Best of search matters
Search Matters is an annual event that showcases the EPO's patent search strategies and techniques as well as the various publicly accessible databases and search programs. The main objective of the event is for patent searchers and analysts to improve how they search by gaining an in-depth understanding of the way EPO examiners perform their searches on patent applications.
Topics for presentation at Search Matters are subject to a strict internal selection procedure. These web pages offer material on the best presentations from recent years - those which were positively received by attendees and are of lasting relevance and wide applicability.
The material, intended for self-paced learning, is divided into four sections for easy access. It takes the form of presentation slides and recordings and articles from a special edition of the journal World Patent Information which originated as Search Matters presentations. Click on the first link below for an editorial from that journal which will give you an overview of the special edition.
Tools and databases
The EPO provides the public with free or inexpensive access to tools and databases with which they can retrieve and analyse its patent data. In this section you can find out more about them.
EPO procedures and initiatives
Each patent application is unique, but there are certain principles that search and examination must always follow, and they are the subject of this section.
Search strategies
In this section you will find material about EPO examiners' search strategies and how they get the best possible results. It will help you with your own searches.
Challenges and specific topics
Sometimes, what appears to be a perfectly ordinary search can become very complicated, while some technical fields throw up difficulties by their very nature. In this section you can learn how examiners rise to such challenges