REGISTER PLUS 1. INTRODUCTION 2. SEARCHING 2.1. SIMPLE SEARCH

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1 REGISTER PLUS 1. INTRODUCTION 2. SEARCHING 2.1. SIMPLE SEARCH 2.2. ADVANCED SEARCH 2.3. TROUBLESHOOTING 2.4. POSSIBLE NUMBER FORMATS AND SEARCH TERMS 2.5. WORKED EXAMPLES FOR SEARCHING 3. LOOKING AT THE SEARCH RESULTS 3.1. RESULTS LIST 3.2. DIFFERENT DATA VIEWS 3.3. INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THE DATA VIEWS 4. OTHER FEATURES 4.1. USING RECENT ITEMS 4.2. PRINTING 4.3. DOWNLOADING DOCUMENTS DOWNLOADING XML-DATA DOWNLOADING IN PDF FORMAT 4.4. VIEWING THE PATENT (APPLICATION) IN 4.5. BOOKMARKING LINKS 5. EPC 2000: CHANGES TO REGISTER PLUS 5.1. NO REFERENCES TO EPC RULES 5.2. NEW INFORMATION IN THE REGISTER 5.3. NEW INFORMATION ON EP-A AND EP-B PUBLICATIONS 6. WORKED EXAMPLES FOR SEARCHING 6.1. EXAMPLE EXAMPLE EXAMPLE 3-1 -

2 Register Plus 1. INTRODUCTION Register Plus is the place where the EPO stores all the publicly available information it has on European patent applications as they pass through the grant procedure. Register Plus contains procedural information on all European patent applications from the moment they are published. It also contains all the public documents in the EPO's file (often called the "file wrapper"). The service provides direct access to both the European Patent Register (online procedural data) and Online Public File Inspection. It also allows you to access the data in and Open Patent Services (patent family information and INPADOC legal status). You can use Register Plus to: find out what stage in the procedure a European patent application has reached see if a European patent application has been granted, or will be granted soon check whether any oppositions to a European patent have been filed read the correspondence between the EPO and the patent applicant/attorney batch process and store these documents and correspondence offline for later use. 2. SEARCHING Register Plus offers a "Simple search" and an "Advanced search" option. The default search option is "Simple search" which allows you to find matches for one search category only. The "Advanced search" allows you to find matches for a combination of search categories. Whenever you wish you can switch between the two search options by simply clicking on the relevant symbol in the frame at the top of your screen SIMPLE SEARCH In the "Simple Search" mode, select the category from the drop down list you wish to search in and enter your search term in the adjacent field. You can enter up to four search terms. You may use AND, OR and NOT to qualify your search terms. The default operator depends on the search category. Find below which category uses which default operator. The following search categories are available: Publication number Application number Date of filing Date of publication Priority number Priority date Applicant Inventor Representative OR OR OR OR OR OR AND AND AND - 2 -

3 Opponent IPC Classification code AND AND 2.2. ADVANCED SEARCH Click on the "Advanced Search" button to open the advanced search interface. This interface gives you a choice of three search fields with the same categories as in "Simple Search". In each field, you can enter up to four search terms combining them with AND, OR and NOT. The default operator depends on the search category and is the same as in the simple search option. The default operator used to combine different search fields is AND. Use the "Reset" button before you start a new search TROUBLESHOOTING If no files are found matching your search terms, please try the following: Make sure your spelling is correct. Make sure you did not use any diacritical characters such as ü, ö, etc. and/or accents such as é, è, etc.? Make sure your application/publication numbers are in the correct format (see 2.4). Make sure the category you select is appropriate to the kind of data you enter. Try entering fewer search terms POSSIBLE NUMBER FORMATS AND SEARCH TERMS The following number formats are valid for your search. Search category Publication No. Application No. Priority No. Date of filing Date of publication Priority date Applicant Inventor Example EP publication number - EP WO publication number WOyynnnnn for publications until WO WOyynnnnnn for WO until WO WOyyyynnnnnn for publications from 1 January 2004 onwards - e.g. WO EP application number (eight digits) PCT application number - for PCT/US/ please type WO1998US04141 for PCT/IB2008/ please type WO2008IB12345 (remove the leading zero "012345" esp@cenet data format EP WO1998US04141 EP yyyymmdd Note: You don't have to provide a complete yyyymmdd date. Search terms such as or simply yyyymmdd 2007 are also valid. Last name, first name Last name, first name - 3 -

