The legal status of a patent publication includes information about events affecting the patent application including:
1. Publication stages, usually defined by patent codes e.g., publication of an international application.
2. Equivalent patent publications e.g., a PCT international application such as has entered national phase in another country.
3. Positive events, progressing toward later stages of publication e.g., a search report is published.
4. Negative events, which hinder the patent publication process e.g., an Opposition of the patent publication.
5. Post-publication events e.g., a patent has been licensed or reassigned to another company. Or the term of a patent has expired or been extended.
