While the inventors automatically own their invention, the patent application may be assigned to someone else, either an individual or a legal entity such as a corporation or a partnership. When a patent is granted in a country belonging to the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the patentee is granted the exclusive right to seek patent protection in another country for the same invention. The resulting group of equivalent patents is called the patent family. The Official Gazette provides patent abstracts consisting of the principal claim and a selected figure of the drawings of each patent, notices of patent and trademark suits, indexes of patents and patentees, lists of patents available for license or sale, and general information including order notices, changes in rules and changes in classification. Patent searchers can look at the abstract and drawings for patents in the Gazette.
Arrangement is by patent number.
This annual index to the Official Gazette is issued in two volumes, one an index of patentees and the other an index by subject matter of patents. T 223 F33 Documents Manual of Classification - This looseleaf manual is a list of all classes and subclasses of inventions in the Patent and Trademark classification. The Classification Definitions note changes in the classification system as well as provide definitions of new and revised classes and subclasses. Determining the proper classification number is a three step process. The BIB CD-ROM also indicates the expiration of utility patents for applications filed after December 12, 1980.