What is the status of Zotero handling patent references?

13»
  • fbennett
    A fix for Chicago is now up. Thanks for the link to the guide; I'll restrict myself to the six styles in the CitationStylist set for the present, but that's useful information.
  • tnemeth
    Thanks for the quick fix. I tried downloading and installing the new style, but the results in Word don't look like the test doc you posted. Is that expected?
  • fbennett
    edited March 23, 2012
    The proofsheets are done using the MLZ styles, and I see that I haven't yet put Chicago up there (and I see that I haven't yet put Chicago up there -- coming up in a jiffy). In any case, the MLZ styles won't work correctly in real Zotero (yet) because they rely on some input data that is not yet officially supported. The macros that generate that output are completely standard though, so this can be added to the Chicago styles in the Zotero repo.

    @adamsmith: Shall I go ahead and do that?
  • adamsmith
    yes, please do.
  • fbennett
    Whoops. The macros do require some extensions. The jurisdiction is derived from the jurisdiction variable (from a controlled list of codes for countries, federal sub-units, and international organizations), mapped to a printed form by the Abbreviations Plugin (so us -> U.S.). So I guess it stays out for now.

    @tnemeth: I'll put up a link to the MLZ Chicago version soon. It will work properly only with the MLZ version of the Zotero client, which is unsupported (meaning that if you run into difficulties, the core Zotero developers won't answer queries because it's not their code, and hasn't [yet] been reviewed for adoption). If you decide to give it a trial anyway, you'll need to run it with the Abbreviations Plugin as a companion, available from the same site.
  • tnemeth
    @fbennett I've been playing around with the MLZ version, so no problem there. I'll be happy to try the Chicago style with MLZ and the abbreviations plugin as soon as they are ready. Thanks!
  • fbennett
    Some things are still under construction in the styles, but CMS is now linked from the site.
  • tnemeth
    Thanks but it doesn't work yet (or I am doing something entirely wrong). I have the latest MLZ client 3.0m90 installed, and the Word for Windows Integration 3.1.6. Installed the style you linked to and get this as a result for a patent:

    Sholes, Christopher Latham, Carlos Glidden, and Samuel Soulé. ‘Type Writing Machine’. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 23, 1868.

    Any idea where the problem might be?
  • fbennett
    Looks like a secondary resource. Do you have the jurisdiction field set? In the Extra field, you should have something like "{:jurisdiction:us}".
  • tnemeth
    Oh, I didn't realise that. Is there a documentation of the MLZ version I have to read first?

    When I add the {:jurisdiction:us} to the Extra field, Zotero returns the following error:

    Zotero experienced an error updating your document.
    TypeError: ItemObject is undefined
  • fbennett
    Great stuff (it's actually useful when things break, so that's not entirely meant in jest). It looks like something about the patent number may be triggering this. Can you export the item and save it as Zotero RDF, then paste it to http://gist.github.com, save it as a Public Gist, and post the URL from the address bar back here? I should be able to replicate the fault with your data, and fix the problem in the processor. Thanks for looking at this -- and I hope we're able to get it working satisfactorily for you v. soon.
  • tnemeth
    I hope I did it correctly:

    https://gist.github.com/2183978
  • fbennett
    Great, thanks. Not sure what triggered it, but there was an obvious potential bug affecting number, which is now squashed. Another small glitch in MLZ blocked import of the item you posted (oops), and that's also now fixed. The revised MLZ client is now up, so updating should bring in the fixes for you.

    With {:jurisdiction:us} in the Extra field, it now yields a correct citation, but with a lowercase "us". If the Abbreviations Plugin is installed, you can open the Classic View in the word processor plugin (from the Z icon, if using the quick-input mode), and then the "abbrevs." button will bring up the abbreviation lists. Selecting the "place" listing should show abbrevs for "us" for two jurisdictions (default and us). Setting US in both should do the trick. You only need to set the abbreviation once; it persist for future sessions in the same style.
  • tnemeth
    Great, this works - largely! As I don't only deal with US patents, I added the all-cap UK abbreviation in the same way as for the US. It displays correctly, but returns me this error:

    TypeError: state.tmp.shadow_numbers[varname] is undefined.

    There also seem to be some issues with multiple references to the same patent and with the addition of page numbers to the reference.

    Here is a gist of the .rdf:
    https://gist.github.com/2192628

    There seem to be a few things going not quite right, explaining them in detail here might be difficult.

    If that helps I could also send you off-list the document with the patent references in situ.
  • fbennett
    Sorry about the error; I'm still not able to reproduce it here, but I see where that fault would be triggered (it's the same error you had before, but in a different guise). I've put up a fresh release that will avoid it. If you update MLZ, it should go away.

    Detailed guidance on things that are out of whack would be great indeed. Will send you a note off-list.

    I've been yanking the style source around quite a bit today, and one set of changes affected the supplementary locators on patents. Before finalizing comments, it's worth reinstalling the MLZ Chicago style from the website, selecting another style, then switching back. The flaws will be the latest flaws. :)
  • fbennett
    Patent cites should be correct now in the MLZ styles. If there are problems, let me know.
  • kbares
    Hi everyone...having just read through this full thread, I'm left wondering if there's a solution to cite patents directly through Zotero. I went to http://citationstylist.org/tools/ and installed the MLZ Chicago Manual of Style (Full Note) style. This is the format I'm getting in a generated bibliography:

    Ishida, Shigeki, Masakazu Toyoda, and Kinya Masuda. 2004. “Topdressing Method and Apparatus Therefor.” http://www.google.com/patents/US6750898.

    Based on the discussion above, I was expecting to see the patent number in the bibliography, and maybe not the link to Google Patents. Is there a step I'm missing? I'm using the Zotero stand-alone v. 3.0.8

    Thanks! -Kent
  • adamsmith
    using the MLZ styles requires the MLZ Zotero client to work correctly. (see that same page). That will only work as a FF add-on, doesn't as of yet come as standalone (though it would probably be relatively easy to build if s.o. were motivated).
  • kbares
    Okay--thanks for letting me know.
  • adamsmith
    the changes to the bibtex translator discussed above are now up, handling patents should be improved.

This is an old discussion that has not been active in a long time. Before commenting here, you should strongly consider starting a new discussion instead. If you think the content of this discussion is still relevant, you can link to it from your new discussion.

Sign In or Register to comment.