Intellectual Property

Guides

Esp@cenet
A basic guide to starting
your patent search
_____
http://gb.espacenet.com

You will find the database at the following url:

http://gb.espacenet.com
It is freely accessible, there is no need to register and it is run by the
European Patent Office
Click the Advanced Search link

You may wish to read this information about searching first. There are
also basic guides to using this database at the following:
www.espacenet.com/getstarted
www.espacenet.com/info
www.epo.org/topics/innovation-and-economy/handbook/novelty/
espacenet-searching.html
1

Click the arrow next to the Select Patent Database box and select
Worldwide

Now type keywords relating to your idea in the Keyword(s) in title or

abstract box and click on the Search button.
Here we have chosen to search for a foldable ladder. The asterisk is
used as a wildcard so the search will retrieve patents using the words
ladder, ladders, folding, foldable etc. Using the and operator will locate
only those patents which contain all the words you enter. You can also
use the or operator to look for synonyms and American English words
(e.g. if you are using the keyword tap* you should also use faucet*). In
the above example we could also describe the ladder as collapsible, so
we could refine the search to: ladder* and (fold* or collaps*).
2

It is better to keep the search fairly broad and browse through the list of
titles rather than be too specific and think you havent found anything
when in fact you have missed something important because it was not
described in the anticipated manner.
Only the first 500 results are shown. If you have more than 500 your
search is probably too broad and you will want to try to narrow it (see
below)

Click on a title and you will be presented with bibliographic data and
(usually) an abstract (see next page).
If you find inventions similar to yours it is a good idea to look at the
classifications (international and European).
3

You can find listings of these classifications at the following addresses:

European Patent Classification: http://v3.espacenet.com/eclasrch
International Patent Classification:
http://www.wipo.int/classifications/ipc/ipc8/
You can then click on the Refine search button and enter the
classification instead of the keywords on the search screen. This will
help you to identify patents which are relevant to your search, but
which have been described in a different manner.
To print the current page.

To return to the list of titles.

The international and European

classifications are shown. For the
European classification click on the
number to link to the classification listing.
4

To see the full specification

click on the Original
document tab

Dont try to look through the document as it appears here. Click

Maximise to view the full specification which will contain a description
and diagrams (this will open in a new window). Print will only allow you
to print one page at a time; if you want to print the whole document use
Save Full Document.

Note that specifications are only published in the language of filing,

hence not all will be in English. European applications (EP) may be in
English, French or German; international applications (WO) may be in
English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Japanese or Chinese.

In the Maximised view you can use the drop-down arrow shown to
navigate through the pages (e.g. in this case the specification is in
Japanese and you may wish to go straight to the drawings).

The full specification may not always be available (if the Original
Document tab is grey and does not go red when you hover the mouse
over it then it is not available). You should find specifications for most
European countries, US, Japan, European applications (EP) and
international (WO).

Newcastle Libraries and Information Service

City Library
Charles Avison Building
33 New Bridge Street West
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 8AX
Tel: 0191 277 4100
Fax: 0191 2774137
Email: information@newcastle.gov.uk
www.newcastle.gov.uk/bips

Updated May 2009