The current status and future plans of computer utilization in the Japanese patent office

0172-2190/85 $3.00+.00. Pergamon lnfoLine Inc. © 1985 CEC/WIPO

Worm Patent Information, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 170-176, 1984.

Printed in Great Britain.

The Current Status and Future Plans of Computer Utilization in the Japanese Patent Office Shizuo Shibata, Counsellor for Mechanized Systems, Japanese Patent Office Summary

was increasing strongly every year, and had reached 274 000 in 1964. The purpose of the introduction was to achieve centralized control of application matters, and to develop in several technical fields a patent document retrieval system for use in the examination procedure.

The first computer system was introduced in the Japanese Patent Office in 1964. Since then the fields of the computer utilization have been expanded with the aid of technological improvement.

It was also envisaged to extend in the future the computerization to matters concerning registration and trial, and to extend the retrieval system to all technical fields.

At present the computer is applied to the administration of applications, PCT applications, registrations, publications and trials, as well as to the retrieval of patent documents and trademarks. Future computerization plans include improvements in the administrative and searching systems and advanced uses of the stored information.

2.1.

Computerization in administrative matters

The computerization was started with inputting bibliographical data for new applications and with the printing of a 'notice of application-number' (in the form of a postcard sent to the applicant) and an inquiry list for every application.

1. Introduction For the purpose of dealing with the increase in the number of applications a computer system was introduced to the Japanese Patent Office in 1964. Since then, the fields of the computer utilization have been extended from matters relating to applications to matters relating to grants and trials. Also the processing mode has been expanded from batchprocessing to online-processing. Recently the needs of the online-processing have been growing enormously. The records for each of 8 000 000 applications and for each of 2 000 000 registrations (grants) can immediately be displayed on the screens of terminals installed at various places in the office. 'Letters Patent', i.e. documents communicating the grant of patents, are printed out by Japanese-character printers.

Until that time the proceeding of affairs was recorded by writing on paper, and filing these into books named 'adjust books', which were the only tool to check the state of things. The thickness of one 'adjust b o o k ' was 3 cm and one book contained records of 3000 applications. I00 'adjust books' had to be kept and updated at that time. Suppose no computerization had been introduced, how many books should then be kept at present? The answer is 1600. The reason is that now over 600 000 applications are received every year, and records must be kept during the permitted period for 'requests for examination' and the period for examination. The total thickness of 1600 books would have reached 48 m and incoming and outgoing papers would have to be updated and referred in the books 15 000 times a day, which would be beyond men's power.

It is recognized that computer utilization has spread almost throughout the office. However, looking carefully, several fields can still be found where computerization is really needed but the work is carried out manually.

Since then, the computer utilization has been extended. For instance, now the computer system prints notification papers (such as 'decisions of publication'. 'decisions of grant of patent' and 'decisions of refusal') and produces various statistics concerning application matters.

Efforts have been made to grant industrial property rights quickly and correctly and to meet people's expectations with the aid of computers.

2. The History of Computerization

The foundations for further progress were laid by introducing online processing technology in 1974, and Japanese characters processing technology in 1976.

When a computer system was introduced to the Japanese Patent Office, the number of applications 170

Computer Utilization

171

With the aid of these technologies the computerization of registration matters could be completed in 1978 as regards new registrations.

magnetic discs constituting the 'Application Master File'. The notices of application numbers are printed automatically.

Next it was planned to backlog 1 600 000 (old) paper registrations on magnetic discs during 5 yr. This 5 yr plan was completed in 1983, so that at present the magnetic registration records are complete. As a result, the content of registrations can be displayed on the video screens of terminals. A terminal was also installed in the branch office in Osaka.

(b) Printing of'delivery cards'. For various papers submitted by applicants during the period of examination (such as argument papers, amendment papers, and notices of change of domicile), the corresponding data are input to the computer and 'delivery cards' are printed automatically. The 'delivery card' is a list of computer-recorded data on each application (such as the examiner, the classification, and status of proceeding) from which the location of the 'file wrapper' (a paper bag which contains all papers on the application) can be known. The newly submitted papers are checked and are filed into the 'file wrappers'.

Another subject to be computerized was the administration of trials. The missing of data relating to trials caused many troubles in the computerized systems (e.g. in the publications and registrations systems). Therefore, the purpose of computerization of trial administration was to solve them, as well as to deal with the increase in the number of trials. The computerization of trial matters was completed by March 1983. 2.2. Computerization in searching for examination It was expected that the search for examination would benefit from computer utilization, but actually no satisfactory results were obtained. The ICIREPAT retrieval systems developed under international cooperation have been tested. In several technical fields the systems are applied for practical use in examination, but in other technical fields they are not. Another retrieval system is based upon the IPC. However, it is not applied in practice because of insufficient limitation in the number of answers. The w~tent family inquiry system (a searching system f,~: :.~mily-related patent documents derived from the INPADOC data) and the cited documents inquiry system (a searching system for documents cited in 'notifications of reasons for refusal') are well used as aid for examination. A trademark retrieval system was developed and has been improved. This system is applied in the practice of examination.

