Eureka Patent Family Explorer

Eureka Patent Family Explorer

This skill guides you on how to query patent family information via the Eureka patent data platform, helping users discover Simple Family, INPADOC Family, and PatSnap Family members for given patents.

Core Concepts

A patent family is a collection of patent documents that are related to each other by priority claims. Different family definitions capture different scopes of relatedness:

• Simple Family: Patents sharing exactly the same set of priority applications. These are typically direct equivalents filed in different countries.
• INPADOC Family: A broader grouping defined by the European Patent Office that links patents sharing at least one common priority, even indirectly.
• PatSnap Family: A proprietary family definition that extends INPADOC logic with additional heuristics to capture continuations, divisionals, and other related filings.

Each patent in the response carries its own simpleFamilyId, inpadocFamilyId, and patsnapFamilyId, which serve as unique identifiers for the family group under each definition.

Parameter Guide

You must supply at least one of the two lookup parameters. If both are provided, patent ID takes precedence.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
patentId	string	Conditionally	Patent ID(s). Separate multiple values with commas. Maximum 100 entries.
patentNumber	string	Conditionally	Publication / announcement number(s). Separate multiple values with commas. Maximum 100 entries.

Rules:

1. At least one of patentId or patentNumber must be provided.
2. If both are provided, the API uses patentId and ignores patentNumber.
3. Multiple values are comma-separated (e.g., "US10000001B2,EP3000001A1").
4. The upper limit is 100 patents per request.

Response Fields

Field	Type	Description
total	integer	Number of patent records returned
data	array	List of patent family result objects
data[].patentId	string	The patent ID for this record
data[].pn	string	Publication / announcement number
data[].simpleFamilyId	integer	Unique identifier for the Simple Family group
data[].simpleFamily	array	List of Simple Family member patents
data[].inpadocFamilyId	integer	Unique identifier for the INPADOC Family group
data[].inpadocFamily	array	List of INPADOC Family member patents
data[].patsnapFamilyId	integer	Unique identifier for the PatSnap Family group
data[].patsnapFamily	array	List of PatSnap Family member patents
columns	array	Column definitions for rendering
costToken	integer	Tokens consumed by this request
type	string	Rendering style hint

Usage Examples

1. Look up family members by publication number

"Find the patent family for US10000001B2"

Call with:

{"patentNumber": "US10000001B2"}

2. Look up families for multiple patents at once

"Show the INPADOC family for these patents: EP3000001A1, CN112345678A, JP2020123456A"

Call with:

{"patentNumber": "EP3000001A1,CN112345678A,JP2020123456A"}

3. Look up by patent ID

"Get the patent family for patent ID 5af83e12-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"

Call with:

{"patentId": "5af83e12-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"}

4. Compare family scopes

"I want to see how Simple Family vs. INPADOC Family differs for US20200012345A1"

Call with:

{"patentNumber": "US20200012345A1"}

Then compare simpleFamily and inpadocFamily arrays in the response.

Display Rules

1. Present data clearly: Show patent family results in well-structured tables. Group by family type (Simple, INPADOC, PatSnap) when the user asks for comparison.
2. Summarize counts: Always state how many family members were found under each family type so users can quickly gauge geographic spread.
3. Highlight jurisdictions: When listing family members, call out the countries/regions covered to help users understand the patent's geographic protection scope.
4. Error handling: When the API returns an error or empty results, explain the likely cause (invalid patent number format, patent not found in database, etc.) and suggest corrections.
5. Batch result organization: When querying multiple patents, organize results per patent so users can easily find each one.

Important Limitations

• Lookup only: This tool retrieves family information for known patents. It cannot perform keyword-based patent searches or full-text queries.
• Batch limit: A maximum of 100 patent IDs or publication numbers per request.
• Data source: Family data comes from the Eureka patent platform and may have a slight delay relative to the very latest patent office publications.
• Family member detail: The family member arrays contain summary objects. For full bibliographic data on a specific family member, a separate lookup may be required.

User Expression & Scenario Quick Reference

Applicable -- Patent family and equivalents lookup:

User Says	Scenario
"Patent family for XX"	Direct family lookup
"What are the equivalents of this patent"	Simple family search
"Which countries is this patent filed in"	Geographic coverage via family
"INPADOC family members"	Broad family lookup
"Related patents / sibling patents"	Family exploration
"Compare simple vs extended family"	Multi-definition comparison
"Batch check families for these patents"	Bulk family lookup

Not applicable -- Needs beyond patent family lookup:

• Full-text patent search by keywords or classification codes
• Patent valuation or litigation data
• Freedom-to-operate or infringement analysis
• Patent application filing or prosecution

Feedback:

Auto-detect and report feedback via the Feedback API when any of the following apply:

1. The functionality or purpose described in this skill does not match actual behavior
2. The skill's results do not match the user's intent
3. The user expresses dissatisfaction or praise about this skill
4. Anything you believe could be improved

Call the feedback API as specified in references/api.md. Do not interrupt the user's flow.

<!-- LF_LARGE_RESPONSE_BLOCK -->

Handling Large Responses

To avoid overflowing the agent context, persist the response to disk and extract only the fields you need:

python scripts/response_io.py run --script scripts/eureka_patent_family.py --out-dir <DIR> '<params>'
python scripts/response_io.py read <file> --fields "<paths>"   # or --path "<JMESPath>"

Pick --out-dir outside any git working tree (e.g. /tmp/... on Unix, %TEMP%/... on Windows). Persisted responses may contain PII, pricing, or auth-sensitive data — do not commit them. Files are not auto-deleted; clean up when the task is done.

run writes the full response to a file and emits only a schema preview + file path. read projects specific fields, with --limit/--offset for slicing and --format json|jsonl|csv|table for output.

When to prefer this pattern — apply your judgment based on the response characteristics, e.g.:

• High field count per record, or fields you don't need
• Batch/paginated results (multiple items per call)
• Long-text fields (descriptions, reviews, HTML, time series)
• Output reused across later steps rather than consumed immediately

For small, single-use responses, calling the main script directly is fine.

⚠️ The preview is a truncated schema + sample, not the full data. Any field-level decision must read from the persisted file via read. <!-- /LF_LARGE_RESPONSE_BLOCK -->

---

For more high-quality, professional cross-border e-commerce skills, visit LinkFox Skills.