ANNOTATION GUIDELINES

Warning

GitHub markdown does not fully support visual annotation components (e.g. entity boxes) used below. We invite user interested in the annotation guidelines to download the documents and open it in a development environment supporting extended markdown syntax (e.g. MacDown, PyCharm, etc) and/or save it as a pdf.

Preliminary comments

The patent corpus that we consider for US has 4 types of formats and spans the period 1836-1980.

The formatting is different from one format to the next one. In publication prior to US1248454A, the relevant information is contained in the first paragraph and in the header (format 1), it is subsequently only contained in the header. See Figures 1,2, 3 and 4 for an example of each format type. From publication US3930271A onward, we use information provided by the USPTO in the Patentsview database.

Format 1, from 1836 to 1926

This first format starts with patent US1A and ends with patent US1583766A published in 1926, it is characterized by the presence of the item "be it known" at the top of the text.

We extract 4 different "entities".

Entity	Content	E.g.
INV	Inventor full name	Be it known that I, JAMES M. GARDINER INV, ...
ASG	Assignee full name	ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO SMITH FULMER ASG
LOC	Location of the inventor/assignee	residing at Mikkalo, in the county of Gilliam and State of Oregon LOC
CIT	Citizenship of inventor	JOHN SCHLATTER, a citizen of United States CIT

Entities are tied together with 2 types of relations.

Relation	Content	E.g.
LOCATION	Links an INV/ASG to its LOC	SEDWARD WILLIAM YOUNG INV-->LOCATION-->Tytherley, Wimborne, Dorset, England LOC
CITIZENSHIP	Links an INV/ASG to its CIT	WILLIAM H. BAKER INV-->CITIZENSHIP-->citizen of the United StatesCIT

Format 2, from 1926 to 1933

This second format starts with patent US1583767A and ends with patent US1920166A. All the information is contained in a header just below the title.

We extract 4 different "entities".

Entity	Content	E.g.
INV	Inventor full name	PHILIP B. ROHNER INV OF CARROLL, IOWA
ASG	Assignee full name	ASSIGNOR TO NICHOLAS POWER COMPANY, INC. ASG, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., SMITH FULMER ASG
LOC	Location of the assignee/inventor	WARBEN NOBLE AND LEON W. PITTMAN, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN LOC
CIT	Citizenship of assignee	STOW MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF BINGHAMTON, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK CIT

Entities are tied together with 2 types of relations.

Relation	Content	E.g.
LOCATION	Links an INV/ASG to its LOC	ISIDOR EDWARD BRENNER INV-->LOCATION-->CHICAGO, ILLINOIS LOC
CITIZENSHIP	Links an ASG to its CIT	EASTERN EXPANDED METAL COMPANY  ASG-->CITIZENSHIP-->CORPORATION . OF MASSACHUSETTS CIT

Format 3, from 1933 to 1971

This third format starts with patent US1920167A and ends with patent US3554066A. The information is still in the header under the title but adopts a different formatting. Note that the ending point for format 3 is not very clear as a few publications continue to have a similar format after US3554066A, although most of them have format 4.

We extract 4 different "entities".

Entity	Content	E.g.
INV	Inventor full name	Vincent S. Farricielli INV , New Haven, Conn.
ASG	Assignee full name	assignor, by mesne assignments, to Mohasco Industries, Inc. ASG, Bridgeport, Pa.
LOC	Location of the assignee/inventor	Hugh Graham Webster and Ray W. Thomas, Detroit, Mich LOC
CIT	Citizenship of assignee	, assignors to Esso Research and Engineer ing Company, a corporation of Delaware CIT

Entities are tied together with 2 types of relations.

Relation	Content	E.g.
LOCATION	Links an INV/ASG to its LOC	George NorwitzINV-->LOCATION-->Philadelphia, Pa.LOC
CITIZENSHIP	Links an ASG to its CIT	The De Laval Separator Company ASG-->CITIZENSHIP-->Corporation of New Jersey CIT

Format 4, from 1971

In this fourth format, the information is structured in the front page of the patent. For these patents, the identity of the inventor and the assignee are clearly stated along with their addresses. We consider patent US3554067A to be the first patent of Format 4, but some publications are closer to format 3 even after this number. We consider all cases.

We extract 4 different "entities".

