” of its NPRV. The CON or continuation application is a patent application filed by an applicant who wants to pursue additional claims to an invention disclosed in an earlier application of the applicant’s "parent" application that has not yet been issued or abandoned. A DIV or divisional application claims a distinct or independent invention "carved out" of the parent application. A CIP or continuation-in-part application is an application in which the applicant adds subject matter not disclosed in the parent application, but repeats substantial portion of the parent's specification.

The final category is “Pending U.S. Nat’l Stage Apps,” which provides for patents filed in a foreign country but is now entering the U.S. patent system within the required time span.

All of these categories except “Pending U.S. PRV Apps” can be found on the graph provided below titled “Filing Type Breakdown – By Year.” You can look at a single category by clicking on its link below the graph, a couple, or all depending on the number of links selected. You can also compare the patents by tag by clicking “On” next to “Compare By Tag.” This allows you to compare patents with a specific tag within the categories you select. The graph can be magnified by clicking on the magnifying glass in the upper right hand corner of the graph.

Delayed Office Action Responses: see how many matters have had a late response to an office action (requiring paid extensions for taking over 3 months) from your PAIR Analytics page.

Technology Class and Subclass

The search tools are designed to provide you with the options to locate patents, patent owners, inventors and entities related to patents in a readily accessible search browser that in most cases can be refined further to quickly obtain exactly what you are looking for. Additionally, you can save your common searches to more easy run them again and follow searches to get notifications of changes in your search resutlts as they happen

Patents

1. Search

Patents can be searched for by word(s) the patent contains or patent/application number. For example, a word may be "mutagen," a patent number 7,552,243 or a publication number 20080262568. Simply type in the words or numbers in the Search bar and hit "Search." This is the simplest, yet quickest way to locate patents.

The Advanced Search function allows you to filter results by issue/publication date range, patent owner, serial number or words the patent contains. The date range initiates a drop-down calendar with earliest available date as 1/1/1980. Similar to the refine/filter function with the Portfolio Analytics tab, advanced searching allows you to greatly reduce search results down to those most relevant.

Results are listed by U.S. patent/application number, title, patent owner and issue/publication date. They are listed in descending order from most recently published/issued. You can refine the search to a certain publication/issue date range. Like the advanced search function, you can either select dates from the calendar or type them in by hand.

This is helpful when you find a large number of results that match what you were searching for in regards to subject, but desire to narrow them down to those newer/older or from another date range.

2. Patent Profile Page

i. Basic Information - The Basic Information section quickly informs you of some basic but important information, such as issue date, filing date, serial number, and its present status. There will be a link to either the application of a patent if issued, or the granted version of an application if you choose to download the PDF. In the case of issued patents, a link to the publication number may also be shown if you are interested in viewing the published application record as well.

ii. Watches - After you have selected a given patent or application; the selected page provides you with various functions. The Patent page displays a button allowing you to quickly follow the patent, add it to your portfolio(s), load or follow the patent’s PAIR data and promptly download the patent as a PDF.

iii. Importance Metrics - With millions of issued patents and applications published each year, it can be hard to determine which patents/applications one should focus his or her attention. While there can be several factors, objective and subjective, that play into determining the importance of a patent, the importance metrics attempt to provide a rough estimate of the relevancy of a given patent based on four factors. Note this does not mean a low overall importance score equals an irrelevant patent. This should be merely used as an informative tool.