4 Representative Last name, first name Opponent Last name, first name of opponent to find a specific opponent 01 to find all oppositions Classification (IPC) IPC classification code - e.g. G09G5/00, H04L25/49M3B 2.5. WORKED EXAMPLES FOR SEARCHING Example 1 searches for an Applicant and Date of Filing - go to 6.1 Example 2 uses Applicant, Publication No. and Classification (IPC) - go to 6.2 Example 3 shows how to search for all available oppositions to a specific patent application - go to LOOKING AT THE SEARCH RESULTS 3.1. RESULTS LIST The results list displays up to a maximum of 20 items per page. To view the additional pages, click the numbered buttons in the lower part of the page. Each item contains the categories application number, publication number, applicant and IPC class. To view a particular document in the search results list, click on the title to see the details of the application Use the button "Search results" to go return to the results list DIFFERENT DATA VIEWS The different data views are giving you access to a different type of information about the file you are interested in. Any time you wish to return to the results list, click the "Search Results" button. About this file File history Status Most recent event This screen contains bibliographic and procedural status information plus the file history if available. Use the "Show history" button to view changes that have occurred to a file during its lifetime. The file history displays in addition to the current data any old version of the same data stored in the Register back end database For a list of possible status go to ) This date refers to the publication of the event in the Register. 2) This date refers to the publication of the relevant document in the EP Bulletin. 3) This date refers to the issue of the EP Bulletin, in the given example Bulletin of week 6, year

5 Publication To view the patent (application) you can either open the document in ( 4.4) or open the link under publication (e.g. A1 Application with search report). Legal status Event history Citations Patent family All documents This screen shows the most important legal events in the European procedure, plus any information available to the EPO on the fate of the European patent once it passes in the responsibility of the designated states following grant. This screen lists events for the current file in chronological order. This screen contains a list of documents found during the patentability search for the European patent application or cited by the applicant. The citations are grouped by their origin (cited in "Search" or "By applicant") and by category "Patent literature" or "Non-patent literature"). This screen displays a list of patent documents from around the world that are linked to the European patent application by a common priority number. Patent family member - Extended (INPADOC) family Equivalent - All priority numbers are the same (in esp@cenet to be found under "also published as" on the bibliographic data view) Earlier application - Earlier application which may or not be claimed as a priority (possibility since EPC2000) This screen shows a complete list of the contents of the file at the EPO, together with links that open each document in the viewer. Click on the selected document title to open it in PDF format. When a document is opened, only the first page is displayed. If you wish to save or print a document with more than one page, you must first click "Load all pages". To organize the documents, you can use the following filters : Search/Examination Sent by the EPO Received by the EPO 3.3. INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THE DATA VIEWS Date format Dates in square brackets refer to the issue number of the EP Bulletin: e.g. [2009/02] means EP Bulletin published in week 2 of year Note: The reference to the EP-Bulletin is limited to EP-documents. Possible status International application published Application published Examination requested Grant of patent intended - 5 -

6 Application refused Application deemed to be withdrawn Patent granted Opposition procedure running No opposition filed within time limit Opposition procedure closed Opposition rejected Patent revoked Patent maintained in amended form The status "The patent has been granted" does not exclude the possibility of ongoing oppositions proceedings. Possible Category of Cited Documents X particularly relevant if taken alone Y particularly relevant if combined with another document of the same category A technological background O non-written disclosure P intermediate document T theory or principle underlying the invention E earlier patent document, but published on, or after the filing date D document cited in the application L document citer for other reasons & member of the same patent family, corresponding document 4. OTHER FEATURES 4.1. USING RECENT ITEMS Register Plus provides a list of recently opened files, as well as recent searches. "Recent files" displays files opened as a result of a previous search. Click "Open" to reopen the concerned document. "Recent search" displays the previous search terms entered. Click "Search" to restart the same search PRINTING Printing displayed pages in data views In the data views "About this file", "Legal status", "Event history", "Citations", "Patent family" or "All documents", click the "Print" button to print the current page. Note: When printing the "About this file" screen, the title of the patent application will not be displayed on the printout, only the publication number is shown. Printing documents from the results list In the "All documents" view click on the required item to open it in the PDF document viewer. Then click "Print" in the PDF toolbar

