# EPO Patent Search & Bibliographic Lookup

> EPO Patent Search & Bibliographic Lookup is a paid API for AI agents from x402-endpoints.onrender.com, paid per call via x402, $0.05/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-13).

Searches and retrieves bibliographic data for patents from the European Patent Office (EPO) Open Patent Services by number, title, applicant, inventor, or date range.

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://x402-endpoints.onrender.com/patents/search
- Price: $0.05/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-13
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/epo-patent-search-bibliographic-lookup-825d9ac7
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_7jAwwqkrfXeCdC9mjAk6P

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability epo-patent-search-bibliographic-lookup-825d9ac7
```

Example prompt: Search the EPO patent database for up to 20 patents related to 'quantum computing' filed between 2018-01-01 and 2023-12-31 by applicant IBM, and show me the publication numbers, titles, inventors, and IPC classifications.

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you need structured bibliographic patent data from the official EPO Open Patent Services, especially for European patents or worldwide coverage across 100+ patent offices. Prefer this over generic web search when you need precise metadata like IPC/CPC codes, kind codes, patent family IDs, and formal applicant/inventor records.

## Known failure modes

- No patents found matching the query — returns empty result set
- Invalid publication number format — may return error or empty result
- Date range with no publications — returns empty result
- EPO OPS API rate limit exceeded — may return 429 or timeout
- Missing required query parameters — returns validation error
- Ambiguous inventor or applicant name with too many results — truncated to limit

## How this service works

European patent and intellectual property (IP) search and bibliographic lookup by number, title, applicant or inventor against the official European Patent Office (EPO) Open Patent Services — returns publication number, country, kind code, dates, titles, applicants, inventors, IPC/CPC classifications and family id. Coverage EU and worldwide (100+ patent offices).

## Output

Returns a list of matching patent records including publication number, country, kind code, filing and publication dates, titles in available languages, applicant names, inventor names, IPC/CPC classification codes, and patent family ID. Coverage spans 100+ patent offices worldwide.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET",
      "HEAD",
      "DELETE"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [],
     "properties": {
      "limit": {
       "type": "integer",
       "description": "Max patents [1-50], e.g. 20"
      },
      "title": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Title keyword (CQL ti=), e.g. 'quantum computing'"
      },
      "date_to": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Publication date to, ISO YYYY-MM-DD"
      },
      "inventor": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Inventor name (CQL in=), e.g. 'Shannon'"
      },
      "applicant": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Applicant / assignee (CQL pa=), e.g. 'Siemens'"
      },
      "date_from": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Publication date from, ISO YYYY-MM-DD"
      },
      "publication_number": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "If set, biblio lookup for this number, e.g. 'EP1000000'"
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object"
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "mode": "publication",
  "count": 1,
  "cached": false,
  "source": "EPO Open Patent Services v3.2 (ops.epo.org)",
  "patents": [
   {
    "titles": {
     "de": "Vorrichtung zur Herstellung von Steinformlingen für die Ziegelindustrie",
     "en": "Apparatus for manufacturing green bricks for the brick manufacturing industry"
    },
    "country": "EP",
    "family_id": "19768124",
    "inventors": [
     "KOSMAN WILHELMUS JACOBUS MARIA [NL]"
    ],
    "kind_code": "A1",
    "applicants": [
     "BEHEERMIJ DE BOER NIJMEGEN BV [NL]"
    ],
    "doc_number": "1000000",
    "publication_date": "20000517",
    "publication_number": "EP1000000A1",
    "cpc_classifications": [
     "B28B1/29"
    ],
    "ipc_classifications": [
     "B28B1/29",
     "B28B5/02",
     "B28B7/00"
    ]
   }
  ],
  "timestamp": "2026-06-25T12:00:00Z"
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/epo-patent-search-bibliographic-lookup-825d9ac7/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from x402-endpoints.onrender.com](https://www.zero.xyz/host/x402-endpoints.onrender.com/llms.txt)