DialogWeb Help:  The IDPAT (Identify Patents) Command

Patent databases overlap in their coverage. The IDPAT command lets you manage overlapping patent data by organizing a set of patent records into family-related groups of records in which duplicate patents are identified.

IDPAT creates a summary and a table of patent groups. The summary includes the count of family groups, unique patent records not part of a group, and any non-patent records found in the set. The patent group table identifies each unique group by a G number and gives the number of records in each group, the file and accession numbers for primary records, and the file and accession numbers for duplicate records.

The IDPAT command can be used alone or with a designated set number, idpat s3. You can limit the display to summary information by entering idpat short and you can use IDPAT with a specific file, idpat from 654. These options can also be used together, for example, idpat s3 short from 654.

When you use an IDPAT command, the table or summary display is followed these options:

• Show Group Table - redisplays the patent group table or if IDPAT SHORT was used, displays the group table
• Show Summary - redisplays summary information
• Quit - closes IDPAT and returns you to command mode
• TYPE or PRINT Selected Records - displays or prints specified records
• TYPE or PRINT Primary & Non-Duplicate Records - creates a set of non-duplicate records and displays or prints those records

Up to 5,000 records or 50,000 patent or application numbers can be included in IDPAT sets.