7 As an default option, only the displayed page will be printed. If you wish to print a document with more than one page, you have to "Load all pages" first, then use the printer range options to select the pages you wish to print. If you wish to print more than one document from the results list, select the required items and click on the "Download selected documents" button. Once you have downloaded the PDF-document containing all the selected items, click "Print" in the PDF- toolbar DOWNLOADING DOCUMENTS Downloading xml-data In the data views "About this file", "Legal Status", "Event History", "Citations" or "Patent Family", click the "Download XML Data" button and follow the prompts to save the document Downloading in PDF format In the "All Documents" view you can download selected documents in PDF format. Therefore click the check box(es) to select document(s), click the "Download selected documents" button and follow the prompts to save the document VIEWING THE PATENT (APPLICATION) IN ESP@CENET If you want to see the patent application itself, click on the "Open in esp@cenet" button. In esp@cenet you can download and/or print the application in PDF-format BOOKMARKING LINKS In order to save a direct link to a chosen file, right-click on the document title in the "About this file" view and save the shortcut in your browser favourites. 5. EPC 2000: CHANGES TO REGISTER PLUS The EPO has set up a special information service for enquiries relating to the EPC 2000 and the impact it will have. Send your questions to epc2000comm@epo.org Further information:

8 5.1. NO REFERENCES TO EPC RULES With the EPC 2000 in force, the Register no longer cites the number of a specific rule, e.g. Rule 51(4), but instead uses words to give the gist of the relevant rule, e.g. "Dispatch of communication of intention to grant" NEW INFORMATION IN THE REGISTER Since the entry into force of the EPC 2000, Register Plus includes the following additional entries: If the patent's period for opposition expires without an opposition being filed: "No opposition filed" If an error is corrected in the European patent specification: "Patent specification corrected on (date)" Date of despatch of supplementary European search report Date of despatch of first examination communication Date of receipt of request for re-establishment of rights Refusal of request for re-establishment of rights Opponent's name, address and country of residence or principal place of business Name and business address of opponent's representative New documents coming to light after the European search report was drawn up For international applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) for which the European Patent Office acts as designated Office: the international filing number the international publication number the international publication date Date of request for limitation or revocation of the European patent Requester's name, address and country of residence or principal place of business Date of petition for review by the Enlarged Board of Appeal Petitioner's name, address and country of residence or principal place of business File number of the petition for review 5.3. NEW INFORMATION ON EP-A AND EP-B PUBLICATIONS A publications will carry additional information in order to take account of new situations introduced into the pre-publication phase by EPC 2000 (e.g. "late filed" claims; request for re-establishment of rights in respect of the priority period). There will be a new B publication (B3) for approved limitations of granted European patents. 6. WORKED EXAMPLES FOR SEARCHING 6.1. EXAMPLE 1 Advanced search using the categories "Applicant" and "Date of filing": Select the search category "Applicant" and enter your search term, e.g. "aventis pharma". Note: Only items matching both "aventis" AND "pharma" are found

9 In the second field, select the search category "Date of filing" and enter a date in the format YYYYMMDD. You may only enter the year (YYYY), or the year and the month (YYYYMM). In order to reduce the items in the results list, it is recommended to enter year and month. If you know the exact filing date, you may also use it. To see the details of an item, click the link in the "Application No." column

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11 The Data View opens, displaying the information for the selected application number. To return to the list of items, click "Search Results"

12 6.2. EXAMPLE 2 Advanced search using the categories "Applicant", "Publication No." and "Classification (IPC)". Select the search category "Applicant" and enter "Land Rover". Items matching both "Land" AND "Rover" are found. If you wish to see only EP publication numbers, and exclude all WO numbers type "EP NOT WO" in the "Publication No." field

13 To reduce the number of items to the classification category "B60 G07", type the IPC symbol in the third search field and select the search category "Classification (IPC)" EXAMPLE 3 Advanced search using the categories "Applicant" and "Opponent": Select the search category "Applicant" and enter your search term, e.g. "BASF". If you wish to see all the patent applications that have been opposed, type "01" in the search field "Opponent"

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