1. Patent Information: Open Patent Services 3rd Annual Forum for SMEs Information Workshop on European Bioinformatics Resources
Nigel S. Clarke
Manager Online Products and User Support
Vienna, September 2009

2. Open Patent Services: the evolution of a web service
Written by: Davide Lingua
Presented by: Nigel Clarke
EPO Vienna
September 2009

3. esp@cenet and OPS: A different look at the same picture Web Services
generate XML
Web Services
Client
(non-EPO)
EPO
Mainframe
Databases
generate HTML
generate XML
Web Services
Client
(non-EPO)
OPS v.1
OPS v.2

4. The "Fair use" charter

5. "Fair use" charter

6. esp@cenet and OPS: Free of charge
24x7 Availability : 24 hours/day, 7 days/week
(Note: regular and extraordinary outages)
has been developed for human users only  no robots please
OPS: is dedicated to integrated systems/automated access  restrictions when bulk downloading
And: EPO resources are limited

7. The "Fair use" charter To give clarity on: what the EPO can offer
how the users are expected to behave
Visible on:
and
Main principle: Human users always come first!

8. Specific to OPS Integrated systems and robots must:
let us know who they are (IP address used)!
Sign a data user agreement
Observe restrictions as indicated
Enforcement of these principles is being implemented gradually

9. Open Patent Services v.1 http://ops.espacenet.com

10. Open Patent Services (OPS) v.1
To be discontinued in October/November 2009
Retrieval of data for single input numbers
In operation since Summer 2003

11. The latest statistics for OPS v.1 (week 20/2009)

12. Open Patent Services v.2 http://ops.epo.org

13. OPS version 2 A complete overhaul of the version 1 XML and more:
Launched in December 2008
Makes OPS a "document literal" web service
New elements are supported in the input XML
Returns bibliography and full-text in St. 36 XML
Adds operations to allow bibliographic search
Adds equivalents and full-text inquiry

14. The latest statistics for OPS v.2 (week 20/2009)

15. Information page http://ops.epo.org
Check the input examples
New documentation to be added soon!

16. OPS v.2: Document literal
OPS v.1 request
OPS v.2 request
Based on ACTION attribute
Is a string
<input_request xsi:type="xsd:string"><OpenPatentServices ACTION="Biblio"><
WORLDPATENTDATA> <BIBLIO SEED="EP " SEED_FORMAT="E" SEED_TYPE="PN"/> </WORLDPATENTDATA></OpenPatentServices></input_request>
Operation addressed to different URI
Is an XML document
<ops:biblio-retrieval>
<ops:publication-reference data-
format="epodoc">
<document-id>
<doc-number>EP100000</doc-number>
</document-id>
</ops:publication-reference>
</ops:biblio-retrieval>

17. Biblio and full-text in St. 36 XML
Bibliographic data is returned in XML derived from the WIPO St. 36 used in DOCDB exchange
Full-text data is returned in XML compatible with the extensions to the WIPO St. 36 planned for full-text exchange

18. Bibliographic search Completely new feature
Input is query in Contextual Query Language (CQL):
<ops:query>ti=bicycle and gear and pr=IT</ops:query>
For more info check
Allows retrieval of multiple IDs for documents found
IDs can be used in improved bibliographic retrieval to obtain data for multiple publications

19. Full-text inquiry Completely new feature
Inquiry for full-text availability
Input is a publication number
Indicates whether claims or description texts are available

20. Equivalents inquiry Completely new feature
Input is a publication number
Provides list of equivalents ("simple family")
Only one number per publication cycle (full publication cycle available in "biblio request")

21. Tips on using OPS v.2

22. The DOCDB format Always contains CC: ISO two letter country code
NNNNNNNNNNNN: up to 12 digit number
KK: DOCDB kind code, always 2 positions, can be wildcard (%, #)
<document-id>
<country>US</country>
<doc-number> </doc-number>
<kind>A#</kind>
</document-id>
Check the link:

23. The EPODOC publication format
Is of the kind: CCNNNNNNNNNNNN(K)
CC: ISO two letter country code
N(N...): can be up to 12 digits (EP is 7), NO SPACES
(K): attached kind code (kc) letter
<document-id>
<country></country>
<doc-number>EP </doc-number>
<kind></kind>
</document-id>
(K): if kc A(n), letter A never attached
if kc D(n) to Z(n), first letter always attached
if kc B(n) or C(n), first letter (up to 2 characters for
JP) can be attached i(f this is necessary to differentiate documents
belonging to overlapping number-series)

24. Tips Namespaces "exc:" and "ops:"
Wildcards: % (0 or 1 character), # (space)
Beware of PCT application number formats in DOCDB
Use the SOAP request examples
SOAP fault "Ambiguous seed"
Other error's handling

25. Two namespaces - two sets of references
exc:publication-reference
exc:application-reference
exc:priority-claim
ops:publication-reference
ops:application-reference
ops:priority-claim
ops:query
ops:document-retrieval

26. WO application formats in DOCDB
Until : CCyynnnnnW
After : CCccyynnnnnnW
CC=country code where filing took place (IB=International Buro)
cc=century (20), yy=year
nnnnnn=sequential number (6 digits, 5 digits before 2004)
W= mandatory application kind code
Examples:
PCT/FR00/01957  DOC-DB "_FR_____ W%"
PCT/GB02/04635  DOC-DB "_GB_____ W%"
PCT/IB2004/  DOC-DB "_IB__ W%"

27. WO application formats in DOCDB: examples
<exch:application-reference data-format="docdb">
<document-id>
<country>IB</country>
<doc-number> </doc-number>
<kind>%%</kind>
</document-id>
</exch:application-reference>
<country>FR</country>
<doc-number> </doc-number>
Search for an application number
Tip: use the wildcard

28. Ambiguous seed Published application JP3119522 A 19910521
Utility model JP U U
Granted patent JP B2 B
OPS Request
<ops:biblio-retrieval xmlns:ops=" xmlns:exch="
<exch:publication-reference data-format="docdb">
<document-id>
<country>JP</country>
<doc-number> </doc-number>
<kind>%%</kind>
</document-id>
</exch:publication-reference>
</ops:biblio-retrieval>
Three different inventions

29. OPS response
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="
<faultstring xml:lang="en-US">The requested reference was ambiguous.</faultstring>
</ambiguous-input>
<resolution>
<exch:publication-reference xmlns:exch=" xmlns:ops=" data-format="docdb">
<document-id>
<country>JP</country>
<doc-number> </doc-number>
<kind>B2</kind>
</document-id>
</exch:publication-reference>
</resolution>
<kind>U</kind>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

30. Error handling
OPS returns now SOAP faults instead of errors. For instance:
<SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="
<SOAP-ENV:Header/>
<SOAP-ENV:Body>
<SOAP-ENV:Fault>
<faultcode>SOAP-ENV:Client</faultcode>
<faultstring xml:lang="en">The request was invalid.</faultstring>
</SOAP-ENV:Fault>
</SOAP-ENV:Body>
</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

31. Additional features of OPS v.2
More citations: EP/WO, US, GB, FR, DE, AU, NL, ES, CH, BE, ...
More full text documents (description and/or claims): EP, WO, AT, CA, CH

32. Further planning Implementation of fair use policy
Retrieval of ECLA classes in XML format
Number services
Extension of full text coverage
Full text search in En, De, Fr
New operations for the EP Register

33. Thank you for your attention
D Davide Lingua