Citation Table
Return to Patent Data Specifications.
Contents
Table Structure
Table "public.citation" Column | Type | Modifiers --------+--------+----------- patent | bigint | cited | bigint |
Example of table entries:
patent | cited --------+--------- 9226898 | 4935450 9226898 | 5069936 9226898 | 6262019 9226898 | 6264988 9226898 | 6916795 9226898 | 9226898 | 9226898 | 9226898 | 9226898 | 9226898 | 9226899 | 7858080 9226899 | 9226899 | 9226899 |
Table Variables
Patent refers to a patent number. Cited refers to a patent number cited by the patent in question. When a patent is issued, the patent can include citations or references to patents in a related field or that may be considered prior art. The table has a composite key that consists of a unique combination of patent number and cited patent number.
Table Purpose
The US patent system allows for inventors, patent attorneys, and USPTO patent examiners to reference other patents that are considered prior art or related inventions. These references are theoretically in place to limit or help define the scope of a patent's claims. Often times, the patent improves upon these referenced patents or may be a new application of previously patented subject matter. Citations may also be unrelated to the patent's subject matter, and therefore, cannot be fully relied upon in studies of innovation and transfer of ideas between inventors. [1]
Current Problems
The table has two columns, 'citingpatentnumber' and 'citedpatentnumber'. There are rows with 'citedpatentnumber' greater than 10000000. For instance:
citingpatentnumber | citedpatentnumber --------------------+------------------- 9226901 | 102005013726 9226905 | 101332187 9226905 | 2006528175 9226905 | 2011513304 9226905 | 1020090061010 9226905 | 1020110049808 9226905 | 2010126349 9226909 | 101340916 9226909 | 10128910 9226914 | 102318827 9226914 | 2014109862 9226915 | 10111049 9226918 | 2008005345 9226918 | 2008005345 9226918 | 2008077092 9226918 | 2008077092 9226918 | 2008070268 9226918 | 2008128126 9226921 | 2008129994 9226922 | 2012000595 9226922 | 2012058127 9226923 | 2010135524 9226930 | 102002040 9226930 | 19507522 9226930 | 50106981 9226930 | 53082783 9226930 | 57052334 9226930 | 10029979 9226930 | 10045750 9226931 | 2008203212 9226931 | 2010227111 9226931 | 2012068515 9226931 | 2013106565 9226932 | 103458880 9226933 | 2006257751 9226933 | 101366734 9226933 | 101396048 9226933 | 101926831 9226933 | 20202562 9226933 | 202005009120 9226933 | 61063618 9226937 | 11510473 9226937 | 2001506579 9226937 | 2001519791 9226937 | 2003119127 9226937 | 2003517831 9226937 | 2005099761 9226937 | 2006076681 9226937 | 2006078941 9226937 | 2006079021 9226937 | 2006094209 9226937 | 2006094210 9226937 | 2006094233 9226937 | 2006094235
allpatent_clone=# SELECT COUNT(*) FROM citations WHERE citedpatentnumber>10000000; count --------- 1411140 (1 row)
allpatent_clone=# SELECT COUNT(*) FROM citations WHERE citedpatentnumber IS NULL; count ---------- 23516667 (1 row)
allpatent_clone=# SELECT COUNT(*) FROM citations; count ---------- 97680838 (1 row)
Possible Solution
Jul 8, 2016: The blank citedpatentnumbers were created due to inconsistency between the original type and the type in the citation table (string to integer). The blank entries mostly correspond to publication number, non-U.S. patent number, and non-standardized patent number. The next step would be to recreate the table accounting for these issues. The U.S. publication number could be matched to the publications numbers in the histpatent table and be replaced by the corresponding patent numbers.
The foreign cited patents will be moved to a separate table.
References
<ref name=IEEE > [1] 'Why do Inventors Reference Papers and Patents in their Patent Applications?'
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
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