The criteria used to determine which representative for a patent family is based on
- The query itself (for example, the relevance of keywords/IPCs/assignees etc.).
- The results view grouping criteria (for example, whether one representative per simple, INPADOC or PatSnap family was selected).
- The criteria used to choose the representative (for example, if you choose for the representative to be selected based on a specific authority priority).
If you amend any of these criteria, the representative may change for this family.
If we specifically look at point 3 above, then the criteria work as follows:
- By Authority Priority: For all the family members that match the query used, those from specifically selected jurisdictions will be selected as the family representative. For example, if the authorities chosen are US>EP>WO>JP>KR, then if there are any US family members that match the query used, one of them will be selected as a representative. If there are more than one US family member, the one with the latest publication date will be selected and if there are more than one with the latest publication date, then the representative will be selected at random.
- By Application Date: For all the family members that match the query used, those with the oldest or latest application date will be selected as the family representative. If there are two representatives with the same oldest or latest application date, then the representative will be selected at random.
- By Publication Date: This works exactly the same way as "by application date", just replacing application date with publication date.
- By Publication Type: For all the family members that match the query used, you can select whether the representative is an application document or a granted patent. If there are two representatives that are both either applications or granted patents, then the representative selected will be the one with the latest publication date.
- Most Relevant: For all the family members that match the query used, the representative selected will be the one considered most relevant relative to the query. The relevancy here is determined in exactly the same way as it is for queries in general. If the top two representatives have the same relevancy score, the representative will be selected at random.