Entity	Content	E.g.
INV	Inventor full name	Inventor: Vincent S. Farricielli INV , New Haven, Conn.
ASG	Assignee full name	Assignee: Hannes Marker ASG, Garmisch-Partenkirchen Germany.
LOC	Location of the assignee/inventor	Theodore A. Rich Scotia, N.Y. LOC

Entities are tied together with 1 type of relations.

Relation	Content	E.g.
LOCATION	Links an INV/ASG to its LOC	Willi Wolff INV-->LOCATION-->Schildgen, Germany LOC

Named Entity recognition

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.

Specific cases

• Inventor in the header (example 1)
• Inventor in the text (example 2)

Examples

1. Inventor in header, from patent US1108402A

   PAUL SCHMITZ INV, OF COLOGNE-NIEHL, GERMANY

2. Inventor in text, from patent US913422A

   Be it known that I, CHARLES M. McConrnok INV

ASG

General case

The tag ASG refers to the full name of the assignee, usually a person but can also be a firm.

Specific cases

• Assignee as a person (example 1)
• Assignee as a firm (example 2)

Examples

1. person, from patent US1030738A

   ASSIGNOR OF NINE THIRTY-SECONDS TO JOSEPH ANTOINE HILAIRE HEBERT ASG

2. firm, from patent US1488673A

   ASSIGNOR TO MIEHELE PRINTING PRESS & MANUFACTURING COMPANY ASG

LOC

General case

The tag LOC refers to the full location of an inventor or an assignee. The granularity of the location information is the city in the standard case. In some rare instances, the full address is given, in which case only the city/county/state/country must be labeled.

Specific cases

• Location in header: the location is given in the header in the form: CITY/STATE or CITY/COUNTRY (example 1)
• Location in text: the location is also given in the text following the name of the inventor. The location is usually given as "in [CITY] in the county of [COUNTY] and state of [STATE]" (example 2)
• Detailed address: in some rare cases, more detailed information is given such as the borough or the full postal address. In which case only information more aggregated than city is labeled (example 3)

Examples

1. location in header, from patent US1030738A

   WILLIAM. V. B. AMES, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS LOC

2. location in text, from patent US1530731

   resident of Osceola in the county of Clarke and State of Iowa LOC

3. detailed address, from patent US114318

   a resident of the borough of Brooklyn, county of Kings, city and State of New York LOC

CIT

General case

The tag CIT refers either to the citizenship of the inventor (or assignee when applicable) or to the legal origin of an assignee firm. The initial a ("a firm", "a citizen") must not be labeled.

Specific cases

• Citizenship of the inventor: the citizenship usually follows "a citizen of" (example 1), or "a subject of" (example 2)
• Assignee as a firm (example 3)

Examples

1. Citizen of, from patent US1030738A

   CHARLES B. CLEMENTS, a citizen of the United States CIT

2. Subject of, from patent US1244286A

   Joseph C. Breinl, a subject of the Emperor of Austria CIT

3. Firm, from patent US1488673A

   AMERICAN GRAPHOPHONE COMPANY, OF BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION OF WEST VIRGINIA CIT

Format 2

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.

Examples

1. Standard Case, from patent US1634855

   OSCAR SIVERTZEN INV, OF TRONDHJEM, NORWAY

ASG

General case

XX

Specific cases

• Person Assignee: Some patents report that a person (not the inventor) has some rights over the patent. See example 2.

Examples

1. Standard Case, from patent US198045

   MARCUS B.BERHMAN, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE LOX SEAL CORPORATION ASG, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK

2. Person Assignee, from patent US1908223

   LOFTUS B.CUDDY, OF SEWICKLEY, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO KINLEY J.TENERASG, OF PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA

LOC

General case

XX

Specific cases

• Location of inventor and assignee (example 1)

• Location of the inventor: in the case where there is no assignee, only the location of the inventor is available (example 2). But in some case, the location of the assignee is not given even if there is an assignee (example 3).

Examples

1. Location of inventor and assignee, from patent US1861234

   WILLIAM W.KNIGHT, OF CICERO, ILLINOIS LOC, ASSIGNOR TO ROTH RUBBER COMPANY, OF CICERO, ILLINOIS LOC, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS

2. Location of inventor, from patent US1690033

   WARREN NOBLE, OF DETROIT, MICHIGANLOC

3. Location of inventor with assignee, from patent US1700112

   WILLIAM E. BEATTY, OF LAUREL HILL, NEW YORK LOC, ASSIGNOR TO ELEVATOR, SUPPLIES COMPANY, INC., A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

CIT

General case

The tag CIT refers either to the citizenship of the assignee i.e. the legal origin of the firm when applicable. The initial a ("a firm", "a corporation") must not be labeled.

