esp@cenet

Billed as “A new era in European patent information”, the European Patent Office's (EPO's) esp@cenet database allows searching of European patents by keyword. This database, conceived in the summer of 1998, was the brainchild of the European Patent Office, member states of the European Patent Organisation [sic] and the European Commission. It purpose was multifold: to provide a “readily accessible source of free patent information”; to “improve awareness at the national and international level among small and medium sized enterprises”; and to act as “a resource for the general public to use”. esp@cenet does not claim to be a replacement...