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Back to the Impact module FAQsThe Patent data in SciVal comes from LexisNexis Intelletual Property DataDirect (IPDD).
SciVal uses 2 Patent Families:
- Dometic Patent Family - for the Patent Counts metric
- Main Patent Family - for the Main Patent Family Count
LexisNexis defines a patent family as a set of related patents applications or granted patents to protect a single invention made by common inventors. While many agree with the patent family definition, there is no globally accepted set of rules that define a patent family. However, patent databases apply various sets of rules to family construction based on shared reference numbers.
Lexis Lexis IPDD defines four types of Patent Families (which come from TotalPatent One):
Domestic family | Includes all subsequent publications of the same application within the same authority, i.e. documents that all share the same application number. |
Main family | Includes a set of patent documents filed in multiple countries to protect a single invention by common inventors. |
Complete family | Includes a set of patent documents filed in multiple countries that are directly or indirectly linked to one root document. |
Extended family | Includes a set of patent documents filed in multiple countries that are directly or indirectly linked to one root document. |
In the example below:
- All 5 publications are members of the Extended family, as indicated by the blue shading.
- US11111111111A1 is a member of the Complete, Main, and Domestic families, as indicated by the blue shading.
- The other 4 publications are not part of the Complete, Main, or Domestic families, as indicated by the grey shading.
Which Patent Families does SciVal use?
SciVal uses 2 Patent Families:
- Dometic Patent Family - for the Patent Counts metric
- Main Patent Family - for the Main Patent Family Count
The Patent Counts metric, is the total count of citing patents. The patents are deduplicated at a Patent Office level, using the Domestic Patent Family.
The Domestic Patent Family includes all subsequent publications of the same application within the same authority, i.e. documents that all share the same application number.
The Main Patent Family Count, is a deduplicated count of patent documents filed in multiple countries, to protect a single invention.
E.g. a patent is filed at the WIPO, UK, Brazil and Indian Patent Offices. This counts as 4 Domestic families, but 1 Main Patent Family.
E.g. a patent is filed at the WIPO, UK, Brazil and Indian Patent Offices. This counts as 4 Domestic families, but 1 Main Patent Family.
This example would give a count of 4 to the Patent Counts metric and a count of 1 for the Main Patent Family Count.
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