ANNOTATION GUIDELINES

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Preliminary comments

The patent corpus that we consider for Germany spans the period 1877-1980 and has 2 types of formats.

Format 1, from DE1C to DE977922C

Information display

For this format, the information is given at the top of the document, in a header, just below the seal of the Patentamt. This format experiences some evolution over time.

From publication number DE1C (1877) to DE13105C (1881), the front page of the patent usually does not have any text (at least in the documents that were retrieved by Espacenet) and contain the following information (and in that order):

• the reference of the patent: "Patentschrift No (...)"
• the name and location of the assignee (either a person or a firm) E.g: "S.Frank in Stolp (Pommern)"
• the title of the (claimed) invention. E.g: "Neuerungen an Tabakspfeifen" (Innovations for pipes)
• a technological class number, sometimes with the title of this class. E.g: "Klasse 44, Kurzwaaren" (Class 44, Dry Goods). This classification is specific to Germany.

From publication number DE13106C to DE977922C (1973), some changes are introduced with the relevant information being still located in the header. The main difference is that the technological class now comes right below the patent number, while the seal of the patent office is at the top of the document. Information about the assignee is unchanged, as well as the title of the invention which comes below. See example 2.

More on format 1

• Erfinder: From 1944 onwards, an important item is added right before the name of the assignee: a line specifies the name of the inventor (Erfinder) as well as his location. E.g : "Bernhard Ziebell, Braunschweig" or "Eugen Stich in Mannheim". A second line explicits this: "(...) ist als Erfinder genannt worden...".
• Technological class: In 1957, for the first time an "international class" is specified for the patent (as opposed to the German class).

Information extraction

We extract 5 different "entities" from the header of DE patents in format category 1.

Entity	Content	E.g
ASG	Assignee full name	ANTON KLEBER ASG in SAARBRUCKEN
INV	Inventor full name (Erfinder)	Frutz Doring INV, Berlin-Frohnau ist als Erfinder genannt worden
LOC	Location of the assignee/inventor	Demag Akt-Ges. in Duisburg LOC.
OCC	Occupation of the assignee/inventor (academic title)	Dipl-Ing OCC Georg Werner Gaze, Ingolstadt
CLAS	Technological class (German system)	KLASSE 49h GRUPPE 27 D 16736VI/49h CLAS

These entities are tied together with 2 types of relations.

Relation	Content	E.g.
LOCATION	Links an ASG/INV to a LOC	MARIUS ALBERT de DION ASG-->LOCATION-->PUTEAUX (Seine, Frankr.) LOC
OCCUPATION	Links an ASG/INV to an OCC	Dr. OCC<--OCCUPATION<--KARL HENKEL ASG

Format 2, from DE977923C to DE978074C and from DE1000001B onwards

This format corresponds to two subformats:

• The first subformat starts with DE1000001B, in 1957.
• The second subformat starts with patent DE1283771, in 1968.

Information display

With the second subformat, we get back to a format that does not have a body of text.

In the first frame of the header, one gets the following information:

• the reference of the patent (Auslegeschrift # or Offenlegungsschrift #).
• the technological class number. E.g: "Deutsche Kl.: 21c-22"
• the publication date (Auslegetag or Offenlegungstag). E.g: "Auslegetag: 9.September 1965"

In the second frame of the header, one gets the following information:

• the title of the invention (Bezeichnung). E.g: "Bezeichnung: Wegwerfwindel".
• the name and location of the assignee (Anmelder). E.g: "Anmelder: The Procter&Gamble Co., Cincinnati, Ohio (U.St.A)".
• the name and location of the inventor (Erfinder). E.g: "Erfinder: Buell, Kenneth Barclay, Cincinnati, Ohio (U.St.A)".

It seems that the specifically German technological classifications are not even mentioned from 1975 onwards. When a person is located in Germany, the name of the city is typically accompanied by a zipcode (e.g: "7000 Stuttgart", "2000 Hamburg", "8000 München", ...).

More on format 2

Oddly, some patents issued after 1957 have publication number inferior to 1000000. Those patents are published (ausgegeben) in or after 1973 and up until 1980. Their format is almost identical to format 2. The only difference with format 2 is that the document is again presented as a Patentschrift (not an Offenlegungsschrift) and the publication date is announced by the word Ausgabetag.

Information extraction

We extract 5 different "entities" from the header of DE patents in format category 2.

Entity	Content	E.g.
ASG	Assignee full name	Anmelder: Greer Hydraulics, Inc. ASG, Los Angeles, Calif. (V.St.A.)
INV	Inventor full name	Erfinder: Knight, David George INV Sommershall, Chesterfield (Großbritannien)
LOC	Location of the Assignee/Inventor	Anmelder: Sharp K.K., Osaka (Japan) LOC
OCC	Occupation of the Assignee/Inventor (academic title)	Dietrich Jurgen, Dr.-Ing. OCC; 7033 Herrenberg
CLAS	Technological class (German system)	Deutsche Kl.: 42 i, 8/80 CLAS

These entities are tied together with 2 types of relations.

