What are INID numbers and why are they important in patent documents?

This page is an FAQ based on guidance from the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure. It is provided as guidance, with links to the ground truth sources. This is information only: it is not legal advice.

INID numbers, which stands for “Internationally agreed Numbers for the Identification of (bibliographic) Data,” are codes used to identify various data on the first page of patent documents. As explained in the MPEP:

“The purpose of INID Codes is to provide a means whereby the various data appearing on the first page of patent and like documents can be identified without knowledge of the language used and the laws applied.”

INID numbers are important because they:

• Allow for easy identification of bibliographic data across different languages
• Facilitate the understanding of patent documents from various countries
• Provide a standardized system for organizing patent information

These codes have been applied to U.S. patents since August 4, 1970, and are now used by most patent offices worldwide.