Free tools · WO / PCT search report reader
Read a PCT international search report: every citation and its category.
Enter a WO publication number below for its international search report as recorded by the EPO: each citation with its category (X relevant alone, Y relevant in combination, A background), the claims it was cited against, the earliest priority date, the 30- and 31-month national-phase dates, and whether the US national phase has been entered.
By patent number
One number, any format. Pick what you want to know about it, or ask for everything.
Free. Five lookups a day per visitor; fifteen with an email. The examiner's search log is read by a paid transcription, so it is limited to three new patents a day per visitor and twenty for everyone. A patent already read is always free and never counts. Resets at midnight UTC.
Every answer shown here, by email, with a link back. Also lifts your limit to fifteen lookups a day.
Deadline calculators
Dates in, dates out. The IPR one-year bar, the PTAB milestones, a contest's close in your own zone, the PCT national phase and the EP opposition window.
Date the complaint was served (35 U.S.C. §315(b)).
Date the IPR petition was filed.
The close as posted, Eastern Time.
Earliest priority date. 30 months for most offices; 31 for the EP and some others.
Date the mention of the EP grant was published. An opposition is due 9 months later (Art. 99 EPC).
Statutory and rule-based intervals, counted in calendar days; the PTAB lines are the usual milestones, and the Board's own scheduling order governs. Not legal advice. Feeds the invalidity search.
WO / PCT report reader
A WO number in; out: the international search report's citations with their X, Y and A categories and the claims each was aimed at, the earliest priority, the national-phase dates, and whether the US national phase has been entered.
International search report · EPO record
- X
- Y
- A
X: relevant alone. Y: relevant combined with another. A: background. Only the searching authority's own citations are listed, not the applicant's. National-phase limits vary by office; check the WIPO PCT time-limits table for the one you need.
Wayback date-prover
A URL in; out: the earliest archived capture of the page and its link, as a citable line for dating a manual, a datasheet or a product page. A capture proves the page existed by that date; it says nothing about when it was first published. Feeds the non-patent literature sweep.
From the Wayback Machine
About this tool
Only the searching authority's own citations are listed, not the applicant's. An X or Y citation against a claim is the international searcher's view of novelty or inventive step for that claim; national offices are not bound by it.
The national-phase dates are counted from the earliest priority; limits vary by office, so check WIPO's time-limits table for the one you need.
Questions
- What do X, Y and A mean in a search report?
- X: the document alone suggests the claimed invention lacks novelty or inventive step. Y: it does so combined with another document of the same category. A: general background.
- Does a clean search report mean the patent will be granted?
- No. National examiners run their own searches and apply their own law, and often cite art the international searcher did not.