Relation	Content	E.g.
LOCATION	Links an ASG/INV to a LOC	The Procter&Gamble Co. ASG-->LOCATION-->Cincinnati, Ohio (U.St.A) LOC
OCCUPATION	Links an ASG/INV to an OCC	Spitzke, Wolfgang ASG-->OCCUPATION-->Ing.(grad.) OCC

Entities

Format 1

INV

General case

The tag INV refers to the full name of an inventor. This is a person that is not referred to as the assignee and is sometimes specifically referred to as the inventor (Erfinder). The document might introduce the inventor with phrases like "ist als Erfinder genannt worden" or "als Erfinder benannt", or simply with "Erfinder : (name)".

Specific cases

• Inventor=Assignee: sometimes, the inventor and the assignee are the same person and the document does not repeat the name. In this case, we do not tag further. See example 2 from patent DE1575852A1.
• Academic title: in some cases, the inventor has an academic title (see example 3 from patent DE918881C). This title is not part of the tag INV but is part of a tag OCC (see below)
• Secret inventor: some publications do not report the name of the inventor on purpose. In such case, the patent includes the following sentence "der Erfinder hat beantragt, nicht gennant zu werden". See for example patent DE825754C. In such case, we do not label any inventor.

Examples

1. Standard Case, from patent DE869602C

   Bela Barenyi  INV, Stuttgart-Rohr, ist als Erfinder genannt worden

2. Inventor=Assignee, from patent DE1575852A1

   Als Erfinder bennant: Erfinder ist der Anmelder

3. Academic title, from patent DE918881C

   Ing. Karl Nowak INV, Wien

   ist als Erfinder gennant worden

ASG

General case

The tag ASG refers to the full name(s) of the person(s) or firm(s) who own(s) the patent rights.

Specific Cases

• Former name: Do not label the former name of the company when it is given. This is signalled by the German word "vormals". See example 3 from patent DE134077C.
• vertreten: in the rare cases where an assignee uses a third party to represent her, only label the assignee. See example 4.

Examples

1. Standard Case with a firm, from patent DE283698C

   SIEMENS-SCHUKERT WERKE G.M.B.H.  ASG IN SIEMENSSTADT B. BERLIN

2. Standard Case with several persons, from patent DE170522C

   AUGUST REINHOLD ILCHMANN  ASG IN DRESDEN, GUSTAV ADOLF RAUER ASG IN DRESDEN-RADEBEUL UND EHREGOTT RICHTER  ASG IN DRESDEN

3. Specific Case 1 (Former Name) from patent DE134077C

   ELEKTRIZITÄT-AKTIEN-GESELLSCHAFT  ASG VORMALS SCHUKERT&CO IN NÜRNBERG

4. vertreten from patent DE824442C

   Deutsche Bundesbahn ASG vertreten durch das Eisenbahn-Zentralamt Minden, Minden (Westf.)

LOC

General case

The tag LOC refers to the full location sequence. It is usually the name of a city and a region (or state, or province) in which the city is located.

Specific cases

• District: When the assignee is located in Germany, the document might go as far as to give a particular district within the assignee's city. See example 5. More rarely, only the district (without the city) is provided. See example 6.

• Former City: Some cities mentioned by sufficiently old patents might not exist anymore, at least as cities (they might have become part of a larger agglomeration at some point between the publication and today).

Examples

1. Standard Case with a standalone city, from patent DE13106C

   HERMANN SCHULZ in RATIBOR LOC

2. Standard Case with a German city and its Land, from patent DE872632C

   Friedrich Stemmermann in Sinzheim bei Bühl (Bad.) LOC

3. Standard Case with a city and its country, from patent DE153621C

   GEORGE JAMES GOODALL IN PORTHILL (ENGL.)LOC.

4. Standard Case with a city, a region/state and a country from patent DE887191C

   Scovill Manufacturing Company, Waterbury, Conn. (U.St.A)LOC.

5. District, from patent DE283698C

   SIEMENS-SCHUKERT WERKE G.M.B.H IN SIEMENSSTADT B. BERLINLOC.

6. District, from patent DE93717C

   KALKER WERKZEUGMASCHINENFABRIK L.W.BREUER, SCHUMACHER&CO. IN KALKLOC.

7. Former City, from patent DE78165C

   H.W. SOLFRIAN IN HOLSTERHAUSEN BEI EICKEL LOC

N.B: Holsterhausen is now part of the city Herne.

