Esp@cenet

 

The European Patent Office and national patent offices in Europe offer Esp@cenet as a way of accessing patent literature free of charge. It is designed for the general public and offers access to four patent databases:

 

Patent applications in their original language from:

• European Patent Office

• World Intellectual Property Organisation

Patent applications with English abstract and title from:

• The worldwide patent database EPODOC

• The Japanese Patent Office

Users can search over 30 million patent documents (1999). Information includes:

• Bibliographic data of all patents published in the preceding two years by any European Patent Organisation member state, as well as the European Patent Office and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)

• A comprehensive collection of patents published worldwide since 1920

• Relevant documents with a searchable English-language title and abstract for each patent family in the collection published since 1970

Availability
Free of charge, from http://ep.espacenet.com/. Users will be able to purchase documents in the near future

 

 

Assessment
Esp@cenet is designed primarily for the general public, to provide a readily accessible source of free patent information. The information is taken from the European Patent Office, and coverage is worldwide. No detailed description of coverage is provided. Professional patent searchers will probably prefer existing online services.
More information can be found from: http://www.european-patent-office.org/espacenet/info/index.htm

 

 

 

Last updated: 1 March 2004

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