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Usually I check INPADOC legal status on Espacenet for payment info; however, if there isn't any I will check PAIR on USPTO.
I am wondering if there is better way to find more info and more detail about payment status?
Moreover, how to interpret "Designated state"?
Thank you.
For European Patent (applications), you can get more detailed payment information in EPregister: https://register.epo.org/regviewer?lng=en
In particular, there you can also see warnings due to late or non-payment of fees by clicking on "All Documents" in the menu on the left when inspecting a given file.
For an EP, "designated states" are the countries in which the granted patent would eventually be valid. Since there is no real unitary patent (quite yet!), a granted EP will be converted into a bundle of national patents in a selection (or all) of the member states of the European Patent Organisation. See here for more information:
Also see 1. paragraph here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Patent_Convention
Also see last paragraph here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Patent_Convention#Unified_prosecution_phase
Tumbs up for above info -- below is just addition to make answer complete
Keep in mind that INPADOC is just a depository and they publish data given by respective patent offices. Most of the time this data may not be updated. Best source is respective patent office. Also keep in mind that there is reissue / reviival procedure after lapse of patent which is of limited time but eventually can backfire a ignorant researcher.
