EP authority file

The EP authority file provides a sequential gap-free list of all patent document publication numbers issued by the European Patent Office under the IP5 authority file specification and WIPO standard ST.37.

For consistency checks the EP authority file also contains publication numbers for which no patent document has been issued (withdrawn, deleted) or no patent document is available (missing, reissued, international publications not republished). For further details see the definition file of the EP authority file.

Announcement September 2024: The current version of the EP authority file has been reformatted according to the ST.37 template in line with the new PCT Minimum Documentation requirements. 

The EP authority file is updated every six months (last update: 1 July 2024) and available in three formats:

XML format (ZIP, 57 MB) according to the DTD (3 KB).

CSV format (ZIP, 30 MB) with semicolon-separated line items.

JSON format (ZIP, 103 MB)

Please note: Each of these files contains over 6 million records and many default computer programs (e.g. Notepad, WordPad, xml editors) may not be able to open them.

EP authority file exception code

Entries in the EP authority file that do not feature an exception code are available on the European publication server as "regular" publication documents in PDF/A format and WIPO ST.36 XML format. All other entries feature one of the following exception codes, which have the following meaning:

More information on data coverage, document kind codes and exception codes can be found in the definition file of the EP authority file.