Espacenet improvements

Hi everyone,

Croatia now has a national Esp@cenet® server at http://hr.espacenet.com. The national database file contains all HR A and B documents since 1994. It is also the third Esp@cenet® national server to use the new EPTOS system for the national file, after France (http://fr.espacenet.com) and Poland (http://pl.espacenet.com). This provides an opportunity to discuss the advantages of this system over older Esp@cenet® systems. The old limit of five Boolean search terms has been removed, and it is claimed that it will be possible to search within the digitised document full-texts in "Description" and "Claims" where these are available (at present none of the national files on these servers appears to have digitised full text). It is also finally possible to perform a proper date range search, using a hyphen to link the first and last dates. One can search a range of years, for example by entering 2005-2007, months, for instance 200501-200504, or days, for example 20050115-20050131. Note that as yet this only affects the national files on these servers, which must be searched in the local language.

regards

Phil Eagle
PATLIB London