Espacenet and other search databases

Searching for designs worldwide is a difficult job, and there is no single free worldwide search site. However, the patent search site espacenet appears to include an increasing amount of design coverage, which might occasionally be useful, though it is unclear how complete or consistent it is. Most designs seem to be distinguished by a publication kind code starting with "S". Thus, S, S1, S2, S3 and S4 all bring up some designs. However, this isn't universally true as Uruguay designs appear to be denoted Q (which is a kind of dustbin code). There may be other exceptions.



The largest contingent are US design patents, which appear to be covered back to 2001. These are also, of course, on the USPTO site but the espacenet records have pdf documents. Many of the other countries covered are in South America. The data included is very variable - publication number and application and priority data, but in some cases there are also titles (in original languages), applicants, inventor/designers, and original documents. No IPC, Locarno or other classifications, of course.



Here is what I have gleaned:

State	Code	Coverage	Number
US	S1	back to 2001	Lots
Chile (CL)	S1	back to 2005	391
Costa Rica (CR)	S	back to 2004	51
Ecuador (EC)	S	back to 2000	1357
Indonesia (ID)	S	back to 1996	53
San Marino (SM)	S, S1, S2, S3, S4	back to 2001	240
Uruguay (UY)	Q	back to 2002	557

a very few Japanese and Australian designs are also under code S. You can limit to these types by using the publication number field (e.g. a string such as "US and S1" will limit to US design patents).

Other lists of free design databases are at:

• Mayall's IP Links



• British Library IP service