{ "model": { "rank": 2994, "code": "thing-q253623", "model_id": "vr.tr.patent", "name": "patent", "purpose": "Enable an AI agent to recognise a patent, assess the evidence for its scope and current state, and identify actions that require further verification or authority.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.MED", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q253623/", "tier": 2, "score": 93, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "European Patent", "patent in Belgium", "chemical patent", "German Imperial Patent", "United States patent", "Unitary patent", "design patent", "essential patent", "biological patent", "software patent", "biological patent in the United States" ], "aliasCount": 11, "merged": 11, "knownIn": 93, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.patent-communication", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q253623", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q253623", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-07T14:07:11Z", "providers": [ "Codex", "Grok" ], "missingProviders": [], "pass": 2, "cost": { "grok": { "usd": 0.0081753, "turns": 1, "seconds": 88, "error": null }, "codex": { "seconds": 88.3, "error": "Reading additional input from stdin...\nOpenAI Codex v0.153.3\n--------\nworkdir: R:\\02_PROJECTS\\02_Meta_Models_Platforms\\Ver.cy\\current\\thing-registry-backlog\nmodel: gpt-6-astra\nprovider: openai\napproval: never\nsandbox: read-only\nreasoning effort: none\nreasoning summaries: none\nsession id: 01a07c30-6ff6-7801-9621-c60f3f780f83\n--------\nuser\nYou are drafting a Vercy meta-model for one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: patent\nRegistry id: vr.tr.patent\nPlane / domain: INF / INF.MED\nRegistry definition: (none recorded)\nNames folded into this entry: (none)\n\nA Vercy mod" } } }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q253623", "registryId": "vr.tr.patent", "name": "patent", "version": "0.1.0-research.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.MED" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q253623/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.patent", "name": "patent", "purpose": "Enable an AI agent to recognise a patent, assess the evidence for its scope and current state, and identify actions that require further verification or authority.", "definition": "A patent is a territorial exclusive right, granted by a government patent office after examination (or in some systems after registration), that entitles the patent holder, for a limited term, to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing a claimed invention, in exchange for public disclosure of that invention in a specification whose claims define the legal scope of protection.", "scope_statement": "This model owns the identity, claimed subject matter, territorial and temporal scope, recorded legal state, rights relationships, and action constraints of an individual patent, with links to its application and related patents.", "in_scope": [ "Patent identity and its relationship to application, publication, and grant records", "Claims and the documentary context needed to interpret their boundaries", "Territorial coverage, relevant dates, and evidence of current legal state", "Inventorship, ownership, and recorded interests affecting authority to act", "Maintenance, challenge, and exploitation events affecting the patent" ], "out_of_scope": [ "The invention as a technical design, implementation, or scientific discovery", "Patent applications as independently managed prosecution matters", "Patent families and portfolios as aggregate assets", "Licence and assignment agreements as complete contractual instruments", "Infringement litigation as a complete legal proceeding", "Products, markets, and businesses that practise or commercialise an invention" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "An asserted grant can be matched to an issuing authority and grant record; an application publication alone does not establish that the model represents a granted patent.", "The protected subject matter is identified through a particular claim set, rather than inferred solely from the title, abstract, or a product description.", "The record represents an individually identifiable right rather than treating related national grants or an entire patent family as one patent.", "The patent is distinguished from the underlying invention: technical disclosure, ownership of a prototype, or use of an idea does not by itself identify the patent right.", "An expired, revoked, or otherwise inactive patent remains identifiable as a patent, while its present action possibilities must be assessed separately." ], "characteristics": [ { "name": "Authority-qualified patent identity", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Issuing authority, identifier, and document kind as recorded by the source", "why_it_matters": "Prevents applications, publications, grants, and similarly numbered records from being conflated." }, { "name": "Grant verification", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "Verified grant | asserted grant awaiting verification | conflicting evidence", "why_it_matters": "Determines whether the record can confidently be treated as an individual patent." }, { "name": "Relevant claim set", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Link to a dated claim text and the event establishing its relevance", "why_it_matters": "Scope assessments depend on which claims and version are being considered." }, { "name": "Territorial effect", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Jurisdictions or territories, each with dated supporting evidence", "why_it_matters": "An action assessment must address the place where the contemplated conduct occurs." }, { "name": "Recorded legal state", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "Source-reported status by territory and effective date; unresolved conflicts retained", "why_it_matters": "A historical grant record does not establish the