The main body giving patents within Europe is the European Patent Office or the EPO. This office is responsible for searching and providing patents to almost all countries in the European Union, barring only a few countries. At present, it has about 30 million patents on record. The website of the EPO is www.espacenet.com. It provides online patent searches to the general public. This service is provided free of cost. The site contains an online patent application form. Filling in details such as personal information, nature of the concept and a suitable keyword enables the search engine to scout if a patent is already in progress. The website maintains a database of all the patents that have been given within Europe. It is called the Globlepat. The EPO has branches in all prominent nations and are called as national patent offices. The most prominent is the UK Patent Office and the French Patent Office. All patent offices share a common connection via the EPO. In fact, the website www.espacenet.com may direct patent hunters to various national patent offices for further clarification. Apart from online patent sites, there are several patent offices that manually search for patents. You need to apply to these offices, and they will conduct a comprehensive search on the patent. The advantage of an offline patent search is that it is more individualized, and it streamlines the particular concept. There are several patent attorneys throughout Europe who will undertake the task of searching patents and resubmitting them with modifications, if necessary. Searching for a patent within the Europe is different than in other countries. A European patent search links the search to other European countries enabling a more detailed search. |
