The application number is the number assigned to a patent application when it is filed.
The application number for the majority of countries is made up of a country code (two letters), the year of filing (four digits), and a serial number (variable, maximum seven digits). A serial number having fewer than seven digits may be rounded up to seven digits by adding zeros (eg GB19950008026).
Alternatively, the zeros may be omitted entirely (eg GB19958026).
There are twelve countries/organisations which use another format, namely Australia, Germany, China, Brazil, Ukraine, Gulf Council, Hungary, India, Italy, Mexico, OAPI and the WIPO.
In this case, the application number is made up of :
- a country code (two letters)
- the year of filing (four digits)
- “other” information (one or two characters)
- a numerical digit (five to six)
There is a fixed length of 13 characters, excluding the kind code and where appropriate the fixed length is achieved by inserting leading zeroes.
