General information:
The definitions "family search" and "family" are equivalent to the term "patent family search".
Definition patent family
A patent family designates a group of patent documents, which are related to each other ? like a family. All documents can be traced back to the same first filing (priority).
The advantage of a patent family is that you can obtain an overview of the expansion of the IP right in other countries. Moreover, a document of the patent family might possibly be available in a publication language that is easier for you to understand.
Enter the publication number to search for members of a patent family. You will get a result list.
At the bottom of the search form, one button is provided.
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Submit your request by clicking the "Start Search" button. The hits will be displayed in form of a result list. |
In the "Hide result list configuration" section you can customise your result list. Tick the check boxes provided which correspond to the columns to be displayed on the result list. You can choose the following columns: "Publication number", "Application date", "Publication date", "IPC main class", "IPCsecondary/index classes", "Reclassified IPC, "Search file IPC", "Inventor", "Applicant/Owner", "Title", "Abstract" and "Sequence listings".
The drop-down menu for sorting the result list allows you to sort the result list by different criteria. Select the desired data field and choose (ascending/descending) order.
The drop-down menu labelled "Results/page" allows you to choose the number of results (25, 50, 100 or 250) to be displayed per page. The default value is 50.
© 2019 Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt | Stand vom 30.07.2019