The Importance Metrics section shows via points an overall score for the patent. The overall score is a combination of the following factors, which are also represented by points: 1) U.S. family size, 2) international coverage, 3) longevity and 4) forward citations. These metrics are meant to be a brief but useful indicator on the significance of the patent.

iv. Abstract - An abstract is a short summary of the patent or application written in one paragraph provided at the beginning of the application. The information an abstract contains is a condensed version of the patent or takes out the essence of the intellectual property in a description. We strive to provide a concise but informative description of the intellectual property, and provide the most relevant illustration contained in the patent's document. The remainder of submitted art and figures are viewable in the PDF.

v. Claims - The First Claim section states the first claim within the patent or application. A patent claim defines, in technical terms, the extent of the protection conferred by a patent or the extent of the protection sought in a patent application. The full listing of claims are viewable when you click "All Claims" at the bottom right of the first claim.

vi. Related Publications - This section shows related publications of this patent worldwide, displaying a world map including countries with their own publications in black. This is a visual way to determine a patent’s international coverage. A circle labeled “EP” is highlighted black if the patent is covered under European Patent Office and a rectangle labeled “PCT” is highlighted black if the patent is covered under the Patent Cooperation Treaty.

Below the map is a listing of all related patents/applications, both US and foreign, listed by country (two letter country code U.S., AU, etc.),.kind (a letter and number combination used to distinguish patents and level of publication), publication number, and title. Countries use multiple different kind codes. For example, the U.S. uses USPTO kind codes as designated under WIPO Stat. 16. However, Europe uses A1, A2, A3, and types B, which all have separate meanings.

Near this map you can create a portfolio for the patent’s U.S. family by clicking “Create Family Portfolio” at the top of the list. This will group all of the patents within the current patent’s family into a portfolio.

vii. Patent Owner - The Patent Owners section shows a listing of which entity currently owns this particular patent, the original owner and any other previous owners. You can visit the patent owner's page directly from this menu, which is helpful if you want to discover more about the companies, organizations or individuals who own patents like the ones you are searching. The patents are listed by name, location (city, state/country), and total number of patents.

viii. International Class - The International Classification(s) section provides analytics showing which technology class/classes a patent belongs. A pie chart shows the class, how many total patents are in that class and the top owners in that class (number and percentage). Not only is this a quick way to find out more about the technology class a patent belongs to, but is also helpful in determining the top owners (and thus competitors) for a type of technology.

ix. Matters Filed Graph - Underneath is an expandable bar graph showing the number of matters filed within the technology class by year, with the year this patent was filed highlighted in gold. You can thus quickly find the year this patent was filed, as well as viewing possible trends (growth, decline, constant) for this technology class.

x. Inventors - The Inventors section provides a list of the inventors cited as having ownership over this patent. They are listed by name (last name/first name), address (city, state/country), number of filed patents and total number of citations. You can visit the Inventor Profile page by clicking the linked inventor’s name. Through this listing, you can quickly identify the most prolific and/or influential inventors.

xi. Cited Art Landscape - The Cited Art Landscape section shows a layered bar graph of which patent owners have been cited to, by year, from first cited to most recently cited. The colors each represent a particular company. The higher an owner is on the bar, the more they have been cited to.

Under the chart is a list of these owners, stating their name, a listing of cited patents, the total number of citations for the given cited art and the art’s filing year. This section is meant to show the patents this patent has cited to and from what time frame. It is also a quick way to identify influential patent owners.

xii. Patent Citation Ranking - The Patent Citation Ranking section shows how many times this patent has been cited by others, which is stated in the citation count. The analytics compare the patent’s number of citations to others in its class, showing the percentage the patent is cited more than its peers and how many years the patent has been issued.

A bar chart compares citation count to the number of cited patents within a specific range. Hovering your mouse over the bar shows the exact number of patents cited between the indicated ranges.

xiii. Forward Citation Landscape - The Forward Citation Landscape section shows which patent owners have cited to this patent. This section is similar to the Cited Art Landscape section in that it shows a bar graph depicting the filing year from first citation to most recent.

It then lists the owners who have cited to the patent, the patents that cite to this patent, the total number of times this patent has been cited to by others and citing patents and the year the forward citing patent was filed.

xiv. Maintenance Fees - The Maintenance Fees section describes the U.S. maintenance fees that must be paid depending on the size of entity (large - number of employees is over 500, small - number of employees is less than 500 including affiliates, and micro - independent inventors with a gross income in the past calendar year of less than 3 times the national median who have filed no more than four non-provisional patent applications, not including those they were obligated to assign to an employer). Entity status will be determined at the time a maintenance fee is due. All maintenance fee payments previously paid under a certain entity status will not be taken into consideration.

