Litera
The unified legal document lifecycle and transaction management ecosystem for the modern law firm.
The world's most comprehensive free patent search database for global innovation intelligence.
Espacenet is the flagship patent information service provided by the European Patent Office (EPO), designed to provide free access to over 150 million patent documents from around the globe. As of 2026, it serves as a critical infrastructure for the global R&D community, offering sophisticated search capabilities that range from simple keyword queries to complex Boolean and proximity operators. The platform's technical architecture is built upon the EPO's internal databases, integrating the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) system and the INPADOC legal status database to provide real-time updates on patent validity and family relationships. Its positioning in the 2026 market remains dominant as a primary 'prior art' tool, competing with high-cost commercial platforms by offering high-fidelity data, integrated machine translation through 'Patent Translate' (powered by neural networks), and a robust 'Smart Search' interface that allows for command-line style query precision. It facilitates cross-border innovation by breaking language barriers and providing standardized access to technical disclosures that are often absent from general academic databases.
A command-line style search interface that interprets keywords, dates, and names without requiring specific field identifiers.
The unified legal document lifecycle and transaction management ecosystem for the modern law firm.
The AI-powered litigation lifecycle platform for smarter case strategy and automated chronologies.
The infinite workspace for deep document analysis and multi-source synthesis.
Enterprise-grade eDiscovery and AI-driven document intelligence for boutique and mid-market law firms.
Verified feedback from the global deployment network.
Post queries, share implementation strategies, and help other users.
Integrated neural machine translation engine optimized specifically for technical and legal terminology in 32 languages.
Aggregates all related patent applications filed globally for a single invention.
Search tool for finding specific CPC or IPC codes using keyword descriptions of a technology.
On-the-fly generation of charts and graphs showing patenting trends over time or top applicants for a query.
Capability to search for specific biological sequences (DNA, RNA, proteins) within patent disclosures.
Direct integration with the European Patent Register and international gazettes to show real-time validity.
Determining if an invention is truly new before filing a costly patent application.
Registry Updated:2/7/2026
Tracking the innovation focus of a specific competitor.
Ensuring a product launch won't infringe on existing active patents.