patent's current state." }, { "name": "Relevant dates and deadlines", "kind": "measurement", "unit_or_values": "Calendar dates with event type, jurisdiction, source, and whether observed or calculated", "why_it_matters": "Supports time-sensitive review without presenting an unverified calculation as a legal deadline." }, { "name": "Rights-holder relationships", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Inventor, applicant, recorded proprietor, asserted owner, licensee, or other evidenced interest", "why_it_matters": "Different relationships support different conclusions about control and authority." }, { "name": "State evidence freshness", "kind": "measurement", "unit_or_values": "Source retrieval timestamp and source-stated update or effective date", "why_it_matters": "Reveals when a state assessment needs refreshing before an action." } ], "affordances": [ "Resolve an asserted patent identifier against authority records and distinguish it from related application or publication identifiers.", "Retrieve and compare relevant claim versions, preserving the events that changed them.", "Assemble a dated, territory-specific state assessment with explicit evidence gaps.", "Trace recorded rights relationships and identify missing evidence of authority to maintain, license, or transfer the patent.", "Prepare maintenance or review tasks from verified events and deadlines.", "Frame a claim-specific technical or legal review without treating a preliminary match as an infringement or freedom-to-operate conclusion." ] }, "sources": [ { "id": "wipo-patents", "title": "Patents", "url": "https://www.wipo.int/en/web/patents", "what_it_supports": "WIPO's definition of a patent as an exclusive right granted for an invention, the public-disclosure bargain, territoriality, and the typical 20-year term from filing.", "url_status": "live" }, { "id": "wipo-faq", "title": "Frequently Asked Questions: Patents", "url": "https://www.wipo.int/en/web/patents/faq_patents", "what_it_supports": "Practical distinctions among utility, design and plant patents; utility models; patentability criteria (novelty, inventive step, industrial applicability); first-to-file; PCT international applications; and that a patent is not a right to use but a right to exclude.", "url_status": "live" }, { "id": "wto-trips-art27-33", "title": "Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), Articles 27-34", "url": "https://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/27-trips_04c_e.htm", "what_it_supports": "The WTO floor: patents available for products and processes in all fields of technology; exclusions (ordre public, diagnostic/therapeutic/surgical methods, plants and animals); 20-year minimum term from filing; exclusive rights to prevent making, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing; compulsory-licence conditions in Article 31.", "url_status": "live" }, { "id": "uspto-patents", "title": "Patent basics / Patents", "url": "https://www.uspto.gov/patents", "what_it_supports": "US practice: utility, design and plant patents; 20-year term from non-provisional filing for utility/plant (subject to PTA/PTE); 15-year term from grant for design patents filed on or after 13 May 2015; role of the USPTO as examining office.", "url_status": "live" } ], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "patent-identity-and-lineage", "name": "Patent identity and lineage", "description": "Establishes which individual patent is represented and how its documentary history connects to related records.", "rationale": "Patent searches expose multiple identifiers and related documents that can otherwise be mistaken for the same right.", "layers": [ { "id": "grant-identification", "name": "Grant identification", "description": "Separates evidence of a grant from evidence of filing or publication.", "findings": [ { "id": "authority-and-grant-record", "name": "Authority and grant record", "description": "Records the authority-qualified identity and the evidence supporting treatment as a granted patent.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which issuing authority, patent identifier, and document kind identify this patent?", "kind": "definition", "id": "authority-and-grant-record-q01" }, { "text": "Which authoritative record establishes the grant, and what grant date does it report?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "authority-and-grant-record-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "application-and-family-links", "name": "Application and family links", "description": "Connects the patent to its originating application, asserted priority, and related rights without merging them.", "findings": [ { "id": "documented-lineage", "name": "Documented lineage", "description": "Distinguishes document versions and procedural ancestry from separate patents concerning related subject matter.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which application and publication records belong to this patent, and which sources establish those links?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "documented-lineage-q01" }, { "text": "Which priority or family relationships are recorded, and which linked records represent distinct rights rather than alternate identifiers?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "documented-lineage-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "claims-and-technical-boundaries", "name": "Claims and technical boundaries", "description": "Identifies the claim text under consideration and the technical distinctions needed to examine its scope.", "rationale": "A patent's title or abstract cannot substitute for identifying the relevant claims and their limitations.", "layers": [ { "id": "claim-text-and-version", "name": "Claim text and version", "description": "Establishes the provenance and procedural relevance of each claim set.", "findings": [ { "id": "relevant-claim-set", "name": "Relevant claim set", "description": "Preserves the claims used for an assessment, including dependencies and evidenced changes.