This is a helpful section as it lays out precisely what it would cost for an organization of their size and when.

There are three dates of U.S. payment shown: the 3.5 year, 7.5 year, and 11.5 year renewals. If you click the link “Late Payment Grace Periods & Surcharges,” you will be provided with information regarding the surcharges for late payments within 6 months of the due date, unavoidable late payment after expiration of the patent and unintentional late payment after the patent has expired.

xv. Full Text - Following the Maintenance Fees section, you will be provided with the full text of the patent.

xvi. PTO File (PAIR) Data - Underneath the top section of the Patent page, you can click “PTO File (PAIR)” to obtain detailed PAIR data concerning the patent you are looking at. However, this data may be outdated or not available until you update the PAIR data. See PAIR Analytics.

The top section of PTO File (PAIR) provides a variety of information from the USPTO’s PAIR files. The top bar provides the user with the application number, filing date, application type and the status of the patent or application. Below this bar the user is provided with the name of the examiner for the patent, the attorney docket number, the group art unit, the confirmation number, the patent or application’s class and subclass and the first inventor named on the patent or application.

Below this information is the transaction history of this patent or application. This section provides a transaction description for every event that has occurred during the patent or application’s prosecution. They are listed from the most recent event.

The following section lists the image file wrappers by mailroom date, document type, document description and document category. The file wrappers are not viewable on the website but can be seen on the USPTO’s website. The image file wrappers are listed from most recent.

The next section is Patent Term Adjustments, which allows you to see the total number of times the patent or application has had a patent term adjustment or extension. Following this section is the Continuity Data section that allows you to see any continuity data information concerning either the parent or child applications. The “Parent Continuity Data” subsection lists the applications by description, parent application number, parent filing date, parent patent number and parent status. If you click the “Child Continuity Data” link provides the application number for any child patents of the parent applications.

The next two sections provide information about the firms/departments and attorneys who are the correspondence reference on the patent. First the Correspondence Address section provides the name, address, city, country and postal code for the firm/department who is the correspondence for this patent. Next the Attorney/Agent Information provides the registration number, first and last name and phone number of the attorney/agent who are the individual correspondence references.

xvii. Other Patents with Same Patent Owner - At the top right of each patent page, there are links to see other patents by the same owner. Clicking on a link will take you to that patent’s page.

xviii. Saving to PDF - Some information is included in the PDF but is not featured on the page such as information on patent owner (including address if provided), background, related applications, abstract, figures, referenced patents/applications, related/referenced documents, patent claims, application data, industrial applicability and written description. In order to obtain this information you must download and save the PDF version of the patent by clicking “Download as PDF.”

Owner

This subsection is intended to search for corporations, firms, individuals and other entities that have an ownership interest in patents. They either created the patent, or are assigned ownership. Searching for patent owners is probably the easiest method to look up patents for users not familiar with patent numbering systems. You can locate well-known organizations, and from their page look up patents for the products, technologies, or concepts you are searching for.

You can locate well-known organizations, and from their page look up patents for the products, technologies or concepts you are searching for.

1. Search

Search is by owner name; you can perform an advanced search to add a city name and state/country. You can enter the full name or only part of the owner’s name for your search. Results can be refined further by choosing a state (or non-US state) from the menu and/or typing in a city. Results are listed by name, address (city, state/country), number of patents and number of publications. These options are not just to help users narrow down their search for a specific organization, but can also serve to help identify local competitors. Selecting an owner’s name will take you to the owner’s page, or you can see a list of that owner’s patents via the links on the right.

Note a patent owner with fewer than 10 patents will not appear in the search results initially shown. There is a link with an option to see patent owners with less than ten patents that still match your search results, even though they are not fully profiled on the website.

