**2. Patent document and the variables of interest to evaluate the distribution**

#### **2.1 Basic structure of patent applications**

The Brazilian Industrial Property Law (LPI) [9], in its chapter III – article 19, defines that a patent application shall include: application; description; claims; figures, if any; abstract; and proof of payment of the application fee. Therefore, disregarding the abstract, which is usually limited to a single page, a patent

application is basically composed of three major parts: description, patent claims, and figures (whenever necessary). We note that these three main parts have specific shape and content characteristics that should be evaluated in more details.
