EPO ESPACENET
Espacenet offers free access to information about inventions and technical developments from the 19th century right up to today.
Espacenet gives you access to nearly 90 million patent documents – most of them patent applications rather than granted patents – from around the world. Patent applications normally represent the fi rst publication of a new idea, appearing ahead of journal articles and before new products reach the market. Patent family information, telling you if similar patents have been claimed in other countries.Legal status information, helping you find out whether and in whatcountries a patent is in force. References to other kinds of technical literature (non-patent literature).Citations – other documents cited by or citing the document you are looking at links to the European Patent Register for European and Euro-PCT documents and to selected national patent registers. Links to the file wrapper for Chinese, Japanese and Korean patent applications.