Research Guides: Materials & Manufacturing Technology: Patent Information

Finding Patents

European Patent Office
Information on searching patents, how to apply for a patent, legal issues and facts.

There are a variety of patent finding tools - they include global representation and reflect different national jurisdictions.

Patent tutorials and lists of patent depositories are noted on the Patent and Trademark Subject Guide.

Key Sites to find Patents and Trademarks:

DEPATISnet
A German PTO patent database that permits bib data downloads from up to 250 patent records at a time.
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This service is designed primarily for patent information novices, in particular, in small and medium enterprises, as well as at schools, universities and other scientific institutions.
Free Patents Online
This site provides full text and images of US patents beginning with the patent number 4,000,000.
Google Patents
A tool for searching the full text of the U.S. patent corpus. 7.3 M patents are included.
Japan Patent Office
Can search for patents and also learn more about legal issues and procedures. Tutorial on how to search. Can search free-of-charge. The services are operational and are updated on a daily, weekly and monthly basis respectively.
NexisUni
Under "Legal Research" is a Patent Research section for searching of Patents (1971 to date), by individual category of Design Patents, Plant Patents or Utility Patents. Can also search by keyword, assignee, inventor, patent number, classification, lawyer.
MicroPatent
MicroPatent is a source for patent and trademark information. It functions as a resource for online searching, document delivery, patent analysis, file histories, and professional search assistance.
PatentScope
Maintained by the World Intellectual Property Organization, this facility allows you to search 1,344,736 international patent applications and to view the latest information and documents available to the International Bureau.
U. S. Patent and Trademark Office
Official source for U.S. patents and trademarks in full text from 1976 (full page images available since 1790) with links to the Library of Congress for copyright information.
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Definitions, application forms and instructions, handbooks, notices, and patent attorney directory are just a few of the products provided. Includes design patents and reissued patents as well as patents currently in application process (coverage starts March 2001). Full-text searching is available.
WikiPatents
WikiPatents is one of the largest free databases of patents open for public comment on the internet, allowing PDF downloading of patents, free patent translation into multiple languages and additional information and resources.
WIPO Intellectual Property Digital Library
The Intellectual Property Digital Library Web site provides access to various intellectual property data collections currently hosted by the World Intellectual Property Organization.
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These collections include Hague, JOPAL (non-patent reference), Madrid and PCT data and support fully searchable information retrieval and display by users on demand. Access to the Digital Library is available to the general public.

Patent Information

There are a variety of patent finding tools - they include global representation:

Key sites to find Patents and Trademarks

Patent tutorials and lists of patent depositories are noted on the Patent & Trademark Subject Guide

DEPATISnet
more...less...
This service is designed primarily for patent information novices, in particular, in small and medium enterprises, as well as at schools, universities and other scientific institutions.
European Patent Office
Information on searching patents, how to apply for a patent, legal issues and facts.
Free Patents Online
This site provides full text and images of US patents beginning with the patent number 4,000,000.
Google Patents
Google Scholar
Google Scholar's Advanced Scholar Search can now be used to find patents and legal opinions. Search options include all legal opinions and journals, search only US federal court opinions, and search only court opinions from individual states.
Japan Patent Office
Can search for patents and also learn more about legal issues and procedures. Tutorial on how to search. Can search free-of-charge. The services are operational and are updated on a daily, weekly and monthly basis respectively.
NexisUni
MicroPatent
MicroPatent is a source for patent and trademark information. It functions as a resource for online searching, document delivery, patent analysis, file histories, and professional search assistance.
PatentScope
Maintained by the World Intellectual Property Organization, this facility allows you to search 1,344,736 international patent applications and to view the latest information and documents available to the International Bureau.
U. S. Patent and Trademark Office
Official source for U.S. patents and trademarks in full text from 1976 (full page images available since 1790) with links to the Library of Congress for copyright information.
more...less...
Definitions, application forms and instructions, handbooks, notices, and patent attorney directory are just a few of the products provided. Includes design patents and reissued patents as well as patents currently in application process (coverage starts March 2001). Full-text searching is available.
WikiPatents
WikiPatents is one of the largest free databases of patents open for public comment on the internet, allowing PDF downloading of patents, free patent translation into multiple languages and additional information and resources.
WIPO Intellectual Property Digital Library
The Intellectual Property Digital Library Web site provides access to various intellectual property data collections currently hosted by the World Intellectual Property Organization.
more...less...
These collections include Hague, JOPAL (non-patent reference), Madrid and PCT data and support fully searchable information retrieval and display by users on demand. Access to the Digital Library is available to the general public.