PatentsView is introducing our newest data download product: Sorted Download Tables. These new download tables will complement our Granted and Pre-Grant Download Tables and enhance the user experience by providing a more consistent and accurate representation of patent data across different eras. Please note that this is a Beta release, and significant future changes to the Sorted Download Tables based on community feedback are possible. Contact us at PatentsView Support.

Why the New Files?

In a previous Data in Action Spotlight post, we discussed changes in the rate of assignees in pre-grant publications. This change is often misinterpreted as a decrease in organizational involvement in patents or a data error. However, it actually reflects a shift in application rules due to the America Invents Act (AIA) and a corresponding change in where organizations appear in the data structure. A technical explanation of the problem with the source XML data and the solution implemented can also be found in this USPTO technical paper.

What are Sorted Download Tables?

The sorted files regroup records from both pre- and post-AIA eras for consistency over time. Here's how the new files were derived from the old ones:

• Organizations: Records with an organization name or where an organization was mistakenly listed as a person.
• Individuals: Records without an organization name that don't appear to be misrecorded organizations.
• Assignees: Records from the original assignee table, plus records from the original applicants table with "assignee" as the applicant’s authority.
• Inventors: Records from the original inventor table not listed as a "legal representative," plus records from the original applicants table with "inventor" as the applicant’s authority or "applicant-inventor" as the applicant’s type.
• Applicants: Remaining records from the original applicants table not marked as an inventor or assignee, plus records from the original inventor table marked as a "legal representative."

A visualization of this logic is available in the Beta Sorted Data Reference document.

Structure of the New Files

Each table starts with columns for granted patent identifier (patent_id) or pre-grant publication identifier (pgpub_id), sequence, and origin_section. The origin_section column indicates which of the original unsorted, non-disambiguated tables the record came from. Following these, you'll find individual and organization names, along with other relevant details from the original tables.  Additionally, each table contains the raw location ID, which can be matched with the raw locations table available on the main downloads page.

A detailed data dictionary Excel file is also available.

New Way of Organizing Data

These files are an additional resource and do not replace the existing files on our website. They are simply regrouped to provide a more intuitive way of navigating our extensive data. This reorganization is a test of a potential new structure that we hope will enhance your experience.

We hope to provide disambiguated data in a similar structure in the future, but at this stage, these sorted files are only available for non-disambiguated data.

We Value Your Feedback

We invite you to explore this new layout and share your thoughts with us through our service desk. Your feedback is invaluable as it will help us understand how these changes affect your ability to find and understand the data that is most relevant to you.