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When you use Espacenet, you also have access to a number of helpful tools and resources.

Classification search is a powerful tool for you if you need to retrieve patent publications in a particular technical area. Classification search in Espacenet helps you to find suitable classification symbols for your search, and then to apply in the search itself.

Global Dossier provides access to the file wrapper of a patent application, wherever it is made available by the patent authority in question. File wrappers are complete records of an application; they include all documents relating to the grant process such as communications between the patent authority and the applicant/patent attorney, patent authorities' official actions, applicant statements, diagrams and drawings. Access to file wrappers is currently provided by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), European Patent Office (EPO), Japan Patent Office (JPO), Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO).

Global Dossier also offers machine translations in English of Chinese, Japanese and Korean communications/documents.

Global Dossier is available via the European Patent Register and Espacenet.

The Common Citation Document (CCD) tool provides a single point of access to citation data for the patent applications of the largest five IP offices (IP5).

This tool consolidates the prior art cited by all participating offices for the family members of a patent application, showing the search results from different offices on a single page.