Internet patent search service launched

Internet patent search service launched

A system to provide access via the Internet to distributed databases of patent specifications published by the patent offices of Europe has been launched on the UK Patent Office Web site. Called Esp@ceNet, the system makes it possible for anyone with Internet access to search patent specifications published in the last two years.

This free service provides a common interface to the published patent application databases of the UK Patent Office, the European Patent Office (EPO) and other European national patent offices, as well as access to the PCT database of published patent applications.

Esp@ceNet is of immediate and practical use to those wishing to get an early idea of the patentability of a product or process or the state-of-the-art of a technological field. Esp@ceNet can also be used to identify inventors or the most actively inventive companies in a given field or to monitor the activities of known competitors.

In Esp@ceNet, patents can be searched by publication number, application number, priority number,publication date, applicant, inventor, IPC classification and title. Wildcards can be used to identify groups of patents. When a patent is identified, the user can pull up its bibliographic data, and images of the full specification,including the description of the invention, the patent claims and the drawings.

Welcoming Esp@ceNet,Patent Office head of marketing Brian Caswell said: "Esp@ceNet is the result of successful collaboration between the UK Patent Office, the EPO and other European patent offices. It forms an important part of the Patent Office's programme to bring patents to the people by cutting costs and improving access to the system".

Published patents contain a vast store of publicly available technical and commercial information. Companies ignore this resource at their risk. Eighty per cent of the technical information published in patent specifications is not to be found anywhere else. The European Commission has estimated that up to £20 billion is wasted in Europe on research which repeats work already carried out and described in published patent specifications.

Esp@ceNet can be found on the Patent Office's Web site at http://www.patent.gov.uk