Press release | 19.11.2019

European Patent Office launches new Espacenet, improving access to world’s largest free collection of patent documents

Munich, 19 November, 2019 - The European Patent Office (EPO) has today released the new Espacenet, a substantially revised and improved version of the Office's patent information search tool. New Espacenet's state-of-the-art features and enhanced functionality will make it even easier for users to conduct patent searches and access over 110 million patent documents from all over the world free-of-charge.

"Patent information is an incredible resource for everyone involved in IP and with the launch of new Espacenet today, we're delivering on our commitment to making that resource more accessible," says EPO President António Campinos. "New Espacenet means inventors can better assess the state of the art, businesses can make more informed strategic IP decisions, and policy makers can gain a better understanding of the patent landscape. Because ultimately, access to patent information supports effective IP, and effective IP supports the economy".

Since the release of the original Espacenet in 1998, the tool's primary purpose has been to connect EPO users with the most up-to-date patent records from all regions. The addition of the Patent Translate feature, which provides high-quality, instant translations from English, French and German into 32 European and Asian languages, already enhanced the access Espacenet provides to information in recent years.

The latest version of Espacenet offers several new features, including:

A dynamic query builder for easier searching
A richer, cleaner and quicker result list
Results filtering
An improved legal status overview covering the entire patent family
Responsive design for searching across devices

The new filtering tool shows the most frequently occurring classifications, applicants, inventors, authorities, and allows users to refine a query for improved search results. The "Advanced search" feature is flexible and dynamic, and empowers users to build customised, complex Boolean queries combining a wide range of bibliographic fields while graphically visualising the logical relations. Users can now switch between the "Advanced search" and "Smart search" modes at any time without losing a search.

About the EPO

With nearly 7 000 staff, the European Patent Office (EPO) is one of the largest public service institutions in Europe. Headquartered in Munich with offices in Berlin, Brussels, The Hague and Vienna, the EPO was founded with the aim of strengthening co-operation on patents in Europe. Through the EPO's centralised patent granting procedure, inventors are able to obtain high-quality patent protection in up to 44 countries, covering a market of some 700 million people. The EPO is also the world's leading authority in patent information and patent searching.