Patent Family

Set of related patent applications filed in one or more countries to protect the same or a similar invention by a common inventor and linked by a common priority (or priorities). Basically there are several patent family definitions. In this system we relate to the widely used DOCDB family definition of the European Patent Office.
Patent Publication Number
The Patent Publication Number is the number assigned to a patent application on publication. Publication numbers basically consist of a country code (two letters) and a serial number, e.g.: EP2007. A kind code, e.g. A1 or B1 (EP2007A1), can optionally be assigned to the patent number. Kind codes as well as leading zeros like EP0002007 will be harmonized by the novis search system.