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How to View the Patent Family of an Application?

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When managing global IP rights, it’s crucial to understand how a single invention evolves across jurisdictions. The TIP Tool™ simplifies this with a Patent Family View showing how a U.S. application relates to its foreign counterparts, continuations, divisionals, and parent filings.

What is a Patent Family?

A patent family is a group of related applications that share a common priority such as a continuation, divisional, or foreign filing derived from the same original invention.

The TIP Tool™ automatically identifies and displays these family connections based on:

  • U.S. serial number relationships
  • International counterparts via Espacenet
  • Priority claims and filing structures

Where to Find the Patent Family View

There are two ways to see the patent families:

  1. Go to Portfolio Manager

One way of doing it: Spot the application whose patent families you want to view. There’s a column at the end labeled ‘Foreign Families’.

  1. Another way: Click on the application you want to explore
  2. Scroll to the bottom of the application page
  3. Locate the Continuity Data where you find Gantt Chart view of patent families.
  1. Or at the top of the Application detail page, you’ll see an option for the Family Tree. Clicking on it will take you to the tool’s patent family tree feature.

🔗 Learn more about Family Tree here: How to Understand Patent Families Using the TIP Tool™ Family Tree?

Updated on July 7, 2025

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