A patent family is a set of patents taken at various offices to protect a given invention. It is triadic when the invention to which it refers has been the subject of a patent application at the European Patent Office (EPO) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO), and the subject of the issue of a title of ownership at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In other words, a triadic patent protects an invention on the U.S., European and Japanese markets simultaneously.                       
                       
The process that leads to obtaining a patent from the EPO, the JPO and the USPTO can take several years. The processing of patent applications in each of the three offices involves a waiting time due to the administrative and legal steps taken, the publication of the patent applications filed, and the incorporation of the information into the databases. Consequently, data on triadic patents are complete only five or six years after the date of issue of the title at the USPTO. This is why the most recent indicators featured in this section are a few years behind.                       
                       

The data in this section represent the number of patents granted by USPTO that are part of a triadic family. Triadic patent families are set up by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) using the USPTO, EPO and JPO databases. The data were compiled by the Observatoire des sciences et des technologies (OST) using the OECD and USPTO databases. For further information on the indicators, see the“Sources and Definitions” section.