Espacenet, Patentscope and Depatisnet: A comparison approach

Espacenet, Patentscope and Depatisnet are known as the main multinational patent databases offered by patent authorities which are available to the public free of charge. As all three systems have substantially improved in the last few years, a comparison of their functionalities and capabilities, as discussed herein, is useful for those unfamiliar with the recent developments. In order to present the comparison, the following aspects were analysed: data coverage, search functionality, result list, bibliographic view of records and patent data export options. Case studies are presented where the search systems were compared in the field of nanotechnology. The analysis concludes that Espacenet has the best features for searching, Patentscope the best for analysis and Depatisnet the best for complex search tasks.