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which claim text is relevant to the territory and date being assessed, and where was it obtained?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "relevant-claim-set-q01" }, { "text": "Which claims are independent or dependent, and which documented events amended, cancelled, or otherwise affected them?", "kind": "definition", "id": "relevant-claim-set-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "claim-interpretation", "name": "Claim interpretation", "description": "Connects claim language to technical evidence while preserving uncertainty about legal interpretation.", "findings": [ { "id": "limitations-and-interpretive-evidence", "name": "Limitations and interpretive evidence", "description": "Identifies material claim limitations and the supporting or conflicting evidence needed to interpret them.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which technical features or steps does each claim require, including limitations incorporated through dependency?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "limitations-and-interpretive-evidence-q01" }, { "text": "Which passages, drawings, prosecution records, or decisions bear on disputed terms, and which interpretations remain unsettled?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "limitations-and-interpretive-evidence-q02" }, { "text": "What additional technical evidence or qualified review is needed before using a claim comparison to support a proposed action?", "kind": "action", "id": "limitations-and-interpretive-evidence-q03" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "territorial-and-temporal-state", "name": "Territorial and temporal state", "description": "Assesses where and when the patent has a recorded effect and which events may alter that assessment.", "rationale": "Grant, territorial effect, maintenance, and challenge outcomes must be evaluated at the relevant place and time.", "layers": [ { "id": "territory-and-status", "name": "Territory and status", "description": "Records jurisdiction-specific state with effective dates and source freshness.", "findings": [ { "id": "dated-territorial-effect", "name": "Dated territorial effect", "description": "Separates evidenced territorial state from assumptions based on a grant or family relationship.", "questions": [ { "text": "For the proposed place and date of activity, what evidence establishes this patent's territorial effect?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "dated-territorial-effect-q01" }, { "text": "What state does the relevant authority report, when did it take effect, and when was the record checked?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "dated-territorial-effect-q02" }, { "text": "Do missing records or conflicting status reports prevent a reliable assessment for any relevant territory?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "dated-territorial-effect-q03" } ] } ] }, { "id": "maintenance-and-state-changing-events", "name": "Maintenance and state-changing events", "description": "Tracks obligations and proceedings that may affect duration, scope, or continued effect.", "findings": [ { "id": "obligations-and-intervening-events", "name": "Obligations and intervening events", "description": "Records evidenced payments, deadlines, term adjustments, and proceedings without assuming their consequences.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which maintenance obligations or term-related dates are verified, and what evidence supports any calculated deadline?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "obligations-and-intervening-events-q01" }, { "text": "Which lapse, restoration, surrender, challenge, or review events are recorded, and what effect has been confirmed rather than merely requested?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "obligations-and-intervening-events-q02" }, { "text": "What next maintenance or review action is indicated, by when, and whose authority is needed to carry it out?", "kind": "action", "id": "obligations-and-intervening-events-q03" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "rights-and-action-authority", "name": "Rights and action authority", "description": "Connects evidenced interests in the patent to the authority and information needed for contemplated actions.", "rationale": "Identifying a patent or a named inventor does not establish who may control it or authorise a transaction.", "layers": [ { "id": "ownership-and-interests", "name": "Ownership and interests", "description": "Distinguishes named roles and traces evidence of ownership and other interests.", "findings": [ { "id": "rights-chain-and-role-separation", "name": "Rights chain and role separation", "description": "Records who is associated with the patent, in what capacity, and with what supporting evidence.", "questions": [ { "text": "Who is named as inventor, applicant, recorded proprietor, and asserted current owner, and which sources support each role?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "rights-chain-and-role-separation-q01" }, { "text": "Which transfers, co-ownership arrangements, licences, or other interests affect control, and where are the evidential gaps?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "rights-chain-and-role-separation-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "contemplated-use-and-disposition", "name": "Contemplated use and disposition", "description": "Frames a specific action against the patent's evidenced scope, state, and rights relationships.", "findings": [ { "id": "action-specific-readiness", "name": "Action-specific readiness", "description": "Determines what is established and what must be resolved before maintaining, licensing, transferring, asserting, or relying on the patent.", "questions": [ { "text": "What action is proposed, by which actor, for which territory and date, and what evidence establishes that actor's authority?", "kind": "action", "id": "action-specific-readiness-q01" }, { "text": "Which claim, status, ownership, or agreement uncertainties must be resolved before that action proceeds?", "kind": "action", "id": "action-specific-readiness-q02" }, { "text": "Which separate patents, permissions, or product-specific assessments must be considered before treating this patent as support for permission to practise an invention?