How to obtain specific bibliographic data for a given EP patent application

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CB66
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2022 11:43 pm

How to obtain specific bibliographic data for a given EP patent application

Post by CB66 » Thu Nov 24, 2022 12:15 am

I am a European Patent Attorney with some software development skills (including making web requests and processing XML data received, which I have already done with OPS). I would like to use OPS to simply obtain specific bibliographic data for published European patent applications. That is, for a given EP publication number (known to me) I would like to obtain the following: application number, filing date, title of the invention, applicants (names and addresses) as currently registered. I am not interested in procedural events or case history, e.g. applicants as recorded in the past, nor citations etc. In other words, for ease of processing the data received, if possible, I would like to simply obtain the aforementioned data as they would be shown when consulting the European Patent Register online. Also, if possible, I would like to obtain only the above data (for the given application), rather than “everything” (including cited references etc.), if only to reduce data traffic. I do not fully understand the distinction between the services relating to bibliographic data and to the European patent register (I have consulted the OPS documentation PDF document, and I do understand the meaning of patent data, but the aforementioned distinction is not yet fully clear to me). Therefore, I wonder whether you could point me in the right direction, i.e. indicate WHICH of the available OPS services (API) I should use and, if possible, how the data actually obtained could be limited to what I am interested in. Any help would be very much appreciated.


EPO / OPS Support
Posts: 1294
Joined: Thu Feb 22, 2007 5:32 pm

Re: How to obtain specific bibliographic data for a given EP patent application

Post by EPO / OPS Support » Thu Nov 24, 2022 12:02 pm

Hi,

If you want to use OPS for Register data you can use one of the calls in the picture - I think that Search or Retrieval would fit the best for your case.
api_1.PNG
Please note that only calls as in Developer Area and responses as you will get them via those calls are possible in OPS. It is not possible to reduce or limit the output that URL call gives.

OPS Published gives data as in Espacenet and OPS Register gives data as in EP Register website.
One is a prior art database with worldwide data collection (that includes EP) and real publications only and the other one is a EP Register data for EP and EURO-PCT's with patent prosecution relevant information only. Main difference in biblio of both is that Register biblio potentially changes over time and Espacenet biblio data is as published on laid open or granted publications.

If you need consultation on usage of OPS, please let us know and we can arrange a session via Teams or Zoom. For Online consultation requests please send email to patentdata@epo.org

Regards,
Vesna
For OPS support


CB66
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2022 11:43 pm

Re: How to obtain specific bibliographic data for a given EP patent application

Post by CB66 » Fri Dec 02, 2022 1:12 am

Thank you very much for the helpful answer to the question I posted recently. I have a follow-up question:
I thought I could use the PSOT method of the Register Retrieval Service to obtain register data for several appications/patents at the same time (i.e. with a single call) by putting the publication numbers in the request body (separated by commas or line breaks, as the API documentation document suggests at page 10). But that does not seem to work as I only get the data for the first case in my input. Am I doing something wrong or is it in fact impossible to get data for more that one case at a time. Any hint would again be very helpful and appreciated.


EPO / OPS Support
Posts: 1294
Joined: Thu Feb 22, 2007 5:32 pm

Re: How to obtain specific bibliographic data for a given EP patent application

Post by EPO / OPS Support » Mon Dec 05, 2022 1:55 pm

Hi

No, that doesn't work. Multiple numbers can only be called in OPS Published with Biblio, both via GET and POST option. Please see OPS documentation for details: https://www.epo.org/searching-for-paten ... s/ops.html (manual is under Further information).

Regards,
Vesna for OPS support


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