2. Patent Owner Profile Page

i. Details - The Details section shows the total number of issued patents, those issued in the past 3 years, those published in the past 3 years, total number of citations, the earliest filing and the number of expired/abandoned/withdrawn patents. This is meant to provide quick statistics on an owner's size and activity history.

ii. Technology - The Technologies section lists the owner portfolio of patents by major class, name, number of patents owned in that class and rank within that class. Each major class listed has links to show subclasses and to see the list of top owners for the major class. This is a quick way to determine an owner's specialization(s).

iii. Top Patents - This section shows patents by number, title, filing date, issue date, international class and number of times cited. The patents are listed in descending order by the number of citations. Here users can find out which patents by an owner are most influential at least in regards to citation frequency.

iv. Recent Publications/Patents - These sections show patents by publication/patent number, title, filing date, publication/issue date and international class and list them by most recently published/issued. In both sections, you can visit the patent's/publication’s page by clicking the link. Those issued/published within the past month are colored in yellow. This section is meant to track and display recent patent activity for an owner, both in regards to their new publications and those that have successfully been granted.

In the Recently Published/Issued section, you can use the link at the bottom to see all patents or publications belonging to the owner. The patents/publications are listed in descending order from most recently issued/published. You can refine your search to a certain date range. You can also add all of the owner's patents/publications to a portfolio from this page by selecting the patents you would like to add and clicking "Add Patents to Portfolio." A screen will appear allowing you to select which portfolio you would like to add the patents to or allowing you to create a new portfolio for the patents.

v. Expired/Abandoned/Withdrawn Patents - This section allows you to see all of the patents or publications, which have expired, been abandoned or have been withdrawn by the owner.

vi. Top Inventors - This section shows the top inventors affiliated with this owner, listed by name (last name, first name, middle initial), address (city, country) and number of total patents. You can identify those inventors who have the most extensive history of producing patents for or assigning to this owner. By clicking on an inventor's name, you will be navigated to the inventor’s profile page.

Inventor

1. Search

This search function is intended to locate for inventors based on names. The name searched need to be an exact match to be provided with results. Results are sorted alphabetically by last name. The listing displays name (last name/first name/middle initial), organization (may be multiple) and number of patents filed.

You can do an advanced search by patent owner, patent number, publication number, issue/publication date range, city name, state/country, international class and choose how to group results (name only, name & patent owner, name & city, name & state or no grouping). These options are meant to give users great flexibility in searching for inventors, with the choice of entering as little or as much information as you have to narrow down results. Newer users likely find the ability to advanced search for inventors by patent owner very helpful.

Alternatively, a search using the international class option opens a new pane that allows you to first browse technology classes, select the desired classes, and then search for inventors named in patents for the selected class(es).

You can refine and filter the search by issue/publication date range (gives you drop-down calendar), first name, last name, patent owner (organization/company), patent number (has to be exact match), city name, international tech class name (you can browse for classes in new panel, can select multiple by checking boxes or by entering semi-colons) and by state.

2. Inventor Profile Page

The Inventor Profile page starts by listing the total number of patents issued to him or her, along with the total number filed, and date of most recent filing. The Details section adds date of earliest filing, as well as the total number of times their patents have been cited. It next shows their work history, stating which organization(s) they have worked for and the number of patents they filed by year. You can visit the company's page by selecting the hyperlinked company name.

The next area shows the addresses the inventor has been registered at, and during what date ranges.

The Technology Profile section shows the number of patents issued to that inventor from their respective technology classes. You can visit the technology class page by selecting the hyperlink.

The Patents/Publication section shows patents in descending order of year published/issued. They are listed by number, year of publication/issue, short title, and number of citations.

Technology

1. Search

You can browse international categories by letter, i.e. A for A01B. Searching can also be done for technology classes by four-digit class name or keyword. However, each search criteria requires an exact match. This way users, both novice and expert, have options to quickly identify relevant technology classes.

