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dn141082
Last seen: 06/24/2021 - 14:42
Joined: 05/09/2020 - 11:08
Discrepancy in Inventor IDs

Hello PV team, 

I came across a discrepancy in the inventor id's across two different downloaded tables when I was manually trying to link them. Please look at the discrepant case below, 

  • Relevant tables: "inventor" and "patent_inventor"
  • ID in inventor table: "fl:c_ln:ende-1"
  • Patent on which the above inventor is a team member: "9067934"
  • Data issue: patent_id = 9067934 in patent_inventor table shows inventor_id = "fl:c_ln:am ende-1" for the focal inventor mentioned above. However there are no inventors with this id in the inventor table. 
  • It seems that the disambiguation algorithm is picking up last two words as the last name in the "patent_inventor" table and only the last word in the "inventor" table to create the inventor ids in the respective tables.  

I came across this case because I was manually exploring the data. I am not sure if this issue exists elsewhere. Matching the two tables might result in many such instances. Kindly investigate and advice. 

Thank you!

Wed, 06/23/2021 - 09:14
emelluso
Role: administrator
Last seen: 10/16/2023 - 15:03
Joined: 10/21/2020 - 10:51
Seeing all data?

Hello! We looked into this patent through the patent and inventor tables to see if there was an error in the data. 

The first line is the inventor name from the PatFT site. The second is from the patent_inventor table and the third is from the inventor table. What we found is that all the inventors listed in PatFT for patent_id 9067934 are contained in both our inventor and patent inventor tables. The results we found are below. Can you please double check your data to see if you have the same results? If not, please check if you are looking at the complete dataset.

 

Thanks!

~Christina, PV Team

 

Pettersson; Martin Youngjin (Littleton, MA)

"9067934"            "fl:m_ln:pettersson-6"  "eb19585e-791e-11eb-bfee-121df0c29c1e"

"fl:m_ln:pettersson-6"  "Martin Youngjin"            "Pettersson"      1              1

 

Johnson; Douglas Scott (Concord, MA)

"9067934"            "fl:d_ln:johnson-258"     "17b898cb-791e-11eb-bfee-121df0c29c1e"

"fl:d_ln:johnson-258"     "Douglas Scott" "Johnson"           1              1

 

Subramanyam; Chakrapani (South Glastonbury, CT)

"9067934"            "fl:c_ln:subramanyam-1"             "0074a37f-7920-11eb-bfee-121df0c29c1e"

"fl:c_ln:subramanyam-1"             "Chakrapani"     "Subramanyam"               ""            99

 

O'Donnell; Christopher John (Mystic, CT)

"9067934"            "fl:c_ln:o'donnell-5"       "2f62cf79-791f-11eb-bfee-121df0c29c1e"

"fl:c_ln:o'donnell-5"       "Christopher John"          "O'Donnell"        1              1

 

am Ende; Christopher William (Mystic, CT)

"9067934"            "fl:c_ln:am ende-1"         "2f62cf79-791f-11eb-bfee-121df0c29c1e"

"fl:c_ln:am ende-1"         "Christopher William"     "am Ende"          1              1

 

Fish; Benjamin Adam (Groton, CT)

"9067934"            "fl:b_ln:fish-1"  "72f082bd-791e-11eb-bfee-121df0c29c1e"

"fl:b_ln:fish-1"  "Benjamin Adam"            "Fish"    1              1

 

Green; Michael Eric (Boston, MA)

"9067934"            "fl:m_ln:green-42"          "ddc2ac12-791d-11eb-bfee-121df0c29c1e"

"fl:m_ln:green-42"          "Michael Eric"    "Green"               1              1

 

Mullins; Patrick Bradley (East Lyme, CT)

"9067934"            "fl:p_ln:mullins-3"           "3c4aea7a-791e-11eb-bfee-121df0c29c1e"

"fl:p_ln:mullins-3"           "Patrick Bradley"              "Mullins"             1              1

 

Stiff; Cory Michael (New London, CT)

"9067934"            "fl:c_ln:stiff-1"  "3b5d0518-791f-11eb-bfee-121df0c29c1e"

"fl:c_ln:stiff-1"  "Cory Michael"  "Stiff"    1              1

 

Tran; Tuan Phong (Ledyard, CT)

"9067934"            "fl:t_ln:tran-67" "e2fa74b4-791e-11eb-bfee-121df0c29c1e"

"fl:t_ln:tran-67" "Tuan Phong"    "Tran"   1              1

 

Navaratnam; Thayalan (Scarborough, CA)

"9067934"            "fl:t_ln:navaratnam-1"  "d2f57e62-791f-11eb-bfee-121df0c29c1e"

"fl:t_ln:navaratnam-1"  "Thayalan"          "Navaratnam"   1              1

 

Thu, 06/24/2021 - 14:42
dn141082
Last seen: 06/24/2021 - 14:42
Joined: 05/09/2020 - 11:08
Double entry in inventor table

Hi, 

Thank you for responding promptly with your investigation. 

I did an investigation at my end too and I confirm that I am seeing the entire data. What I found is that the "inventor" table carries two entries for the same inventor and that one of the id's for the focal inventor does not map to any records in the "patent_inventor" table. I downloaded data afresh on 6/24 to perform this investigation. Case below. 

  • Inventor name as found on patent "9067934" using USPTO patent search facility: "am Ende; Christopher William"
  • "inventor_id" corresponding to the above in "patent_inventor" table: "fl:c_ln:am ende-1"
  • "id" corresponding to this inventor in "inventor" table: "fl:c_ln:ende-1" as well as  "id == "fl:c_ln:am ende-1"

 

If you check the first and last name fields for these two ids in the inventor table then you will find that these ids map to the same inventor. As I mentioned earlier, I came across this case when I was manually browsing the data. So, I do not know if, and to what extent this issue exists in other records in the "inventor" table.  What this could result in is a lot of missing values when "patent_inventor" and "inventor" tables are joined if the issue really exists with other records.  

Kindly advice. 

Thank you!