OCC

General case

The tag OCC refers to the academic title of an INV or ASG. It typically corresponds to a prefix before the name which is an abbreviation of a title (e.g. Dr., Ing. etc...).

Examples

1. from patent DE975335C

   Dr. OCC Wilhelm Michael, Ludwigshafen/Rhein, und Dr. OCC Wolfgang Jäckh, Heidelberg sind als Erfinder gennant worden

CLAS

General case

The tag CLAS refers to the German technological class that usually appears on patents up until 1975. It can encompass more or less details.

Do not include "Deutsche Kl" in the label.

When two classifications are given (international and German) only label the German's. See examples 3 and 4.

Do not label the description of the class. See example 1.

Label also the subclass. See example 4 and 5.

Examples

1. standard case with a class number and its brief description, from patent DE4010C

   Klasse 44 CLAS KURZWAAREN

2. standard case with a class number and a group number, from patent DE283698C

   KLASSE 21d GRUPPE 19 CLAS

3. standard case with a German class code and an international class code, from patent DE1200408

   Int.Cl.: H02f

   Deutsche Kl.:21c-22 CLAS

4. standard case with a German class code and an international class code with a subclass, from patent DE949207C

   KLASSE 49a GRUPPE 3603 CLAS INTERNAT. KLASSE B23b B 30976 lb/494 CLAS

5. standard case with a class number, a group number and additional information from patent DE923434C

   KLASSE 20h GRUPPE 7 St 5364 II/ 20h CLAS

Format 2

INV

General case

The tag INV refers to the full name of an inventor. This is a person that is referred to as Erfinder. It appears after the item Als Erfinder banannt: or simply after Erfinder:.

Specific cases

Examples

1. standard case

2. als erfinder benannt from patent DE2054787A1

   Als Erfinder benannt: Ohyama, Yasishi INV; Miyazawa, Saduyuki INV, Kyoto (Japan)

ASG

General case

The tag ASG refers to the full name of an assignee, either a firm or a person. This is a person that is referred to as Anmelder. It appears after the item Anmelder:. When the assignee lives outside Germany, the patent also specifies the name of the patent attorney (Vertreter). We are not interested in this information and the associated entities (LOC and OCC namely).

Specific cases

Examples

1. standard case from patent DE2818594A1

   Anmelder: Greer Hydraulics, Inc., Los Angeles, Calif. (V.St.A.)

LOC

General case

Similar to format 1.

Specific cases

• full address: in some rare instances, the inventor or the assignee gives its full address at the top of the body (in addition to giving its city in the header). See example 2. In more frequent cases, the full address is given in the header (see example 3).

Examples

1. standard case from patent DE1201058B

   Anmelder: General Aniline & Film Corporation, New York, N.Y. (V.St.A) LOC

2. full address from patent DE2745546A1

   Anmelder: Katzer, Rudolf, Graz (Osterreich) LOC [...] Rudolf Katzer Klosterwiesgasse 29 8010 Graz . Osterreich LOC

3. full address from patent DE1026733B

   Anmelder: Pintsch Bamag Aktiengesellschaft Berlin NW 87, Reuchlinstr. 10-17 LOC

OCC

General case

XX

Specific cases

XX

Examples

1. standard case from patent DE1158387B

   Dr. techn. OCC Erns Fiala, Sindelfingen (Wurtt.)

2. title after the name from patent DE2814877A1

   Erfinder: Diekman, Peter, Dr. OCC, 2300 Kiel

CLAS

General case

Similar to format 1.

Specific cases

• Class KL: In some cases, the class is given in the form: KL.XXXXXX, in such case, we label the "KL." See example 2.

Examples

1. standard case from patent DE1218989B

   Deutsche Kl: 8f-3.51 CLAS

2. Class KL. from patent DE1158387B

   KL.63C 42 CLAS INTERNAT.KL. B62 d

CIT

General case

On some rare occasions, the origin of the firm is precised. This seems to only be the case for US firms. The CIT is either printed in full letter (example 1) or with abbreviations (example 2).

Examples

1. nach den Gestzen from patent DE1216661B

   Anmmelder: Revere Copper and Brass Incorporated, eine Gesellschaft nach den Gesetzen des Staates Maryland CIT, New York, N.J. (V.St.A.)

2. in parenthesis from patent DE2500682A1

   Anmelder: Process Systems, INc. (N.D.Ges. d.Staates Nevada), Salt Lake City, Utah (V.St.A.)

Relationships

See the common annotation guidelines.

Examples

Example 1: Format 1 before 1881

Example 2: format 1 without inventor

Example 3: format 1 with inventor

Example 4: format 2, first subformat

Example 5: format 2, second subformat