Patent Family Id Number Not Available

[apogre]

The patent family id is not available in the parsed json output and also in the xml files. Is there any other data source we can refer to.

"Patent Family ID Number- The USPTO has recently begun assigning a patent family id number to correlate related documents under a unique Family ID number. Members of the family include published patent applications, US patents, and foreign references, as well as other documents. The information has been added retroactively to the PatFT database, so it is available back to 1970." src: http://ptrca.org/newsletters/2016/comfort

[bgfeldm]

The Patent Family is searchable within PAFT. Unfortunately the Patent Family ID number is not populated in the bulk xml released to the public, probably due to the fact they are ever changing. The definition, algorithm and ultimately the id generated for a Patent Family are dependent to each patent database or search system. Some systems might not have access to all documents within a family to gather them all together. And child members to a patent family would occur after release of already existing family members released within prior patent bulk files to the public. And no, separate bulk file exist to provide or update them as there is for patent classifications.

[bgfeldm]

The definition of Patent family is hard to define completely. Even wikipedia shows their are multiple different concepts for Patent Family.

1. Simple patent family: list sibling applications, international PCT filings within WIPO or each country.
2. Extended patent family: additional applications such as divisionals, continuations, continuations in parts, and Provisional
3. Applications which continues an already "granted" patent to the same inventor or applicant. (perhaps useful but not usually captured)

A simple patent family is what WIPO and EPO tend to refer a patent family; but extended families are what the US and what the US patent community believe to be the most useful, since the US allows for more types of continuations. But it can be harder to gather, compute and apply to each document on a recurring basis; though well established older families, dependent on the algorithm to generate the ids, can have no to little id churn as it's family will likely not change.

Also to note, there is no requirement for the applicant to list sibling PCT applications, through adventitious in order to receive a priority date. An application can be submitted simultaneously to two different countries, or to the same country multiple times (double patenting is a bad practice we can detect some of it) to circumvent possibility of a denials and hope for at least a single allowance or more favorable examiner. Even within patents there is some amount of legal gamingship (some necessary and some possibly abusive). There are legal reasons, to and not to do everything within the law; thus the reason Patent Lawyers are usually necessary. For legal reasons, or gamingship, a lawyer may not want a patent application to fall within it's intended patent family.