3.

Summaries of Systems

3.1. Appfications processing system Application papers submitted by applicants are checked up on formality aspects, examined, and a decision is taken for grant or refusal. Adminstrative work relating to these processes is called 'application matters', and has been computerized as follows. (a) Recording in the 'Application Master File'. Bibliographical data of each application (such as the kind of protection desired, the application number, the d :~e of application, the title of the invention, and the applicant's name and domicile) are recorded on

(c) Printing of decision papers. In case of no answer to a 'notification of reasons for refusal' or no 'opposition' for 'grant of patent', the decision papers are automatically printed by the computer. They are sent to the examiner to be confirmed officially. (d) Others. The data recorded in the 'Application Master File' are used for producing data for INPADOC and for making various statistics. 3.2. PCT applications processing system PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) provides that the designated office has to perform certain tasks before the domestic examination. This system deals with various management work during the period from the 'reception of notice from the international bureau' to the 'publication of the searched application', as well as the supervision of the time-limit for the submission of the translation. For that purpose, the 'PCT Master File' is prepared similarly to the 'Application Master File.' After the publication, PCT applications are treated in the same way as the ordinary domestic applications, and the records are transferred to the 'Application Master File'. 3.3. Registrations processing system The registrations processing system deals with matters relating to the registration of granted patents, such as the receipt of annual fees, the transfer of rights, and also the delivering of copies of registered records at request. The computerized registration system started in1978. By that time, the complete identification of rights had been guaranteed by the introduction of Japanese characters processing technology, and the immediate inquiries of the contents of the registrations had been guaranteed by the introduction of online processing technology. In the Patent Law it is provided that a part or the whole of the Patent Register can be prepared by

172

Shizuo Shibata

means of magnetic medium. All the valid patent rights have been transformed from the paper Register to the magnetic Register, and registration matters are now completely processed by computer. This system deals with the office work on registrations from the establishment of the right to the extinction. 3.4. Publications processing system In parallel with the improvement of computerization, printing technologies have also shown a tremendous development in recent years. From the time the first computer was installed in the Patent Office, it was expected to apply the computerized data to the editing process of official gazettes. Since the introduction of the Japanese characters processing technology in 1976, the computerized bibliographical data have been applied to the editing process of the 'official gazettes for unexamined applications'. Applying the classification data which are recorded in the 'Application Master File', it has also been possible to classify the applications to be published into industrial groups, sort them by classification, give them publication numbers and make indexes automatically. 3.5. Trials processing system Although it can be said that the trial matters are the continuation of the application matters, in reality they were processed completely independently of each other. In order to process the trial matters, many ledger-books had to be arranged and referred to. The number of trials, however, was increasing every year, and the already computerized systems, such as the applications processing system and the registrations processing system, suffered from the lack of the data of trial matters. Under these conditions the trials processing system was developed. By the completion of this system continuous processing of administrative matters was realized, and consequently, administrative efficiency could be achieved. As there exist many kinds of trials (such as trials against decisions of refusal, trials against rulings to decline amendments, trials for invalidations of patents, trials for revisions and trials for invalidations of revisions,) the system has become highly complex. There was established an advanced system adopting real-time technology and the like, and making use of the experience on the applications processing system. The trials processing system is similar to the applications processing system as regards designations of trial examiners, input of data on various papers submittted by demanders, input of data on official actions, automatic output of standard trial decisions,

and so on. It is this way the management by electronic computer instead of customary ledger-books was introduced in 1982. 3.6. Patent documents retrieval systems The burden of searching in examination is enlarged every year because of the increase of the number of patent documents and of the progression and complication of technology; therefore the development of the retrieval systems has been expected eagerly. (a) ICIREPAT retrieval system. The ICIREPAT (Paris Union Committee for International Cooperation in Information Retrieval among Patent Offices) retrieval system was developed under international cooperation. The system has been tested in the Japanese Patent Office in the technical fields of cameras, steroids, etc. Questions are composed of terms (keywords) and logical operators ('and', 'or', 'but not'), and input with keyboards at terminals. Answers are displayed on video screens of terminals. In the case of too many answers, the question can be altered accordingly. Beforehand each document must be analyzed to establish the keywords which then must be recorded together with the other data. The analysis work is very difficult, because analysts must be professionals in the technical fields and they must read a large volume of documents carefully. This system is applicable for practical use in certain technical fields. (b) IPC retrieval system. In contrast to the ICIREPAT system, the IPC system covers all fields but is not suitable for precise retrieval. This system used IPC symbols as main retrieval keys accompanied by auxiliary terms arranged for domestic use. The process of retrieval is similar to that of the ICIREPAT system. The data base is produced from the 'Application Master File' and the INPADOC data. (c) Patent family inquiry system. Using this system, documents in family-relation can be found among patent documents published in about 50 countries. The data base is obtained from the INPADOC data. Inquiries are answered by lists of bibliographical data of the documents. (d) Cited documents inquiry system. Using this system, inquiries can be made for documents cited in "notifications of reasons for refusal" or in "oppositions to grant of patent". This system enables us to take a view of documents with closely related technical contents.

