Research Guides: Patents: Patent Resources

US Patents: Background Information

A Patent Primer
Process for Obtaining a Utility Patent
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
Learn all about patents and the patent process.

University of Arkansas Resources

Searching for Patents

Google Patents
Does not provide comprehensive coverage and limits the number of patents retrieved. Each search day will bring a new group of patents as sorting method varies.
USPTO database
Provides access to the United States Patent bibliographic database from 1976 to the present. Provides a more private search option.
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Requires a TIFF reader to access full text images.
European Patent Office Databases
U.S. patents from 1936 on (abstracts from 1976 on)
Worldwide patents; dates of coverage vary by country

SciFinder-n This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Covers: 1907-. SciFinder is an easy-to-use interface to Chemical Abstracts and related databases, including: the CAS Registry of chemicals, reactions data, sources for chemical purchasing, and the National Library of Medicine's MEDLINE database. Individual registration required.
Registration instructions

Free Patents Online
Quick and easy to search way to find millions of patents and their applications.
Espacenet
Contains about 50 million patent documents from all over the world and provided by European Patent Office.
Lens
Open resource for global patent and scholarly knowledge .

Patent Tools

PatentsView
Data visualization and analysis platform intended to increase the value, utility, and transparency of US patent data.
Patentscope
"The PATENTSCOPE database provides access to international Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications in full text format on the day of publication, as well as to patent documents of participating national and regional patent offices. The information may be searched by entering keywords, names of applicants, international patent classification and many other search criteria in multiple languages."
PAT2PDF
A commercial site that will create a PDF from the USPTO database. You must have the patent number.

US Patent Application Status

The US Patent and Trademark Office's site allows you to look up status information for patent applications, if you have the application number. With the number, you may:

Display issued or published patent application status
Access the public application image file wrapper, including: patents, published application documents, and applications to which a patented or published application claims domestic priority

Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR)