|Has start date=9/2017
|Has keywords=patent
|Is dependent on=Reproducible Patent Data,
}}
This is an extension of the work I did last semester under "Redesigning Patent Database". Instead of simply reconfiguring the existing database, this project encompasses and full redesign and creation of a new Patent database and a new Assignment database that will be joined together.
==Assignment Database Structure==
After reading through the paper ["The USPTO Patent Assignment Dataset:
Descriptions and Analysis"](https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/USPTO_Patents_Assignment_Dataset_WP.pdf) and taking into account are needs for the Assignment database (the ability to connect the two databases together, the ability to trace conveyance of a patent over time) I decided on the following structure for the Assignment database.
The foreign key that connects every table in the database is rf_id, which stands for reel frame id. It is unique for each entry in the main table, assignment and is included in every table.
Conveyance is the only table that cannot be fully constructed as data is inserted into the database. Some of the fields depend on other tables being constructed, so it may be either partially populated while the other tables are being populated or is the last table to be populated.
Full list of tables: assignee, assignor, document_info, assignment, conveyance
===ASSIGNEE===
Purpose: store all the assignees from all the assignments
Each entry represents: the recipient of a patent in an entry in the ASSIGNMENT table
Primary key: rf_id, unless it is possible to have multiple assignees, then rf_id and assignee name
All columns (variables) in the table: rf_id, name, assignee, address_line_1, address_line_2, city, state, country, postal_code
===ASSIGNOR===
Purpose: store all the assignors from all the assignments
Each entry represents: the one assigning/granting the license for the entry in the ===ASSIGNMENT===
Primary key: rf_id and assignor_name
All columns (variables): rf_id, assignor_name
===CONVEYANCE===
Purpose: represent the conveyance of a particular patent overtime
Each entry represents: an individual transaction for a patent (not unlike assignment, except this table has information about the assignment in relation to other assignments for the patent
Primary key: rf_id
All columns (variables): Two possibilities, depending on whether we want data to be repeated or not.
Not-repeated (with exception of primary/foreign key): rf_id, next_transaction (also rf_id), num_conveyance (number in order of conveyance by date), acknowledgment_date (in ASSIGNOR for the assignment data paper but would be moved here. Could originally be stored in ASSIGNOR until CONVEYANCE is generated), execution_date (same deal as acknowledgment date, should probably be moved here; if there are multiple execution dates, we will store the last one) conveyance_type
Repeated, also include: assignee, assignor, patent_id
===DOCUMENT_INFO===
Purpose: store extra information relevant to the patents represented in ASSIGNMENT
Each entry represents: information about the documentation and the patent for a particular entry in ASSIGNMENT
Primary key: rf_id
All columns (variables) when created: rf_id, app_num (application document USPTO number), app_date, app_country, pgpub_num (pre-grant publication document USPTO number), pgpub_date, pgpub_country, grant_num (granted patent document USPTO number), grant_date, grant_country, invention_title, language (of invention title – could be potentially useful and interesting to investigate), reel_num, frame_num (reel_num and frame_num were in ASSIGNMENT for the uspto data paper, but I think they would be more useful here)
===ASSIGNMENT===
Purpose: represent assignment transactions – central table for the database
Each entry represents: an individual patent assignment transaction
Primary key: rf_id
All columns (variables): rf_id, assignment_id (US patent assignment id), correspondent_name, correspondent_address1, correspondent_address_2, correspondent_address3, correspondent_address4, record_date (date recorded with USPTO), last_update_date, page_cnt (page count of assignment record)
More extensive notes exist under :E/McNair/Projects/Redesigning Patent Database/New Patent Database Project/Notes on USPTO Assignment Data Paper