Patentee Name Harmonisation - ecoom.be

marked in the previous step as a name originally containing an umlaut are also marked by
executing an update query on the data.
Finally, all preliminary umlaut harmonized names not marked in the previous two steps are
reverted to the previous cleaned name after condensing by executing an update query on the
data.
Result
Umlauts have been harmonized in 9,443 names.
By and large, not all umlaut variations have been harmonized because refining the method to
increase the number of matches tends to increase the number of mismatches quite
substantially.
The method presented here is very safe (100% correct matches) but it could well be improved
to cover more names.
Impact
From 365,866 unique names to 365,564 unique names, an additional reduction of 302 names,
or a total reduction of 78,158 names (17.6%).
2.6 Cleaned name
Final result
The final cleaned name is the name after character cleaning, punctuation cleaning, legal form
indication treatment, common company word removal, spelling variation harmonization,
condensing and umlaut harmonization.
During cleaning, the original name can become heavily mutilated and unrecognizable (e.g., from
“" NEUSON" -ÖLFELDSCHIEBER GESELLSCHAFT M.B.H.” to “NEUESOENOELFELDSCHIEBER”). In
this stage, the cleaned name is only usable to identify matching names. In a subsequent step,
the cleaned name will be converted back to a more readable and usable name closer to the
original.
In total, all 443,722 names have been affected by one of the cleaning or harmonization steps.
Final impact
All cleaning and harmonization steps resulted in a reduction from 443,722 unique original
names to 365,564 unique cleaned names, a reduction of 78,158 names or 17.6%.
Table 23 contains an overview of the impact of every step, with the number of unique names
before and after the particular cleaning and harmonization step, the reduction in the number of
names, the cumulative reduction in the number of names for the particular step and all previous
steps, the relative reduction compared to the total number of original unique names, and the
cumulative relative reduction compared to the total number of original unique names.
Table 23: step by step results of cleaning and harmonization
STEP FROM TO REDUCTION REDUCTION % %
CUM
CUM
Character cleaning 443,722 438,366 5,356 5,356 1.2 1.2
Punctuation cleaning 438,366 437,336 1,030 6,386 0.2 1.4
Legal form removal 437,336 392,226 45,110 51,496 10.2 11.6
Common company word removal 392,226 385,771 6,455 57,951 1.5 13.1
Spelling variation harmonization 385,771 384,235 1,536 59,487 0.3 13.4
Condensing 384,235 365,866 18,369 77,856 4.1 17.5
Umlaut harmonization 365,866 365,564 302 78,158 0.1 17.6
Legal form removal and condensing are, by far, the most important steps. This does not mean
that all other steps can be neglected, as these steps prepare the data for subsequent steps.
Even if the impact of a particular step is low, the results of the step can greatly improve the
impact of the steps that follow.
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