2. Class Page

The top section on the Class page provides general information about the class including the total number of patents, total number of applications, total number of patent owners, and the total number of inventors. A description section that provides a short summation of the class follows the top section.

The Class page shows recent patents issued first and recent patent applications with each being listed by patent number, title, filing date, issue/publication date and owner. Updates within the past month are colored in yellow, allowing users to quickly take notice of recent additions within the technology class. The page then shows the top owners in the class including their rank by number of patents.

The last feature is a bar graph of matters filed by year (1980-2014), which can be expanded by hovering over the bar graph with the cursor to show the exact number of matters. To see a list of those patents, you will need to search for them independently of the graph.

You can download a patent class’s profile as a PDF via a link at the top right of the class’s profile page.

3. Subclass Page

Subclasses can only be seen and searched in the Following and Comparisons tabs. The Subclass page provides the total patents, total applications, total patent owners and total inventors. The Subclass page also features its description, recent patents issued, recent publications and top owners for the subclass (owner/number of patents/rank).

Attorney

This search subsection is meant to help you locate attorneys and other registered patent agents who work on patent prosecution and maintenance.

This can be helpful for users of any skill level. You can search for agents to help you get started with an application, to assist with an existing practice, identify those working on patents you are interested in or reconnect with old colleagues. You can browse attorneys by letter of last name or you can use the search bar.

1. Search

The search function is meant to search by last name and does not require an exact match so you can search by a partial spelling. You can also perform an advance search to refine the results by inserting the first name, middle name, registration number, country, state or province, city and organization name.

You can refine your search results by clicking “Refine and Filter” and entering the attorney’s first name, middle name, registration number, and/or organization name. You can use these options to narrow down your search. If you do not know a name to search for, you can instead search for individuals near you or patent firms/corporate IP departments, even government agents.

Individual attorneys/agents' pages start by listing their organization and their exact number of years of experience. Professional information lists their organization, title, registration number, years of practice and date of registration as a lawyer. The Attorney/Agent page also includes contact information such as phone number and address. It also includes the attorney/agent’s work history for an organization/title/duration. The last section provides a listing of former co-workers, by name and city/state.

Firms

1. Search

This search function is intended to help you locate patent firms or corporate IP departments within a certain area, either to assist you with patent work, or competitive analysis. This is helpful if you want help with a patent matter, but do not know the name of an individual attorney.

Results are listed by relevance of search term(s). The results are shown as firm or department/location (city, state, zip), size (0-100+) and cumulative experience (0-1000+). You can also perform an advanced search that can refine by city, state, or the website's top 100 or top 300 ranked firms.

You can refine your search by city, state and/or zip code.

2. Firm Page

i. Overview - A Patent Firm/Department's page is separated into separate tabs to provide a concise breakdown of the different aspects of the organization. The Overview section certifies that this is official USPTO data. It also shows the number of registered agents, size of the firm, and their cumulative experience.

The Location section shows the addresses of all registered locations for the firm including the full address and country. The right-hand side of the page shows attorneys who have recently joined this organization.

ii. People - The People section lists present employees of this organization, it is meant to provide a quick reference to their size and relative cumulative experience as well as a directory of qualified patent agents and attorneys.

Employees are displayed alphabetically by last name. The list also shows location (state), phone number, type of employee and their registration number(agent/attorney) and a bar representing their individual experience. You can also refine your search of the firm/department by first name, middle name, last name and location.

iii. Alumni - Alumni of the organization are listed in no particular order providing the former employees of the organization by name (last name/first name), location (state), phone, type and experience. You can also refine your search by first name, middle name, last name and location.

