EPO - Discussion forums

Hello OPS Team,

I want to find the FullDocument of EP.2643642.A1.

So I query with "http://ops.epo.org/3.2/rest-services/pu ... .A1/images"
This gives me the following response:

<ops:document-inquiry>
<ops:publication-reference>
<document-id document-id-type="docdb">
<country>EP</country>
<doc-number>2643642</doc-number>
<kind>A1</kind>
</document-id>
</ops:publication-reference>
<ops:inquiry-result>
<publication-reference>
<document-id document-id-type="docdb">
<country>EP</country>
<doc-number>2643642</doc-number>
<kind>A1</kind>
</document-id>
</publication-reference>
<ops:document-instance system="ops.epo.org" number-of-pages="1" desc="FullDocument" link="published-data/images/EP/2643642/A0/fullimage">
<ops:document-format-options>
<ops:document-format>application/pdf</ops:document-format>
<ops:document-format>application/tiff</ops:document-format>
</ops:document-format-options>
</ops:document-instance>
<ops:document-instance system="ops.epo.org" number-of-pages="4" desc="Drawing" link="published-data/images/WO/2012070004/A1/thumbnail">
<ops:document-format-options>
<ops:document-format>application/pdf</ops:document-format>
<ops:document-format>application/tiff</ops:document-format>
</ops:document-format-options>
<ops:document-section name="DRAWINGS" start-page="1"/>
</ops:document-instance>
<ops:document-instance system="ops.epo.org" number-of-pages="22" desc="FullDocument" link="published-data/images/WO/2012070004/A1/fullimage">
<ops:document-format-options>
<ops:document-format>application/pdf</ops:document-format>
<ops:document-format>application/tiff</ops:document-format>
</ops:document-format-options>
<ops:document-section name="ABSTRACT" start-page="1"/>
<ops:document-section name="BIBLIOGRAPHY" start-page="1"/>
<ops:document-section name="CLAIMS" start-page="13"/>
<ops:document-section name="DESCRIPTION" start-page="3"/>
<ops:document-section name="DRAWINGS" start-page="16"/>
<ops:document-section name="SEARCH_REPORT" start-page="20"/>
</ops:document-instance>
<ops:document-instance system="ops.epo.org" number-of-pages="1" desc="FirstPageClipping" link="published-data/images/WO/2012070004/PA/firstpage">
<ops:document-format-options>
<ops:document-format>application/pdf</ops:document-format>
<ops:document-format>application/tiff</ops:document-format>
<ops:document-format>image/jpeg</ops:document-format>
<ops:document-format>image/png</ops:document-format>
</ops:document-format-options>
<ops:document-section name="ABSTRACT" start-page="1"/>
<ops:document-section name="BIBLIOGRAPHY" start-page="1"/>
</ops:document-instance>
</ops:inquiry-result>
</ops:document-inquiry>

This gives me two possible FullDocuments, the one from the original EP and the one from WO. In old (classic) Espacenet the EP is shown, in new Espacenet it says "original document not available " and shows the WO. Can you explain this behaviour and how I can distinguish between the two entries in the response, they just differ in the given link. Do I really have to parse the link?

Regards

Gerald

Hi

The PCT you are looking at succumbs to article 153(3) of the EPC which states:

(3)The international publication of a Euro-PCT application in an official language of the European Patent Office shall take the place of the publication of the European patent application and shall be mentioned in the European Patent Bulletin.

For that reason we offer in OPS link to the WO publication as well as to the A0 notice (one pager) stating that EPxxxx is not available due to Article 153(3) provision and that users have to reference to the WO publication. User can then choose if they want one or both documents loaded into their database. This depends entirely from your needs.

Classic Espacenet only offers A0 notice but references to the WO publications via simple patent family "Also published as". In this way it also offer you both options, one directly and another via family.

New Espacenet at present only offers such EP's with link to the WO publication but has plans to soon introduce a A0 option as well, just like OPS does. Not sure jet how they will do it or when, I just know they are considering this option.

Its up to you what you want to have. Patent attorneys prefer that A0 pages for their docketing and some other user groups who are more interested in the scope of the invention prefer to read a full text of the WO, since this one is replacing full text of EP in such cases.

I hope that explains it

Regards,
Vesna for OPS