Refers the letter designation placed after a patent publication by a national patent office or WIPO, e.g., B1, B2, A1, A2, A3, etc. These codes are not used consistently by different patent offices, so in the event of confusion is wise to look at the handbook of kind codes published by WIPO. Usually a B1 or B2 designates a published patent, A1 and A2 published applications and A3 a search report. Thus for example a European A1 patent publication is an application with the search report; an A2 is an application without a search report included; and A3 is a stand-alone search report. When a patent is granted, it is usually published as a B document.