This section can help identify prior agents and attorneys affiliated with the firm or department, which is helpful in conflict of interest searches or confirming that a sought-after individual once belonged to this organization.

iv. Statistics - The Statistics section shows three bar graphs reflecting the number of employees the organization had during a particular year, their overall experience by year, and groupings of employees by experience brackets (0-5, 6-10, 11-15, 16-20, 20+ years). This provides a closer breakdown of which employees have greater experience, as well as a way to track the firm's growth or contraction.

Comparison by Technology

This section allows you to compare technologies of patent owners or patents you have placed into a portfolio to one another. You have the ability to compare patent owner to patent owner, portfolio to portfolio, or patent owner to portfolio. To add a patent owner to a comparison click “Add Another Owner,” which will bring up the patent owner search. Once you have found the desired patent owner click “Compare” to add the owner to the comparison. This can also be done by a patent owner search and clicking the “Compare” button on the patent owner page. To add a portfolio click “Include Portfolio(s).” This will bring up a new screen allowing you to add the desired portfolio to your comparison. Only one comparison is allowed for a free account; however, more comparisons are permitted with paid accounts.

Once a comparison has been created, a multiplicity of information will appear. In the All Classes section, the added patent owner(s) or portfolio(s) are compared providing the number of applications and patents for each. You can also make one of the patent owner(s) or portfolio(s) the “Primary” in your comparison. The primary will appear as the purple line in all graphs and all of their patents will appear at the top of the technology classes.

Below this section three graphs will appear. The first graph compares the amount of patents filed over time. The second graph compares the amount of patents issued over time. The third graph compares the pending publications over time. This is a good way to measure the activity between the patent owners or portfolio content over time.

The Technologies section compares the patent owner(s) or portfolio(s) to each other by showing their proportion of ownership in a specific international technology class. Within each class you have the option to display the number of patents within each subclass, the top owners of the class and a chart that compares the number of patents issued or published within the class. Only 20 classes are displayed when the results are given; in order to see all classes with at least one patent by a patent owner or within a portfolio click the “Display All Classes” link at the bottom of the screen.

The Technologies section provides features to sort and scale your comparison results. The sort options are provided in two drop-down menus. The first menu allows you to arrange your results by all classes or primary owner classes only. The second menu allows you to sort your results by class, patent count for primary owner, or by patent count for all owners. The scale option is displayed by a slide that when decreased allows for closer comparison to either smaller owners or those tightly close together by adjusting the size of the bars. The scale is automatically set to adjust itself to the highest number of patents shown by an owner in a single class. You can shortcut to full scale by clicking “Full Scale” or clicking the green arrow.

Comparison by Tag

Summary/Description

Following Patents

Following Patent PAIR Data

Following Patent Owners

Following Inventors

Following Technology Classes

Following Technology Subclasses

The Administrator/Enterprise functions allow Enterprise subscribers multiple administrator abilities over any users or viewers who are provided access and the ability to upload private data for their organization.

News/Directory

Portfolios

Unpublished Applications

Users

The Users tab allows administrators to add users to your account. You must enter a user name, the first name, last name and e-mail of the person you wish to add to the account. You can also add their title and phone number.

On this page you can select the role of the person you are adding as dashboard user or dashboard viewer. You can also choose whether the user or viewer can make additional purchases from your account. Once all the information is entered click “Save” to add the user.

There are both host and client roles for these categories. A Host administrator is one who can see and edit everything within an account, while a host user can see and edit only the portfolios to which they have created or been granted access and a host viewer can see only the portfolios which they have been granted access. However, a client host is the administrator over the client’s particular portfolios. This administrator can allow people to become client users or client viewers. Law firm or corporate users can create “client” organizations in the system that only the client and those within the host that have rights can see and edit. However, a client administrator can only administrate over their client portfolios. They are given the power to allow users and viewers access to only their portfolios, not all matters concerning the law firm or organization.

You can edit what functions a user can perform and view. You can also edit what a viewer is able to see. This can be done by clicking “Settings” and selecting “Permissions.” This will allow you to change these settings to your liking. You can delete users by clicking “Delete User” under the Users tab.

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