Citations & Family

Citations

The Citations tab has three sections:

Patent Citations

Patents that the examiner or applicant cited as prior art during prosecution. These are sometimes called backward citations — documents that existed before this patent was filed and were considered relevant to patentability.

Each row shows:

• Publication Number — links to that patent in GoVeda
• Priority Date — the earliest priority date of the cited patent
• Publication Date — when the cited patent was published
• Assignee — the original applicant or assignee
• Title — the title of the cited patent

Non-Patent Citations

Non-patent literature (NPL) cited during prosecution, such as academic papers, textbooks, standards documents, or technical articles. Each entry shows the full reference text.

Cited By

Patents that have cited this patent after its publication. These are forward citations — they show where this patent has been used as prior art by later filers.

The table format and columns are the same as Patent Citations. Click any publication number to open that patent.

Note on coverage: Citations data is aggregated from the current patent and its family members. Duplicate entries across family members are removed so each cited patent appears once.

Family

Patent families group related filings across jurisdictions. When an inventor files the same invention in multiple countries — or files a PCT application that enters national phase in several countries — those resulting patents form a family.

The Family tab shows all family members other than the patent you are currently viewing.

What each family member shows

Each entry displays:

• UCID — the patent’s unique identifier; click to open it
• Publication Date
• Title
• Applicant

On desktop the family is shown as a table. On mobile it appears as cards. Family members are sorted by UCID for a consistent order.

How to navigate the family

Click any UCID in the Family tab to open that patent in a new tab. This is useful when you want to read the US grant version after reviewing a European application, or when you need the claims in a specific language.

Family and citations

Citations data in GoVeda combines backward and forward citations from the current patent with citations from its family members. This gives you a broader view of the citation network than looking at a single document alone. Duplicates are removed so each patent appears only once in the combined list.