Patent Data Specifications
Return to Patent Data Wiki Page.
Background
The patent database contains the merged dataset from the USPTO bulk data and Harvard Dataverse. This page explains the structure of the database and gives a complete list of tables. Each table has its own page which defines the table variables and their importance. Additionally, any known issues with a specific table is recorded on the table's page.
Tables
Data Issues=====Citations Table=
The table has two columns, 'citingpatentnumber' and 'citedpatentnumber'. There are rows with 'citedpatentnumber' greater than 10000000. For instance:
citingpatentnumber | citedpatentnumber
--------------------+-------------------
9226901 | 102005013726
9226905 | 101332187
9226905 | 2006528175
9226905 | 2011513304
9226905 | 1020090061010
9226905 | 1020110049808
9226905 | 2010126349
9226909 | 101340916
9226909 | 10128910
9226914 | 102318827
9226914 | 2014109862
9226915 | 10111049
9226918 | 2008005345
9226918 | 2008005345
9226918 | 2008077092
9226918 | 2008077092
9226918 | 2008070268
9226918 | 2008128126
9226921 | 2008129994
9226922 | 2012000595
9226922 | 2012058127
9226923 | 2010135524
9226930 | 102002040
9226930 | 19507522
9226930 | 50106981
9226930 | 53082783
9226930 | 57052334
9226930 | 10029979
9226930 | 10045750
9226931 | 2008203212
9226931 | 2010227111
9226931 | 2012068515
9226931 | 2013106565
9226932 | 103458880
9226933 | 2006257751
9226933 | 101366734
9226933 | 101396048
9226933 | 101926831
9226933 | 20202562
9226933 | 202005009120
9226933 | 61063618
9226937 | 11510473
9226937 | 2001506579
9226937 | 2001519791
9226937 | 2003119127
9226937 | 2003517831
9226937 | 2005099761
9226937 | 2006076681
9226937 | 2006078941
9226937 | 2006079021
9226937 | 2006094209
9226937 | 2006094210
9226937 | 2006094233
9226937 | 2006094235
allpatent_clone=# SELECT COUNT(*) FROM citations WHERE citedpatentnumber>10000000; count --------- 1411140 (1 row)
allpatent_clone=# SELECT COUNT(*) FROM citations WHERE citedpatentnumber IS NULL; count ---------- 23516667 (1 row)
allpatent_clone=# SELECT COUNT(*) FROM citations; count ---------- 97680838 (1 row)
Possible Solution
Jul 8, 2016: The blank citedpatentnumbers were created due to inconsistency between the original type and the type in the citation table (string to integer). The blank entries mostly correspond to publication number, non-U.S. patent number, and non-standardized patent number. The next step would be to recreate the table accounting for these issues. The U.S. publication number could be matched to the publications numbers in the histpatent table and be replaced by the corresponding patent numbers.
The foreign cited patents will be moved to a separate table.
Assignees Table
'Country' is missing.
allpatent_clone=# SELECT COUNT(*) FROM assignees WHERE country=' '; count --------- 2361543 (1 row)
allpatent_clone=# SELECT COUNT(*) FROM assignees WHERE country='unknown'; count ------- 3918 (1 row)
allpatent_clone=# SELECT COUNT(*) FROM assignees WHERE country IN ('unknown',' ') AND state=' ';
count
---------
1851353
(1 row)
UPDATE: The source of the problem seems to be the Harvard Dataverse.
Assignees & assigneesUSU Tables
No information provided about the assignee. No entries for orgname or first and last names.
allpatent_clone=# SELECT COUNT(patentnumber) FROM assignees WHERE (orgname= OR orgname IS NULL) AND (firstname= OR firstname IS NULL) AND (lastname= OR lastname IS NULL); count -------- 344794 (1 row)
AssigneesUSU table was made with the following code:
SELECT orgname, patentnumber, country, firstname, lastname, state
INTO assigneesUSU -- assignees in US,unknown, and blank entries
FROM assignees
WHERE country IN ('US', , 'unknown') OR (state IS NOT NULL AND state!=)
ORDER BY orgname;
allpatent_clone=# SELECT COUNT(patentnumber) FROM assigneesUSU WHERE (orgname= OR orgname IS NULL) AND (firstname= OR firstname IS NULL) AND (lastname= OR lastname IS NULL); count -------- 344793 (1 row)
