EPIDOS/INPADOC : This is the largest and most comprehensive database in the world in terms of countries and the time-span covered. It deals with all patent documents applied in 65 patent offices worldwide. Their contents are updated on a weekly basis. Approx. 25000 documents are added to the database each week. It is estimated that INPADOC covers approx.95% of all patents published worldwide since 1968.
The patent family service provides together with the bibliographic data of all members of the patent family a complete list of patents claiming the same priority. Patent with multiple priority claims are automatically included. The bibliographic elements consists of Publication number and date, Priority number(s) and date(s), application number and date, International Patent number Classification number, Name of Inventor, Applicant's name, Title of the invention.
The database is owned by European Patent Office(EPO). EPO collects the data from 65 countries,consolidate and diseminate this data in form of magnetic tape/CD-R on weekly basis.