Espacenet

Espacenet is a free online patent search service provided by the European Patent Office (EPO). It offers access to information about patent documents from around the world, facilitating prior art searches, technology monitoring, and comparative patent analysis. The service covers a broad range of jurisdictions and provides bibliographic data, abstracts, and, for many records, downloadable patent documents and images. The database includes records dating back to the 19th century and is continuously updated with new publications.

Espacenet provides several search modes. Smart Search allows keyword queries with operators and synonyms; Advanced Search supports field-specific queries using bibliographic fields such as inventor, applicant, publication number, and filing date; Classification Search lets users browse and search patents by classification schemes like CPC and ECLA. Results commonly include bibliographic data, abstracts, family relationships, cited documents, legal status indicators, and links to the full text where available. The service also offers features such as phrase highlighting, document viewing, and export of search results.

Access is via the Espacenet website and is available in multiple languages. The tool is widely used by researchers, engineers, patent attorneys, and corporate IP teams to identify prior art, analyze competitors, assess freedom-to-operate, and track technological trends. Espacenet is maintained by the European Patent Office in collaboration with other patent offices.