6.1.12.5.6 Citing patent Documents Retrieved from AbS

Also in this Chapter:

• 6.1.12.5.1 Selection of Documents Considered to be Relevant
• 6.1.12.5.2 Citation Category
• 6.1.12.5.3 Citation of Prior Art Documents
• 6.1.12.5.4 Citation of URLs
• 6.1.12.5.5 Citation Examples​​​​​​​
• 6.1.12.5.7 Relevant Claim Numbers

1. EPODOC Abstracts

When using AbS, the abstract data that is viewed in AbS is an enriched abstract in that it can include data from EPODOC, DOCDB and WPI. The data can vary between patent families and will depend upon the information available to the EPO and the contractual arrangements IP Australia has in place. For most patent families filed after 1990, one should expect to see a mixture of EPODOC and WPI information ('fragments'). Consequently, care should be taken to determine what disclosure is being relied upon when citing abstract information as it may contain both EPODOC and WPI data.

If the EPODOC abstract is the sole record being cited, then either:

• a copy of the abstract should be retrieved from EspaceNet and placed in COMPASS, or

• ensure only the EPODOC abstract data is visible in AbS and copy/paste into a Word document and store on COMPASS.
   

Note: AbS abstract data that includes proprietary WPI information should not be provided to the applicant.
 

A. English Language Citations of English patent documents:

All English language abstracts of the English language patent documents (e.g US, AU, CA) viewed in AbS are identical to the publicly available abstracts of the published patents to which they correspond. Therefore, when citing such abstracts viewed in AbS, the current practice of citing an English patent should be maintained.

For example:

B. English Language Citations of foreign language patent documents:

Japanese Citations:

The following format is the preferred format for citing English abstracts of the Japanese patent documents viewed in AbS in the text format:

Older Japanese documents may not have an English language abstract, but may have an English language description. In the event the abstract is to be cited then a copy can be retrieved from the JPO website and marked as “Patents Abstracts of Japan”:
 

German Citations:

The following format is the preferred format for citing English abstracts of the German patent documents viewed in AbS:

Korean Citations:

Note that most (if not all) published Korean applications have the prefix ‘10’ at the beginning of the publication number. When viewing these documents in the AbS results list and in the text bibliographic information, the publication number will be shown without the ‘10’ prefix.  The full publication number including the ‘10’ prefix will be visible in facsimile mode or when viewing the full PDF document.  Also please note that in order to retrieve these documents from Espace, the prefix ‘10’ must be removed from the publication number.

The preferred format is that the prefix ‘10’ be included in the publication number as this is the official publication number given by the KIPO.

When citing English abstracts of the Korean patent documents viewed in AbS, use the following format:

Chinese Citations:

The following format is the preferred format for citing English abstracts of the Chinese patent documents viewed in AbS

Russian Citations:

The following format is the preferred format for citing English abstracts of the Russian patent documents viewed in AbS:

When the name of the applicant is not available:

Soviet Union Citations:

The following format is the preferred format for citing English abstracts of the Soviet Union patent documents viewed in AbS:

When the name of the applicant is not available:

Following is an example of an EPODOC abstract displayed on the EPOQUE VIEWER with recommended fields which will be sent to the Applicant when stored in the relevant application folder in COMPASS.

2. WPI ("Derwent's World Patent Index") Abstracts

When citing an abstract from the WPI database viewed in AbS or STN, use the following format to clearly identify the Accession number (the number by which WPI abstracts are indexed):

Please note that the WPI Accession Number must be included, however, including the WPI classification symbols is optional.

Note: When using AbS, the WPI abstract enriches the data from EPODOC or DOCDB and is not a standalone document.  Consequently, you should expect to see the fragments of the WPI abstract such as ‘Novelty’ or ‘Advantage’, and may also see data from EPO supplied databases (if present). 

The WPI abstract cannot be download from AbS.  A copy of the WPI data and abstract can be copied from AbS and pasted into a Word document to store in COMPASS for the purpose of preparing the search product.  WPI data and abstract text is proprietary information and should not be provided to the applicant.

3. Full Documents

When citing a Full Document retrieved from AbS (English or Non-English), the standard (i.e. current) format for citing patent documents should be used.  The source of the English language translation of the document should be included if this disclosure relied upon in the report.

Examples

A copy of the full patent document that should be retrieved and stored in COMPASS/Citation Manager.  A copy of the English language translation should be added manually if it is relied on for the discussion of novelty or inventive step.