Introduction

The FamPat database is Questel's world patent database grouped by invention-based families. More details on the construction of FamPat families can be found in the article What is the FAMPAT family

This collection is updated every Sunday and its coverage is available in the Questel coverage page here.

Details per kind of data

Each FamPat record contains:

• First page information: Patent and published application numbers and publication dates, application numbers and filing dates, priority numbers and dates, the assignee(s), inventor(s), EPO classification codes (CPC, ECLA, ICO, and IDT) and International Patent Classification (IPC) as well as US and Japanese classifications, titles, abstracts and drawings.
• Search reports with patent and non-patent literature citations for WO, EP, US, EA, AP, AU, BE, BG, CH, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FR, GB, GR, JP, LU, NL, SG and TR publications. Our main source for citations data is the INPADOC system.
  
• Key content extracted from the full official English text of EP applications (except Euro-PCTs) since 1988, PCT applications since mid-2001, US patents granted from 1971 to 2000, US applications since March 15, 2001 and GB applications since 1979, FR applications that were not extended, CN utility models and CN applications. Older documents can be found, as far back as 1980 for EPs and 2000 for WOs. PCTs (besides those published in Korean) machine-translated into English can also be used to extract key content. The key content provides the object of the invention, the benefits and shortcomings compared to the prior art, and the independent claims. These fields are very useful to quickly understand the technical side of the invention, as well as its main legal protection in 3 or 4 paragraphs.
  
• Concepts extracted from the full official English text of EP applications (except Euro-PCTs) since 1988, PCT applications since mid-2001, US patents granted from 1971 to 2000, US applications since March 15, 2001 and GB applications since 1979, FR applications that were not extended, CN utility models and CN applications. Older documents can be found, as far back as 1980 for EPs and 2000 for WOs. PCTs (besides those published in Korean) machine-translated into English can also be used to extract concepts. 
• The full text of the description and claims for publications from 59 patent offices.
• Legal status information for approximately 50 countries.

Generalities about the coverage and language

Coverage:  Varies depending on the country. For certain offices, coverage begins at the end of the 19^th century and beginning of the 20^th century. For example, the United States and many European countries. The detailed coverage is available from the dedicated Questel coverage page here.

Language: English (official or machine translation), French, German, Spanish, and other languages for the bibliographic information. Even when machine translation is present, the original language for the description and claims is kept and remains searchable.