Global Dossier (EXPERIMENTAL)

API URL: https://globaldossier.uspto.gov

Warning

This module is EXPERIMENTAL which means its API may change in the future

Basic Usage

This API tracks the user interface on the USPTO’s Global Dossier. There are no general database lookups (i.e. using filter / limit / offset / order_by), only .get calls work.

To Fetch A GlobalDossier File

To fetch a Global Dossier file, you need three parameters - an office, a number type, and a number. By default, it assumes the lookup is for a U.S. Application number. But if it isn’t a valid application number, then you must specifiy a type. So these work:

from patent_client import GlobalDossier
file = GlobalDossier.objects.get("16123456") # US App
file = GlobalDossier.objects.get("6013599", type="patent") #US Patent
file = GlobalDossier.objects.get("20010000001", type="publication") # US Publication

You can also specify directly all three parameters:

from patent_client import GlobalDossier
file = GlobalDossier.objects.get("16123456", type="application", office="US") # US App

Additionally, patent_client will attempt to infer a country and publication type from a given string, and provide informative errors if it needs more information:

>>> from patent_client import GlobalDossier
>>> GlobalDossier.objects.get("EP1000000")
GlobalDossier(id=1000000, type=publication, country=EP)
>>> GlobalDossier.objects.get("AU1234567")
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
patent_client.uspto.global_dossier.query.QueryException: While country was detected as AU, no type can be inferred. Please pass a 'type' keyword to specify application/publication

Basic Data Structure

A Global Dossier file is a collection of related applications across several patent offices. When you fetch the file, the individual applications are in the GlobalDossier.applications attribute. This will be all applications related to the application you searched.

Often, we don’t want the entire worldwide file - we just want one. As a convienence function, you can use the related GlobalDossierApplication to fetch a single application. The query syntax is the same as the above - it is just a shortcut to the speific application:

>>> from patent_client import GlobalDossierApplication
>>> GlobalDossierApplication.objects.get("16123456")
GlobalDossierApplication(app_num=16123456, country_code=US)

The GlobalDossier interface also provides downloadable document lists for its files. You can find those at GlobalDossierApplication.documents (entire file history), GlobalDossierApplication.office_actions (for office actions only), and GlobalDossierApplication.document_list (includes metadata). Any document can be downloaded by calling the .download method, optionally with an output path.