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patent_family_search

Given a patent publication number from any jurisdiction (US, EP, AU, JP, CN, KR, etc.), discovers all related filings worldwide through the INPADOC patent family database maintained by EPO. Shows which countries a patent has been filed in. Requires EPO OPS credentials.

Parameters

Section titled “Parameters”
ParameterTypeRequiredDescription
publicationNumberstringYesPatent publication number from any jurisdiction (e.g., “EP1234567A1”, “US7654321B2”, “AU2020100123”). EPODOC format preferred.

Example

Section titled “Example”

Request

Section titled “Request”
{
  "name": "patent_family_search",
  "arguments": {
    "publicationNumber": "US10234567B2"
  }
}

Response

Section titled “Response”
{
  "queryPatent": "US10234567B2",
  "totalMembers": 8,
  "members": [
    {
      "jurisdiction": "US",
      "publicationNumber": "US10234567B2",
      "applicationNumber": "US201615234567",
      "familyId": "56789012",
      "kindCode": "B2",
      "publicationDate": "2019-03-19"
    },
    {
      "jurisdiction": "EP",
      "publicationNumber": "EP3234567A1",
      "applicationNumber": "EP16812345",
      "familyId": "56789012",
      "kindCode": "A1",
      "publicationDate": "2017-10-25"
    },
    {
      "jurisdiction": "CN",
      "publicationNumber": "CN108234567A",
      "applicationNumber": "CN201680045678",
      "familyId": "56789012",
      "kindCode": "A",
      "publicationDate": "2018-06-29"
    },
    {
      "jurisdiction": "JP",
      "publicationNumber": "JP2018530987A",
      "applicationNumber": "JP2018512345",
      "familyId": "56789012",
      "kindCode": "A",
      "publicationDate": "2018-10-18"
    },
    {
      "jurisdiction": "WO",
      "publicationNumber": "WO2017012345A1",
      "applicationNumber": "PCT/US2016/034567",
      "familyId": "56789012",
      "kindCode": "A1",
      "publicationDate": "2017-01-26"
    }
  ],
  "jurisdictions": ["CN", "EP", "JP", "US", "WO"]
}

Notes

Section titled “Notes”
  • This is a cross-jurisdiction tool: input a patent number from any country and discover related filings in all other countries.
  • The INPADOC family groups patents that share at least one common priority.
  • Use EPODOC format for best results. If the number is not found, try searching with ep_patent_search first to find the correct publication number.
  • The jurisdictions array provides a quick overview of geographic patent coverage.
Section titled “Related Tools”