DWPI PRIMARY ACCESSION NUMBERS FROM 2008
With the increasing number of Basic patent applications published each year and the ongoing enhancements being made to DWPI coverage, we needed to accommodate more than one million Basic patents per year from 2008.
The previous use of number-only primary accession numbers, introduced in 1983, limited the number of Basics in any one year to 999,999.
Rather than increase the length of the primary accession number, we have resumed the use of letters in the accession number from DWPI Update 200801.
The format is as follows:
- YYYY-LNNNNN
- where L is a letter in the first position after
the hyphen
The first accession of 2008 is 2008-A00001. The number series then increments up to 2008-A99999, then to 2008-B00000, 2008-B00001 and so on.
We will not use the letters I, O or S as they can be confused with 1, 0 or 5.
The following table shows the use of letters in existing records, for reference.
| Year | Update Range | CPI PANs | Non-CPI PANs |
| 1970 | 197001-197051 | 1970-00001R to 1970-95670R | |
| 1971 | 197101-197151 | 1971-00001S to 1971-81761S | |
| 1972 | 197201-197252 | 1972-00001T to 1972-82958T | |
| 1973 | 197301-197352 | 1973-00001U to 1973-81444U | |
| 1974 | 197401-197452 | 1974-00001V to 1974-90143V | 1974-AOOOlV to 1974-M2941V |
| 1975 | 197501-197552 | 1975-00001W to 1975-86863W | 1975-AOOOlW to 1975-N8140W |
| 1976 | 197601-197652 | 1976-00001X to 1976-98006X | 1976-AOOOlX to 1976-M3809X |
| 1977 | 197701-197751 | 1977-00001Y to 1977-91815Y | 1977-AOO01Y to 1977-L3671Y |
| 1978 | 197801-197851 | 1978-00001A to 1978-93189A | 1978-AOOOlA to 1978-L2564A |
| 1979 | 197901-197951 | 1979-00001B to 1979-92774B | 1979-AOOOlB to 1979-L9040B |
| 1980 | 198001-198051 | 1980-00001C to 1980-92116C | 1980-AOOOlC to 1980-M3105C |
| 1981 | 198101-198152 | 1981-00001D to 1981-96934D | 1981-AOO01D to 1981-N4167D |
| 1982 | 198201-198246 | 1982-00001E to 1982-99800E | 1982-AOO01E to 1982-02171E |
| 1982 | 198247-198251 | 1982-00002J to 1982-11618J | 1982-AOO02J to 1982-B5631J |
| 1983 | 198301-198326 | 1983-00001K to 1983-63800K | 1983-AOO01K to 1983-J8153K |
| Single Unified Accession Number Range | |||
| 1983 | 198327-198351 | 1983-700001 to 1983-850679 | |
| 1984 | 198401-198451 | 1984-000001 to 1984-318609 | |
| 1985 | 198501-198551 | 1985-000001 to 1985-323507 | |
| 1986 | 198601-198652 | 1986-000001 to 1986-346722 | |