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "action-specific-readiness-q03" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "evidence-and-external-alignment", "name": "Evidence and external alignment", "description": "What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.", "rationale": "A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.", "layers": [ { "id": "reported-evidence", "name": "Reported evidence", "description": "Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.", "findings": [ { "id": "evidence-kinds", "name": "Kinds and varieties", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "utility patent (invention patent): protects a new, useful, and non-obvious product, process, machine, or composition of matter", "design patent / registered design: protects the ornamental appearance of an article, not its technical function", "plant patent / plant variety protection: protects asexually reproduced plant varieties (US plant patent) or distinct plant varieties under UPOV-style PVP systems", "utility model / petty patent / short-term patent: a shorter, often less-examined right for incremental technical inventions (e.g. Germany Gebrauchsmuster, China utility model)", "provisional patent application: a priority-preserving filing that is not itself examined or granted (US; analogous priority filings elsewhere)", "standard-essential patent (SEP): a patent declared essential to a technical standard, typically licensed on FRAND terms", "software / computer-implemented invention patent: claims a technical contribution implemented in software, eligibility of which varies sharply by jurisdiction", "pharmaceutical / biotech patent (including secondary patents and SPCs): composition, process, formulation, or use claims, often extended by supplementary protection certificates" ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-kinds-q01", "text": "Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of patent this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-identifiers", "name": "Identifiers and schemes", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ { "scheme": "Wikidata", "value_or_pattern": "Q253623 (patent as legal instrument); also Q101333 / instance-of patent documents", "note": "The concept 'patent' is Q253623; individual granted patents and applications are usually modelled as documents with identifiers below." }, { "scheme": "ST.16 type / kind codes (WIPO)", "value_or_pattern": "letter-plus-number kind code after the publication number, e.g. A1 (first publication of application), B1 (granted patent), U (utility model) - codes are office-specific", "note": "Kind codes distinguish application, grant, correction and utility-model publications for the same number." }, { "scheme": "ST.3 office code + national/regional number (WIPO)", "value_or_pattern": "CC + serial, e.g. US11234567B2, EP3123456A1, WO2024/123456A1, CN112345678A", "note": "Country/office code (ST.3) plus document number plus kind code is the usual human citation form." }, { "scheme": "application number", "value_or_pattern": "office-assigned filing number, often with year, e.g. US 17/123,456; PCT/US2024/012345; EP 24123456.7", "note": "Identifies the pending file, not the published or granted document." }, { "scheme": "publication number", "value_or_pattern": "number assigned when the specification is published, commonly 18 months from priority", "note": "Distinct from the application number and, in many offices, from the grant number." }, { "scheme": "DOCDB / INPADOC family ID (EPO)", "value_or_pattern": "integer family identifier grouping documents that share a priority", "note": "Used to treat territorial counterparts as one invention family." }, { "scheme": "CPC / IPC classification", "value_or_pattern": "IPC: section-class-subclass-group, e.g. A61K 31/00; CPC adds finer subdivisions", "note": "Subject-matter classification of the invention, not an identity of the legal right." }, { "scheme": "priority number (Paris Convention)", "value_or_pattern": "first-filing office + number + date, claimed within 12 months", "note": "Links later filings in other countries to the same invention's priority date." } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-identifiers-q01", "text": "Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of patent this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-standards-and-regulation", "name": "Standards and regulation", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "WTO TRIPS Agreement (1994, as amended), Arts. 27-34 - World Trade Organization: minimum patentability, rights, term (20 years from filing), and compulsory-licence conditions for WTO members", "Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1883, as revised) - WIPO: national treatment and 12-month priority right", "Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT, 1970) - WIPO: international application, international search and preliminary examination, then national/regional phase", "WIPO ST.3, ST.9, ST.13, ST.14, ST.16, ST.26, ST.36/ST.96 - WIPO: office codes, bibliographic data, application numbering, kind codes, sequence listings, XML patent document formats", "European Patent Convention (EPC, 1973 as revised) - European Patent Organisation / EPO: unitary grant procedure for contracting states; Art. 52-57 patentability; opposition; Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court overlay for participating EU states", "35 U.S.C. (Patent Act) and USPTO Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) - United States: utility, design and plant patents, AIA first-inventor-to-file, term, PTA/PTE", "EU Regulation (EC) No 469/2009 (medicinal products) and (EC) No 