EP authority file
The EP authority file provides a sequential gap-free list of all patent document publication numbers issued by the European Patent Office under the IP5 authority file specification and WIPO standard ST.37.
For consistency checks the EP authority file also contains publication numbers for which no patent document has been issued (withdrawn, deleted) or no patent document is available (missing, reissued, international publications not republished). For further details see the definition file of the EP authority file.
The EP authority file is updated every six months (last update: 1 January 2025) and available in three formats:
Text CSV format (ZIP, 37 MB) with semicolon-separated line items - Fully compliant with WIPO ST.37 Standard (version 2.2) and meets PCT minimum documentation requirements
XML format (ZIP, 50 MB) according to the EPO Authority File DTD (1 KB) - Non-compliant with WIPO ST.37 Standard (version 2.2) and does not meet PCT minimum documentation requirements
JSON format (ZIP, 107 MB) - Non-compliant with WIPO ST.37 Standard (version 2.2) and does not meet PCT minimum documentation requirements
Format Compliance Notice:
Users requiring WIPO ST.37 v2.2-compliant data for PCT minimum documentation purposes must use the Text CSV Authority File. The XML and JSON formats contain equivalent data and are provided for informational purposes only. They do not meet the PCT minimum documentation regulatory standards.
Please note: Each of these files contains over 6 million records and many default computer programs (e.g. Notepad, WordPad, xml editors) may not be able to open them.
EP authority file exception code
Entries in the EP authority file that do not feature an exception code are available on the European publication server as "regular" publication documents in PDF/A format and WIPO ST.36 XML format. All other entries feature one of the following exception codes, which have the following meaning:
| Exception code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| E | Not republished EuroPCT publications |
| S | Supplementary search report |
| W | Withdrawals |
| R | Reissued publications |
| N | Not used publication numbers |
| M | Missing publication documents |
| D | Deletions after publication |
| U | Unknown publication numbers |
| C | Defective publication documents |
More information on data coverage, document kind codes and exception codes can be found in the definition file of the EP authority file.