Espacenet CPC Browser compared with Questel Orbit and STN| Espacenet CPC Browser (EPO) | مدار كويستل | STN |
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| الوظيفة الرئيسية: The CPC Browser is a reference for the Cooperative Patent Classification, managed jointly by the EPO and the USPTO. It lets you drill down from sections such as Electricity to subgroups, with definitions, illustrations and scope notes for each code. Patent documents themselves are searched in the wider Espacenet. | الوظيفة الرئيسية: Orbit Intelligence is a patent search and analysis platform from Questel. Its family includes modules for chemistry, biosequences, legal status and grant statistics, and a lighter Orbit Express edition. | الوظيفة الرئيسية: STN is the CAS search service for patents and chemistry. Today it is delivered mainly as CAS IP Finder, powered by STN, which is part of the STN IP Protection Suite. |
| Technical basis: The CPC is a hierarchical taxonomy that the page describes as having over 250,000 categories. Choosing the right code before searching reduces keyword ambiguity, which matters for freedom-to-operate and state-of-the-art work. | Technical basis: Search and analytics are combined in one platform. Specific modules address technical content such as small molecules and DNA or amino acid sequences. | Technical basis: The service draws on more than 100 patent databases. Structure searching relies on CAS REGISTRY, and CAS PatentPak helps locate the substance inside a patent document. |
| Fields where it fits best: Any technology, since the classification covers all fields. It is most useful where companies and countries describe the same technology with different words. | Fields where it fits best: General technology searching, with dedicated modules for chemistry and for DNA and amino acid sequences in the life sciences. | Fields where it fits best: Chemistry, materials and pharmaceuticals, where a small structural change decides whether a claim applies and keyword search misses documents described differently. |
| Expertise and output: Moderate. Users must understand how a classification scheme is organized, but the definitions and illustrations are given in the interface. The result is a set of codes to feed into a search, not a list of patents. | Expertise and output: High for full use, since it is meant for professional searchers and IP teams. The output is a result set with analysis dashboards. | Expertise and output: High, because queries combine text, structure and patent family logic. The output includes claims, document information and overlaps between chemical structures and sequences. |
| التكلفة، وإمكانية الوصول، والوضع: Free of charge on the EPO site, which also offers Open Patent Services for programmatic access to patent data. | التكلفة، وإمكانية الوصول، والوضع: A commercial platform. Its product page lists no prices, so a quote is needed. | التكلفة، وإمكانية الوصول، والوضع: A product sold by CAS (American Chemical Society), with access by request. The old domain stn-international.com is now parked and offered for sale, so use the CAS website to reach the service. |