1610/96 (plant protection products) - European Union: supplementary protection certificates extending patent-like protection after grant", "National patent acts and office guidelines (e.g. China Patent Law and CNIPA guidelines; Japan Patent Act and JPO; India Patents Act 1970 as amended, including s.3(d) for pharmaceuticals) - each territorial office" ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-standards-and-regulation-q01", "text": "Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of patent this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-real-world-use", "name": "Real-world use", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "An inventor or company files a specification and claims at a national or regional office (or via PCT), paying filing, search, examination, grant and renewal fees; the application is typically published at 18 months and may grant years later after examination.", "The granted claims are used to exclude competitors, to license (exclusive, non-exclusive, FRAND for SEPs), to collateralise finance, to list in Orange Book / patent registers for medicines, and to support customs recordation against infringing imports.", "Freedom-to-operate (FTO) searches treat other parties' patents as blocking rights that must be designed around, licensed, or invalidated before product launch.", "Litigation and opposition (EPO opposition within 9 months of grant; USPTO IPR/PGR; national revocation) are the usual ways the right is tested; most patents never go to court.", "In standards bodies (ETSI, ITU, IEEE) companies declare SEPs and commit to FRAND licensing; in pharma, patents gate generic entry until expiry or SPC/PTE end, then data/market exclusivity may still block." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-real-world-use-q01", "text": "Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of patent this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-measurements", "name": "Typical measurements", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ { "quantity": "maximum term of a utility/invention patent", "typical_range": "20 from filing date (TRIPS minimum; extensions via SPC/PTE/PTA can add years, commonly up to about 5 extra in medicines)", "unit": "year" }, { "quantity": "Paris / PCT priority window", "typical_range": "12 from first filing", "unit": "month" }, { "quantity": "pre-grant publication lag", "typical_range": "18 from earliest priority (or earlier on request); some offices defer or withhold until grant", "unit": "month" }, { "quantity": "design-patent term (US, post-13 May 2015 filings)", "typical_range": "15 from grant", "unit": "year" }, { "quantity": "utility-model term (typical)", "typical_range": "6 to 10 from filing, office-dependent", "unit": "year" }, { "quantity": "maintenance / renewal fee cadence", "typical_range": "annual in most EPO/national systems; USPTO at 3.5, 7.5 and 11.5 years after grant", "unit": "year" }, { "quantity": "claim count in a typical utility filing", "typical_range": "about 10 to 30 independent-plus-dependent claims before excess-claim fees bite; complex families can run to hundreds", "unit": "count" }, { "quantity": "grant lag (application to grant)", "typical_range": "roughly 2 to 5 for many major offices on a straightforward case; longer with continuations, divisionals, or oppositions", "unit": "year" } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-measurements-q01", "text": "Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of patent this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards", "name": "Failure modes and hazards", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "Invalidity after grant: claims anticipated or obvious over prior art, insufficient disclosure, added matter, or ineligible subject matter (abstract ideas, laws of nature, medical methods in some offices).", "Lapse for non-payment of renewal/maintenance fees, or failure to enter national phase of a PCT in time.", "Over-broad or poorly enabled claims that do not survive opposition or litigation, leaving the holder with a paper right.", "Infringement of others' patents (including SEPs) despite holding one's own patent - a patent is a right to exclude, not a right to practise.", "Evergreening / secondary pharmaceutical patents and thickets that delay generic or biosimilar entry, raising medicine prices and access concerns.", "Hold-up and royalty stacking around SEPs when FRAND commitments are disputed.", "Territorial holes: no protection where not filed; parallel imports and compulsory licences (TRIPS Art. 31, Doha Declaration on public health) can limit enforcement.", "Fraud on the office or inequitable conduct (US) can render the patent unenforceable; wilful infringement can multiply damages." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards-q01", "text": "Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of patent this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-regional-variation", "name": "Regional variation", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "United States: three statutory types (utility, design, plant); first-inventor-to-file since AIA 2013; grace period for inventor-originated disclosures; design term 15 years from grant; no utility models.", "Europe (EPC / UPC): single EPO grant then national or unitary effect; no US-style grace period in general; medical methods excluded (Art. 53(c) EPC); software as such excluded (Art. 52) unless a technical effect is shown; Germany and others also offer utility models.", "China: invention patents plus a large utility-model system and design patents; CNIPA examination practice and dual-filing (invention + utility model) are distinctive.", "Japan and Republic of Korea: strong examination, utility models (Japan's is now largely registration-based), and relatively high grant quality metrics.", "India: no patents on plants, animals, or methods of agriculture/medicine as such; s.3(d) restricts new forms of known substances without enhanced efficacy; compulsory licensing used in public-health cases.", "Latin America and LDC TRIPS flexibilities: some offices historically delayed pharma product patents; least-developed WTO members have transition periods; Andean and other regional regimes differ on second-use claims.", "Naming: 'patent' vs 'invention patent' (CN), 'brevet' (FR), 'Patent / Gebrauchsmuster' (DE), 'utility model' / 'petty patent' / 'innovation patent' (AU innovation patent abolished 2021)." