esp@cenet

eric st...

I've used the portal at the Swedish patent office quite a lot.

http://se.espacenet.com/

In general the EPO's database is far less user-friendly than the user-unfriendly USPTO's search engine. For US companies that often file first in the US, I normally start there and then search the application number on the EPO's database.

Post any specific questions here and I'll try to help you.

Regards,

Eric Stasik

patenta...

Lisa

What do you need to know, I use it all the time ! Can be good when it is working at it's correct speed.

R

Tim Uy

I really like esp@cenet.  I made a little website to download esp@cenet patent images in batch.  Check it out.  It's at http://patents.oncloud8.com.  At the moment, patents are priced at $0.88 each.  However, while I am in beta, if you give me any useful feedback, criticisms, suggestions, I will refund your payment completely.  You keep the patents.  Let me know what you think.

The only catch is that the site requires signing up for Paypal, which is only slightly painful.  The nice thing about Paypal is that the vendor (me) never touches your credit card, which is good for both of us.

JimIvey

Just out of curiosity, do you limit the number of documents downloaded per day like the free sites? See e.g.:

http://www.patentfetcher.com/Patent-Fetcher-Form.php
http://www.pat2pdf.com/
http://www.tothink.com/pat2pdf/

The last one is a bash script, so most people can't use it.  The first one is limited to 5/day.  I'm not sure what the limit of the second one is.

The PTO limits the number of downloads per day from a given apparent IP address (http://www.uspto.gov/patft/help/access.htm).  I don't know if esp@cenet does the same thing, but you might have to arrange some deal with them if you get really popular.

As far as I know, you're the least expensive source of EPO documents, so you appear to provide a valuable service.

Good luck!

Tim Uy

That's a good question.  I've downloaded a lot and have yet to run into any limits.  Give it a go.