Espacenet Guide Mar 2013

7/27/2019 Espacenet Guide Mar 2013

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Esp@cenetEsp@cenetEsp@cenetEsp@cenet

A basic guide to starting yourpatent search

http://worldwide.espacenet.com

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Click the Advanced Search link

You will find the database at the following url:

It is freely accessible, there is no need to register and it is run by the

European Patent Office

Cooperative Patent Classification (see note on page 4)

On other pages Quick Help FAQs appear in this left side bar. Click onRelated Links, then Get Assistance for an interactive training session

There are basic guides to using this database at the following urls:http://www.epo.org/searching/free/espacenet.html(Click the Espacenet brochure link)http://www.epo.org/learning-events/materials/inventors-handbook/novelty/espacenet.html

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http://worldwide.espacenet.com


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Here we have chosen to search for a foldable ladder and have used

the keywords: ladder* and fold*. The asterisk is used as a wildcard sothe search will retrieve patents using the words ladder, ladders, folding,foldable etc. Using the and operator will locate only those patentswhich contain all the words you enter (you can omit the and operator: ifnone is present the search engine will use and). You can also use theor operator to look for synonyms and American English words (e.g. ifyou are using the keyword tap* you should also use faucet*). In theabove example we could also describe the ladder as collapsible, so wecould refine the search to: ladder* and (fold* or collaps*).

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Now type keywords relating toyour idea in the Keywords in titleor abstract box and click on theSearch button at bottom of page

Click the arrow next to the Select the Database... box andselect Worldwide


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Click on a title and you will bepresented with bibliographic dataand (usually) an abstract (seenext page). If you find inventionssimilar to yours it is a good ideato look at the classifications(International or Cooperative).

You can export the details as anExcel spreadsheet (but only for the15 titles on the current page, notthe whole list). Download coversallows you to download the frontpages for up to 15 results as a pdfwith contents list.

There is a limit of 10 words, but try to keep to 3 or 4 at the most. Be tooprecise and you may eliminate relevant patents. It is better to keep thesearch fairly broad and browse through the list of titles rather than betoo specific. Only the first 500 results are shown. If you have more than

500 your search is probably too broad and you will want to try tonarrow it by identifying relevant classifications (see below andopposite) or by focussing on the inventive elements. A results list ofaround 100 to 200 is a reasonable number. Keep modifying andrepeating searches until you have exhausted all possibilities.


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The full specification may not always be available (if the text of the

Original Document link is grey and the cursor does not change to ahand when you hover the mouse over it then it is not available).

When you clickDownload a window willopen asking you to entera verification number.

This is to preventmachine-generated bulkdownloads. You can thensave the file or open it.

After you click the Original document tab dont try to look through thedocument as it appears here. The best way to view the document is toclick Download as this will download a pdf copy of the document toyour computer which is more convenient both to view and print.

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Note that specifications are only published in the language of filing,

hence not all will be in English. European applications (EP) may be inEnglish, French or German; international applications (WO) may be inEnglish, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Japanese or Chinese. Inthe bibliographic view (shown on page 4), click on the Description orClaims links (they will not always be available) on the left and you canget a machine translation from French, German, Spanish or Italian.You should find specifications for most European countries, US, Japan,European applications (EP) and international (WO).

My Patents List - allows you to store up to 100 items. Click the staricon under a patent title in the results list to add. Expires after 1 year ofnon-use. This is very useful as you should store details of anythingrelevant as you search; you may need to look at them in more detaillater.Query History - You must first enable this with the tick box in thesettings tab. This will only save up to 10 queries and only lasts for thecurrent browser session.

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After you have downloaded and opened the pdf you can use thebookmarks to go straight to the part you want (if the specificationis not in English you may wish to go straight to the drawings).


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Newcastle Libraries and Information ServiceCity LibraryCharles Avison Building

33 New Bridge Street WestNewcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8AXTel: 0191 277 4100Fax: 0191 2774137Email: [email protected]://www.bipcnewcastle.co.uk/

Copyright Newcastle Libraries and Information Service, 2013

This booklet was updated Mar 2013 and can be downloaded from our website.Author: Matt GinnellyReleased under Creative Commons Licence:Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND). You are free to

copy, distribute or share this work, but you must attribute the work toNewcastle Libraries and Information Service, you may not alter or edit thework and you may not use it for commercial purposes.See http://creativecommons.org for full details of this licence.

The Basic Patent Searching Process: Begin searching using keywords (NEVER use Title only search; use

Keywords in title or abstract)

If there are no or very few hits consider removing some of the words,substituting synonyms or American English terms

If you find similar inventions look at the classifications. If you canidentify an exact sub-class, e.g. E06C 1/383, go back to the searchand use that in the appropriate field; if your idea seems to fit in a

main class only, e.g. E06C, use that and all sub-classes will besearched (you can still add keywords relating to the inventiveelements of your invention)

Continue searching using all combinations of classification andkeywords that seem relevant

REMEMBER: Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.A patent search is never complete because you can never prove

something doesnt exist; you can only gather more and moreevidence to support this view. Only stop when you have exhaustedall possible combinations

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Espacenet Guide Mar 2013