You may search legal status on its own or in combination with other search criteria (keywords, classification codes, etc.). For comprehensive US legal status searches, please see the list of event codes here
Coverage of legal status
Legal status is available for the following countries:
Country |
Country code |
Coverage |
Country |
Country code |
Coverage | |
WIPO |
WO |
1978 |
Hong Kong |
HK |
2004 | |
EPO |
EP |
1978 |
Hungary |
HU |
1990 | |
EAPO |
EA |
1996 |
Ireland |
IE |
1993 | |
United States |
US |
1968 |
Israel |
IL |
1996 | |
Germany |
DE |
1978 |
Italy |
IT |
1989 | |
Former East Germany |
DD |
1992 |
Lithuania |
LT |
1995 | |
Australia |
AU |
2000 |
Moldova (Rep. of) |
MD |
1994 | |
Austria |
AT |
1975 |
Monaco |
MC |
1972 | |
Belgium |
BE |
1984 |
Norway |
NO |
2001 | |
Brazil |
BR |
1995 |
New Zealand |
NZ |
2001 | |
Canada |
CA |
1993 |
Netherlands |
NL |
1973 | |
Chile |
CL |
1990 |
Philippines |
PH |
1990 | |
China |
CN |
1985 |
Portugal |
PT |
1991 | |
Colombia |
CO |
2003 |
Russia (Federation) |
RU |
2009 | |
Czech (Rep.) |
CZ |
2000 |
Sweden |
SE |
1995 | |
Denmark |
DK |
1982 |
Slovenia |
SI |
2004 | |
Spain |
ES |
1992 |
Switzerland |
CH |
1958 | |
Estonia |
EE |
2004 |
Taiwan |
TW |
2000 | |
Finland |
FI |
1993 |
United Kingdom |
GB |
1968 | |
France |
FR |
1969 |
For Bulgaria, Belize, Belorussia, Croatia, Egypt, Georgia, Japan, Kenya, South Korea, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Uzbekistan and South Africa, the database only contains information on entry into national phase of the corresponding PCT application.
For Luxembourg, the database only covers the Supplementary Protection Certificates.
The legal state refers to an Alive or Dead category. This state is defined by the date of expiration.
The dropdown menu provides three options:
• No restriction
• Alive
• Dead
When No restriction is selected, a Dead or Alive legal state is not defined for search.
By selecting Alive, a second dropdown menu appears and provides three options:
• No restriction
• Granted
• Pending
The combination of Alive and No Restriction searches the families composed of patents having an Alive legal state and specific status stage Unpublished, Pending, Granted or Restored.
The combination Alive and Granted searches the families composed of patents having an Alive legal state and specific status Granted.
The combination Alive and Pending searches the families composed of patents having an Alive legal state and status stage Pending.
By selecting Dead, a second dropdown menu appears and provides four options:
• No restriction
• Expired
• Lapsed
• Revoked
The combination Dead and No Restriction searches the families composed of patents having a Dead legal state and specific status types Expired, Lapsed or Revoked.
The combination Dead and Expired searches the families composed of patents having a Dead legal state and specific status type Expired.
The combination Dead and Lapsed searches the families composed of patents having a Dead legal state and specific status type Lapsed.
The combination Dead and Revoked searches the families composed of patents having a Dead legal state and specific status type Revoked.
You may also combine each legal state and specific status types for one or multiple patent offices in the command line. Patent offices must be indicated with the two letter patent office or country code and separated by a comma if there are multiple country codes.
If you do not specify a patent office or country, the search will be conducted on all patent offices or countries which have legal status to search.
Divisional patent "applications in process" can appear in searches of granted patents. Indeed, the legal situation of the original patent is integrated with that of the Divisional patent and so if the original patent is issued, the Divisional family will come even if it contains no patents. By removing from the query, via the command line, the part reading: CC/ACT = country code, you remove these families from the search.
Example of command
line search:
Patents alive, Grants in Europe and in US:
(STATE/ACT=ALIVE)
P STATUS/ACT=GRANTED P ((PC/ACT=EP OR CC/ACT=EP) OR (PC/ACT=US OR
CC/ACT=US))
State and status information form part of the ACT index, thus /ACT is used in search request.
