How to search for European unified patents on the EPO website

How to search for European unified patents on the EPO website

The establishment of the Unified Patent (UP) and the Unified Patent Court (UPC) is creating new data for patents. This data will be collated and reported in EPO patent information tools and services, providing users with an additional layer of patent information. In order to help users identify unified patents and related information, the EPO will use a new symbol, "C0", to represent patents that have chosen to register a European unified patent. European patent registrations and EPOs will also be marked with a blue icon ( ) to indicate a patent for which a European unified patent has been requested or registered.

1. How to search for European unified patents in the European Patent Register:

There are two ways to represent European procedures in the navigation bar of the European Patent Register: European patents prefixed by EP and European unified patents prefixed by UP. All application documents and historical documents related to the unified patent will be listed under the Unitary Patent column.

There are also some changes in the search interface of the European Patent Register. In the search navigation bar, EPO has added two new search fields, namely: European unified patent request date and unified patent registration date. Users can fill in yes/ according to the authorized patent. Filter by true or no/false.

Two new fields are also available using Smart search:
-ufd, unitary effect request date
-urd, unitary effect registration date

In the search results list, there will be a new Unified European Patent column with a blue icon. Used to identify patents for which a European unified patent request has been filed and patents for which a European unified patent has been registered. Click the blue icon It will return directly to the "UP About this file" interface.

Click on image to enlarge:

For patents that opt out of the exclusive jurisdiction of the European Unified Patent Court, a direct link to the opt-out information is also provided in the "EP About this file" interface.

Information submitted to the European Unified Patent Court of the EPO regarding the proceedings of the Unified Patent Court is also recorded under this column, and a direct access link is provided.

2. How to search for European unified patents in the European Patent Bulletin:

In Chapter 4 of the European Patent Bulletin, you can see the relevant legal procedures and legal affairs regarding the European Unified Patent. Legal statuses such as changes, citations and modifications, rejections, etc. can be found under IV.1-IV.11.

3. How to search for European unified patents in Espacenet:

In Espacenet, you can use the C0 mark to search for registered European unified patents. The search method is: pn=EPC0 or epnnnnnnc0.

If you want to retrieve a specific EPC0 number, use the latter. The C0 tag is used for registered UPs and is visible in results lists and document-related views.

Click on the graphic to enlarge and discover the blue icon , and there are links to directly view the bibliographic item information, instructions, claims, INPADOC patent family and other contents.

EPC0 does not have its own unique bibliographic information, description, claims, description drawings or other original documents. Therefore, the data of the registered European unified patent EPC0 will be displayed in the EPB file data and the EPA's file summary.

Click on the graphic to enlarge it to view all legal formalities and legal matters regarding the European Unitary Patent.

4. How to search for European unified patents in the Global Patent Index:

In the Global Patent Index, all related European unified patents are displayed in the form of DOCDB and INPADOC. This information includes: registered European unified patents, showing the patent number of EPC0 and the information of participating member states, and there are links for direct access. .

In addition to the above EPO search products, users can also search for information related to European unified patents in EPO's bulk data sets, Open Patent Services (OPS).

I hope the above information can be helpful to those searching for European patents. For additional assistance, please feel free to contact Page Code.