Alongside the Global Dossier file inspection service sits the less well-known Common Citation Document. The Common Citation Document (CCD) application provides a single point access to up-to-date citation data relating to the patent applications of the IP5 Offices. It consolidates the prior art cited by all participating offices for the family members of a patent application, thus enabling the search results for the same invention produced by several offices to be visualised on a single page.
This information can now be downloaded in Excel format including hyperlinks for the patent references in Espacenet or CSV format for importation into other software.
The CCD also includes some data from other IP offices, and can be of great use in compiling and checking citation information that is required to be supplied to IP offices, such as the USPTO and the Israeli Patent Office.
More information on the CCD can be found on the IP5 website (https://www.fiveipoffices.org/activities/globaldossier/ccd) – as with all tools provided by the IP offices, we encourage our members to provide feedback either directly to the IP offices or via FICPI (which we can pass on).
FICPI’s view and involvement
FICPI members are qualified independent IP attorneys around the world who bring insights and counsel from their wider external perspective and share those insights with their FICPI colleagues via the FICPI website, newsletter, webinars and committees.
Next steps
Get involved with FICPI Study & Work Committees in areas from trade marks to IP in Asia, by visiting: https://ficpi.org/organisation/committees/studyandworkcommittee