The paragraph operator P is used to specify that the patents found as Granted are either that for Europe or for the US.
Patent offices or countries also form part of the ACT index. You have two possibilities to search for countries; either PC which is country of publication or CC which is a designated state ona PCT or EP application.
All modifications to a search query may be made in the command line.
Questel has created 16 event codes which group similar actions for the different patent offices:
OPP -
Opposition, reexamination
LIC - License agreements
SPC -
Extension of term of duration of protection
RAS –
Reassignment
ENP - Entry into national phase
NOPP- No
opposition filed
DCS - Designated contracting states
ADM –
Administrative notifications
CCL - Modifications of classification
COR - Corrections, modifications
EXM - Requests for
examination, examination procedures and process, search reports
NENP –
Non-entry into national phase (WO, EP)
NIF - Not in force, lapse,
expiration, forfeiture, refusal, withdrawal
NMC – Change of name(s):
applicant, assignee, inventor, others: opponents, requesters
PIF –
Payment of fees, in force, registrations, grants
RES - Restitution,
restoration: in force
These Event Groups are searchable in combination with the legal status described above or with other search criteria. The AND operator is used to make these combinations.
None is the default setting, so that all Event Groups are searched.
The following seven event groups may be selected from the dropdown menu:
• Opposition (OPP)
• License agreements (LIC)
• Extension of term of duration of protection (SPC)
• Reassignment (RAS)
• Entry into national phase (ENP)
• No opposition (NOPP)
• Designated contracting state (DCS)
You may also combine selected Event Groups with one or more patent offices in the command line. Patent offices must be indicated with the two letter patent office or country code and separated by a comma if there are multiple codes.
If you do not specify a patent office or country, the search will be conducted on all patent offices or countries which have legal status to search.
Example of search:
FR patents (national procedure or EP / PCT) having an extension on the term
of protection (SPC)
EG/ACT=SPC P (PC/ACT=FR OR CC/ACT=FR)
The Events form part of the ACT index, thus /ACT is used in search request.
The paragraph operator P is used to specify that the patents retrieved with an extension of term (SPC) are FR patents.
Patent offices or countries also form part of the ACT index. You have two possibilities to search for countries; either PC which is country of publication or CC which is a designated state on a PCT or EP application.
All modifications to a search may be made in the command line.
Your search may be limited to the Expected Expiration Date (EED). This date is calculated by Questel by taking into account the differences in the patent terms for the various patent offices. This EED date determines the Alive (In Force) or Dead (Not in Force) state of the patent.
This date is searchable in combination with the legal actions or events described above or with other search criteria. The AND operator is used to make these combinations.
No restriction is the default - thus no EED date is searched
With the Expiration option, you may search dates with parameters; From, Up to, Between, and On by using the calendars or by entering the dates in the format YYYY-MM-DD.
You may also combine the Expected Expiration Date (EED) with one or more patent offices in the command line. Patent offices must be indicated with the two letter patent office or country code and separated by a comma if there are multiple country codes.
If you do not specify a patent office, the search will be conducted on all offices with legal status coverage.
Example of search
DE patents (national procedure or EP / PCT) having actual or expected
expiration date of December 01, 2011.
(EED/ACT >= 2011-12-01 P (PC/ACT=DE
OR CC/ACT=DE))
The EED date forms part of the ACT index, thus /ACT is used in search request.
The paragraph operator P is used to specify that the patents retrieved with an actual or expected expiration date of December 01, 2011 are DE patents.
Patent offices or countries also form part of the ACT index. You have two possibilities to search for countries; either PC which is country of publication or CC which is a designated state on a PCT or EP application.
All modifications to a search may be made in the command line.
The Command Line
The command (Show cmd) line button, which may be clicked at bottom of the General Search assistant, and which is present at the bottom of the session Search History page, allows you to modify any strategy that has been searched.
In the command line, you may modify the operator, add event groups which are not present in the dropdown menu and define your queries to search specific patent offices with national routes as opposed to regional routes (PCT, EP, etc.).
Refer to the FamPat factsheet for Orbit, accessible by clicking on the Guide & Tutorial link at the top of each search page and scrolling to the bottom of the page for the link named FamPat collection fields, to see a listing of searchable fields and details regarding syntax.