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==Document Downloads==
The esp@cenet servers stores patent copies as individual pages; the practical consequence is that up until 2005, patent images could only be viewed, printed or saved as individual pages.  However, in response to user requests,  esp@cenet began to offer a “save full image” link that allows users to download and save any document under the system's page limit.  When this system was first introduced, the page limit was 50 pages; however, after an October 2008 update, the system will now allow users to download any EP document up to 500 pages, and any other document up to 250 pages.  Documents that exceed the page count can only be saved page-by-page, from esp@cenet's document viewer.  See the [[Report:Esp%40cenet/Viewing_Results/Viewing_Patent_Drawings|Viewing Patent Documents]] section of this article for more information about these features.

Although individual patent copies may be obtained, no bulk downloading is available from esp@cenet.  Certain plug-ins designed to work with the esp@cenet website may be able to circumvent this restriction.   (The EPO maintains a separate delivery server, called Open Patent Services (OPS), to support automated bulk downloading.)


<editornote>One major advantage of the esp@cenet system is that it provides free document image copies.  After an October 2008 update increased document page limits from 50 to 500 for EP documents and 250 for other documents, this feature became even more valuable.  However, saving documents over this page limit via the page-by-page method is not practical, so esp@cenet users still have something further to wish for: unlimited downloading capabilities.  In addition, the inability to save or print mosaic drawing files is still a limitation of the system. </editornote>