Dear Alan,
To return to your original question:
>My original question was whether or not the U.S. application numbers can serve as unique identifiers so that I can write SS/NNN,NNN as NN,NNN,NNN - excluding the year - with no loss of information. And the answer so far has been, "Yes."
>
I would agree that the answer is yes, at least for the US (other
jurisdictions have been known to issue "the same" application number
twice). But as Edlyn points out, many patent documents have been
published and entered the databases without their application series
code on the front page or (subject to checking) present in PAIR, so if
you were going to reconstruct your proposed full identifier for older
records, it can only be by inference from the year-series concordance.
Best regards,
Stephen
--
Stephen Adams
Magister Ltd.
Crown House, 231 Kings Road, Reading, RG1 4LS, GB
Tel: +44 (0)118 966 6520
Fax: +44 (0)118 966 6620
E-mail: stevea_at_magister.co.uk (replace _at_ by @ to use)
Website : http://www.magister.co.uk
Registered in England and Wales. Company No. 3407685
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Received on Wed Apr 23 2008 - 14:11:49
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