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-regional-variation-q01", "text": "Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of patent this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-neighbours", "name": "Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ { "name": "copyright", "difference": "Copyright arises automatically in original expressive works and does not protect abstract technical ideas or functional methods; a patent requires filing, examination (usually), and claims a novel technical invention for a short term." }, { "name": "trade secret / undisclosed information", "difference": "A trade secret lasts while secrecy is maintained and never requires disclosure; a patent requires enabling public disclosure and expires on a fixed term. Reverse engineering a secret is generally allowed; practising a valid patent claim is not." }, { "name": "utility model / petty patent", "difference": "Same industrial-property family but typically shorter term, lower inventiveness threshold, and little or no substantive examination; not every office offers it, and TRIPS does not require it." }, { "name": "registered design / design patent / industrial design", "difference": "Protects ornamental appearance of a product, not technical function; test is visual overall impression / novelty of appearance, not inventive step of a technical teaching. (US confusingly calls this a 'design patent'.)" }, { "name": "plant variety right (UPOV PVP)", "difference": "PVP protects a distinct, uniform, stable variety as such, with breeder's-exemption and farm-saved-seed rules; a plant patent (US) or biotech patent claims a specific asexually reproduced plant or a genetic/technical invention, not the UPOV variety denomination system." }, { "name": "supplementary protection certificate (SPC) / patent term extension (PTE)", "difference": "Not a new patent: a sui generis extension of protection for a patented authorised medicine or plant-protection product to compensate regulatory delay; it depends on an underlying basic patent and a marketing authorisation." }, { "name": "defensive publication / prior-art disclosure", "difference": "A publication dedicated to the public to block others from patenting; it creates no exclusive right and is the opposite legal tool from filing for a patent." }, { "name": "trademark", "difference": "A trademark identifies commercial origin of goods/services and can last indefinitely with use and renewal; it does not monopolise a technical solution. Confusion arises when product names and patented technologies are marketed together." } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-neighbours-q01", "text": "Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of patent this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Does the registry's patent entry include design and plant patents or analogous protection types, and which require distinct questions or neighbouring models?", "How should regional grants, national validations, and unitary effects be represented while preserving the registry's authoritative granularity?", "Which authority records and update intervals are sufficient to support each jurisdiction's status and maintenance assessments?", "Which jurisdiction-specific rules and evidence are required to verify term calculations, restoration possibilities, and the effects of pending challenges?", "What evidence and qualified review are required before recorded ownership or a claim comparison can support a consequential action?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 9, "findings": 16, "questions": 28 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "work, medium or creative form", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a patent, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Enable an AI agent to recognise a patent, assess the evidence for its scope and current state, and identify actions that require further verification or authority.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted", "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: European Patent, patent in Belgium, chemical patent, German Imperial Patent, United States patent, Unitary patent, design patent, essential patent, biological patent, software patent, biological patent in the United States.", "11 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 93 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a patent, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "read it and act on what it says", "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "What is seen is a copy or a performance, not the work. Recognising the work means recognising the content through whatever is carrying it." