The front page of each published patent application contains bibliographic information which identifies the patent number, territorial coverage, inventor's name and address, title of the invention and any classification terms associated with the invention.

This information can be used to investigate:

- the patents filed by a particular company or individual
- the areas of technology in which a company or individual is filing patents
- the companies or individuals patenting in a particular technology
- the marketing strategy of a company.

Family matching

Identification of equivalent patents having common priority details as published by various countries or international authorities. This can help identify equivalents which are published in your own language.