Espacenet, a free worldwide database of full text patent records provided by the European Patent Office is our free resource of the month.

The nature of patents makes them an essential resource of detailed technical and competitor information:

• 70% of the information contained in patents is not available elsewhere - EPO statistic
• the technical details of a patent are legally required to be sufficient to reproduce the invention 
• they cannot be applied for anonymously    

Espacenet's search features and additional content make it a significant means of searching the patent literature: 

• searchable titles, keywords and bibliographic details including applicant and inventor
• classification code search facility to avoid ambiguities of technical jargon for more consistent search terms
• coverage of records from over 70 countries
• records are linked to patent family and legal status information    

Check out the free of charge chemical information link for other useful resources