Examples

1. Standard Case, from patent US1832319

   ASSIGNMENTS, TO UNION CARBIDE AND CARBON RESEARCH LABORATORIES, INC, OF NEW YORK, N.Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK CIT

Format 3

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.

Examples

1. Standard Case, from patent US2924015

   Richard M.GurriesINV, San Jose, Calif.

ASG

General case

The tag ASG refers to the full name of the assignee, usually a person but can also be a firm.

Examples

1. Standard Case, from patent US2831921

   Samuel P.Morgan, Jr., Morristown, NJ, assignor to Bell Telephone Laboratories, IncorporatedASG, New York, NY, a corporation of New York

LOC

General case

The tag LOC refers to the location of the inventor or assignee and is given by the city and state. The state itself is given as the US Government Printing Office code (GPO).

Examples

1. Standard Case, from patent US2224950

   Alfred Burke, New York, N.YLOC

CIT

General case

The tag CIT refers either to the citizenship of the assignee i.e. the legal origin of the firm when applicable. The initial a ("a firm", "a corporation") must not be labeled.

Examples

1. Standard Case, from patent US2924016

   Richard Diener, Berlin-Hermsdorf, Germany, assignor to Berliner Maschinenbau-Actien-Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany, a corporation of GermanyCIT

Format 4

INV

General case

The tag INV refers to the full name of an inventor.

Specific cases

• Format 3: the format 3 corresponds to a format that is very close the format 3 describes above. See example 1.
• Format 4: the standard case which is structured with a dedicated field named: inventor(s). See example 2.
• Deceased: in some rare case, the inventor is dead and an administrator is designated. Only the (dead) inventor should be labeled then. See example 3.

Examples

1. Format 3, from patent US3719374A

   Francisco M. SerranoINV, Paris, France, assignor to

2. Format 4, from patent US3702536A

   Inventor: John W. GregoryINV, Middleburg Heights, Ohio

3. Decreased, from patent US3718608A

   Inventors: Daniel W. MasonINV, Peabody; Henry H. NesterINV, deceased, late of Peabody, Mass. by Dianne L. Nester, administratrix

LOC

General case

The tag LOC refers to the location of the inventor or assignee and is given by the city and state.

Specific cases

• Format 3: the format 3 corresponds to a format that is very close the format 3 describes above. See example 1.
• Format 4: the standard case which is structured. The location appears in the field inventor and/or assignee. See example 2.
• all of / both of: in some cases with multiple inventors, the location is designated in two times (INV1, [CITY] and INV2, [CITY], both of [STATE]). See example 3.
• Full address: in some cases, the full postal address is given. In this case, only the city and more aggregated geographical entities should be labeled. See example 4.

Examples

1. Format 3, from patent US3702735A

   Andrew E. Potter, Jr., Houston, TexLOC

2. Format 4, from patent US3692296

   Inventor: William W. Higginbotham, Monroe, Mich.LOC

3. all of, from patent US3697893A

   James L. Faustlin, PlanoLOC; Eliseo Saenz, GarlandLOC, both of TexLOC

4. full address, from patent US3624981A

   Arthur Fischer, Altheimer Strasse 219, Tumlingen , GermanyLOC

ASG

General case

The tag ASG refers either to the name of the assignee.

Specific cases

• Format 3: the format 3 corresponds to a format that is very close the format 3 describes above. See example 1.
• Format 4: the standard case which is structured with a dedicated field named: assignee. See example 2.
• The United States of America: when the assignee is part of the government, the assignee is referred to as "the United States of America, as represented by XX". In such a case, only "the United States of America" should be labeled (example 3) do not tag the representant

Examples

1. Format 3, from patent US3608112A

   Finn T. Ergens, Milwaukeee, Wis., assignor to Outboard Marine CorporationASG, Milwaukee, Wis.

2. Format 4, from patent US3621396A

   Assignee: Bell Telephone Laboratory, Inc.ASG

3. USA, from patent US3722202A

   Assignee: The United States of AmericaASG as represented by the Secretary of Agriculture

Relationships

See the common annotation guidelines.

Examples

Figure 1: US1248454

Figure 2: US1612578

Figure 3: US2954064

Figure 4: US-3578005