Since 2005, the EPO no longer continues to issue European patent documents in paper form. It is only published online on its official publication platform European Publication Server, and is fixed to be updated every Wednesday at 2:00 pm. The published European patent documents will be updated synchronously on the major platforms of European Patent Register, EP Bulletin Search or EP full-text search.
EPO also has several other databases, such as Global Index, PATSTAT and Espacenet, which record and publish global patent documents. Currently, Espacenet has accommodated more than 130 million published patent documents, and can trace the history of all inventions and technological developments since 1782.
EPO is determining the implementation of the 2023 strategic plan (SP2023), making patent information and patent knowledge more significant. The EPO is working to increase the update frequency of patent information and ensure complete and accurate records at the technical level. At the same time, EPO plans to launch a new training service to help users understand and utilize patent information.
