Below you will find links to all the documentation required in order to understand and process EBD files. These files contain complex, XML tagged data which detail, on a weekly basis, bibliographic details of all new EPO patent applications and specifications and all the previous weeks changes to existing files. These are 'raw', unformatted but highly structured data files. Note also that the system processing the file must be set to read the UTF-8 character set

These files do not give the whole history and status of an EPO application or patent. To view this data you will need to go to the:

• Register of European Patents on the Internet;
  or subscribe to the
• EP ESPACE Bulletin CD-ROM

EBD files are primarily intended for EPO National Offices, other Patent Offices and commercial database host systems to update their patent databases.

Click here to see an example bibliographic file.

If you download EBD files they will not be too much use to you unless you:

• have a good understanding of EPO patent procedures
• have a good understanding of XML processing
• probably have a database to store the data (for searching, updating, etc). In such a case you will have to write a conversion program - converting XML tags to database records, for example. Unfortunately, the EPO is unable to give any help in this area.

Backfile data - we store only the latest four weeks data - (seven for national offices) on this site. In order to obtain backfile data from the EPO you must contact the EPO (Vienna) office. Details and price list are available at this link: EPO Price List.
For EBD data look at section 14.1 in the price list.
Note that backfile data pre 2005 may still be in SGML format and NOT XML

The first document listed below, "EBD Specification", is the only document required in order to understand the format of the bibliographic data. This document gives a comprehensive description of the file format and also gives many examples of use.

For a quick over view click here: [Quick Guide]

For information regarding SGML files: click here