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "European Patent", "patent in Belgium", "chemical patent", "German Imperial Patent", "United States patent", "Unitary patent", "design patent", "essential patent", "biological patent", "software patent", "biological patent in the United States" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 93 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 11 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one patent from another, and a patent from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a patent, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a patent, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a patent is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a patent, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a patent, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a patent is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a patent sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a patent, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a patent, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a patent is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a patent from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a patent, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a patent, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a patent is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a patent passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a patent between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a patent, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a patent, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a patent is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a patent, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a patent is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a patent, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a patent, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a patent is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "content-and-access", "name": "Content, encoding and access", "description": "What a patent says, how it is encoded and who may read it.", "rationale": "An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.", "layers": [ { "id": "content-and-encoding", "name": "Content and encoding", "description": "The content itself, its format and its language.", "findings": [ { "id": "content-and-format", "name": "Content, format and language", "description": "What a patent contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a patent, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the content of a patent, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the content of a patent is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-rights", "name": "Access, rights and retention", "description": "Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-rules", "name": "Access rules and retention", "description": "The permissions attached to a patent and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a patent, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about access to a patent, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once access to a patent is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "work-and-manifestation", "name": "Work, version and copy", "description": "Which level of patent a statement is about.", "rationale": "The work, the edition, the file and the copy in hand are four things; rights and content attach to different ones.", "layers": [ { "id": "levels", "name": "Levels of the thing", "description": "Work, expression, manifestation and item, in plain terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "level-rules", "name": "What belongs at each level", "description": "Which facts hold for the work and which only for one copy.", "questions": [ { "id": "level-rules-q01", "text": "For patent, which facts belong to the work itself, which to a version, and which to a single copy?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "level-rules-q02", "text": "What identifier exists at each level, and which one is being cited?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "versions", "name": "Versions, editions and variants", "description": "How versions differ and which is canonical to whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "version-record", "name": "Versions and canonicity", "description": "Differences that matter and who calls one authoritative.", "questions": [ { "id": "version-record-q01", "text": "Which versions or editions of patent exist, and how do they differ substantively?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "version-record-q02", "text": "Who treats which version as authoritative, and for what purpose?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "authorship-and-rights", "name": "Authorship, rights and permitted use", "description": "Who made patent and what may be done with it.", "rationale": "Rights are jurisdictional, time-limited and attached to a level, and an agent that ignores that will copy what it may not.", "layers": [ { "id": "authorship", "name": "Authorship and contribution", "description": "Who contributed what, and in what capacity.", "findings": [ { "id": "contribution-record", "name": "Contributors and roles", "description": "The people and bodies behind it, with their roles.", "questions": [ { "id": "contribution-record-q01", "text": "Who authored or contributed to patent, in what roles, and how is that attested?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "contribution-record-q02", "text": "Where authorship is disputed or anonymous, what is recorded instead?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "rights", "name": "Rights and permissions", "description": "Which rights subsist, where, until when, and what they permit.", "findings": [ { "id": "rights-record", "name": "Rights, term and permitted acts", "description": "The regime in force and what it allows.", "questions": [ { "id": "rights-record-q01", "text": "What rights subsist in patent, in which jurisdictions, and until when?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "rights-record-q02", "text": "Which acts are permitted without further permission, and which must an agent refuse?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a patent came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a patent and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a patent, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a patent, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a patent is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a patent is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a patent, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a patent, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a patent is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }