US equivalent to EP 1,159,137

Dear all,

I recently came across a situation which raised questions I wish I knew
answers to. I hope that somebody will be able to shed some light on what is
a mystery to me.

Looking for possible US equivalent(s) to EP 1,159,137, I checked its INPADOC
patent family record, where I found the following entry:


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (US)
  Legal Status (No,Type,Date,Code,Text):
     US 20010914868 A 20010904 US REFW CORRESPONDS TO PCT
                              APPLICATION
                              WO 200051818 P


(I found a similar entry in Esp_at_cenet database, when checking "INPADOC legal
status" of WO 200051818 (or WO0051818), where the date of 20010904 was
additionally qualified as "publication date". There is no US equivalent of
EP 1,159,137 or WO0051818 according to "INPADOC patent family" information
provided by Esp_at_cenet database. The USA appears among the designated states
of the PCT application published as WO 200051818.)

The above raises the following questions:

1. What does the number "US 20010914868" represent?

Even though consistent with the format used by USPTO for publication numbers
(and assuming no data entry errors), this number seems way too high to be a
publication number. Assuming that the number represents a combination of a
US filing year (US national entry year) and a US filing (serial) number
makes things no better. Is the number "0914868" a combination of the series
code "09" and the serial number "14868" (i.e., 09/14868), or is it simply a
serial number "914868" with leading zero added to comply with a format's
requirement? To make the long story short, searches of USPTO databases of
patents and published patent applications, and the Public PAIR based on all
the above assumptions plus the name of the inventor and assignee of EP
1,159,137 failed to locate any US equivalent of the latter.

2. In view of the above, is it possible that the corresponding US
application is still pending and remains confidential?

This is not a trivial question, for me at least. WO 200051818 claims
priority from FR 1999/2515 filed March 1, 1999. As the preliminary
examination of the PCT application was requested, it likely entered the US
national phase under Chapter 2 of the PCT, i.e., in 30 months from the
priority date, which apparently almost fits the date of September 4, 2001
shown in the INPADOC record and in Esp_at_cenet database (September 1, 2001 was
a Saturday). However, it seems that with such a US filing date, this
application should have been published. Is it possible that this has not
happened and, if so, why?

3. Assuming that the number "US 20010914868" contains a serial number of an
UNPUBLISHED patent application, how this information has entered the public
domain? My understanding is that any data regarding US unpublished patent
applications (including their serial numbers) remain confidential until a
patent is granted.

Any enlightenment regarding the above-raised questions would be greatly
appreciated.

Kazimierz T. Kaminski, Ph.D.
ktk_at_infoscitech.ca

InfoSciTech
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Orleans, ON
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Received on Wed Oct 12 2005 - 08:20:20