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Computer Utilization 3.7. Trademarks retrieval system Trademark applications are examined in various aspects, such as necessary conditions, the sameness or similarity with already registered trademarks as regards appearance, sound of name, related notions, and kinds of goods. However, the most important aspect is the similarity of sound of name, and the rate of applications relating to a name amounts to 80% of the total trademark applications. Therefore the computerized trademark retrieval system has been designed for this purpose and the sounds of trademark names registered or applied for were recorded in the computer file. Needless to say, the inquiries of this system are only used in aid of examinations. Examiners take the final decision, considering various conditions in many aspects. The first version of this system has already been completed, but is expected to be improved by adopting a more precise retrieval algorithm. 3.8. Illustration of computer utilization The utilization of computers in the Patent Office is shown in Fig. 1. The Applications Processing System covers the biggest part of the procedure, the Registrations Processing System covers the procedure after the decision to grant a patent, and the Trials Processing System covers the procedure after appeal for trial. These three systems together with both retrieval systems and with the Publications processing system cover almost all tasks of the Patent Office.

4.

Other Topics

4.1. Online processing The word 'online' means a type of computer utilization in which a computer and terminals are connected with tele-communication lines, and end-users can use the computer themselves at remote terminals. (a) Application inquiry. For every application its publication number, registration number, applicant, agent, examiner, classification, status of proceedings, etc are displayed on terminals. (b) Registration inquiry, copy of the Patent Register. For every registration its application number, publication number, title of invention, patentee, and other details of the Patent Register are displayed on terminals. (c) Trial inquiry system. For every trial the items analogous to the application inquiry are displayed on terminals. (d) Retrieval systems for examination. These are the ICIREPAT retrieval system, IPC retrieval system,

175

patent family inquiry system, cited documents inquiry system, etc. Documents ID's and IPC's are displayed on terminals.

(e) TSS (Time Sharing System) services. TSS services were started for various utilizations (e.g. technical calcualtions on examination, simulations etc.). The displays obtained from inquiries (a) (b) and (c) are shown in Fig. 2. 4.2. Computer hardware The first computer introduced in the Office was named HITAC-3010, which had only a capacity of current Office computers. This was in 1964, and since then the hardware system has been replaced several times in order to reinforce the capacity in accordance with the extension or the improvement of utilization and with the increase of the number of applications and registrations. At present the Office has a duplexed computer system (2 sets of H I T A C M-260H) applied for various kinds of types of processing. Regarding the Japanese Characters processing technology, the system can deal with about 3500 Japanese characters, each of which is coded with 2 bytes of bit patterns. The number of Japanese characters goes far over 3 500, so any uncoded character must be replaced by one of the 3 500 coded ones. Japanese character printers can print about 4000 characters including alphabetical and numeric characters and other symbols. A diagram of the components of the computer system is shown in Fig. 3. 4.3. Security measures for accidents or disasters If application data or registration data were damaged, the work in the Office would fall into complete confusion. It would take a long time and large costs to recover these data, and maybe some data could not be recovered. Therefore security measures are taken to protect these important data from accidents and disasters by making weekly copies of the master files which are kept at a distant place.

5.

Future Plans

Computers are used in many fields of the Patent Office work as shown above. Regarding future extensions and improvements, the following can be said. (a) Improvement in administrative systems Each system has been developed and is processed independently. Now the integration of all these systems

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is required, in order to do the office work more coherently and efficiently. Since Japanese word processors are widely used to produce application papers, it is expected to use the electronic data obtained at the same time as input to these systems. (b) Improvement in searching It is eagerly desired to get more effective searching systems for documents including image data, because the current systems are not satisfactory for the practical use of examination.

applying computerized data produced in the administrative processes or stored for the searching system. For instance, it is required to develop information systems open to the public for the purpose of sound management and practical use of industrial property rights. Also it is required to simulate or analyze the future development of technology with various statistic techniques for the establishment and promotion of a policy for proper applications.

6. The most important purpose of the searching systems is of course to find the most relevant document which may be cited in the 'notification of reasons for refusal'. However, an examiner's decision process is very complicated. For instance, an examiner consults documents in search files by turning over the pages forwards and backwards in order to find the most suitable document for making his decision. In order to develop more effective searching systems, these processes have to be simulated by computer. Although huge costs and a long time will be needed, this must be achieved within 10 yr, because the number of the documents is increasing enormously and the technology level of inventions is becoming more and more complicated. (c) Advanced use of stored information Advanced use of stored information is desired,

Conclusion

The principal fields of computer utilizations are as follows. (a) administrative matters in the Office (b) searching for examination (c) advanced use The adminstrative matters in the Office are processed under the cooperation of men and computers, and the computerization will never be perfectly completed, because as circumstances vary, the processes should be adapted and improved. Needless to say, utilization for searching is very. important, and the efforts to develop the effective searching systems should be continued in future. The importance of advanced use of stored information has been recognized only recently, and the research for this field has already been started.