You can find patent family information (see also Patent Family in Glossary,) including the family members’ patent numbers, titles, legal status, publication/issue dates, application date, and any related post-grant proceeding cases.
In the top left corner, there’s a list of Page View Features where Printer Version, Select All, Add to Project, Compare, and Export are available for further use.
The Legal Status column reflects the most recent status of each patent — based on the patent's prosecution and maintenance fee payment status in the PTO databases or the INPADOC data.
The Legal Status of the US, CN, EP, JP, KR, TW, and WO patents among 30+ PTOs are as follows:
- Pending (pending application)
- Active (granted and maintained)
- Inactive (abandoned or lapsed due to non-payment or expiration)
For other countries, the legal status may only be reflected on either Issued or Published patents.
Note that a summary of the patent family is also available in the Family Status of the Overview tab.
Back to the Family Prior Art tab. By clicking on the number in the "Backward Citation: Patent" box, users can go to the backward citation page.
On the backward citation page, users can find prior art in the family citations of the patent at issue, especially citations of its family counterparts that are foreign patent applications.
The "References" column lists the family members citing the prior art reference, and if the family member was abandoned during the application, it would be marked with "ABAN."
If the prior art reference was considered as 35 U.S.C § 102/103 prior art, it would be marked with "*/E/I/P," "102/103". For example, "*102" for § 102 prior art in the prosecution history.
To quickly search for the prior art, enter “*102” or “*103” or even “ABAN” in the search box.
In addition to List View, users can use Grid View and Gallery View.
