This page lists key patent databases and is aimed at UK-based patent
searchers. The information here is intended for use by experts;
you should ask for help if you are unsure about what you are doing.
Although we are willing to offer (limited) advice to enquirers,
we are librarians and not experts on the legal implications of what
you are doing (especially as this will vary within jurisdictions).
Many more databases are available at our Other
Patents Links page.
It is difficult for those unfamiliar with patents to construct
a good search and then to interpret the results. The use of patent
classification schedules, of which there are several,
should produce better results than those retrived by keywords alone.
We have produced some advice
on searching techniques but we strongly advise that
you use a patent
library or ourselves first. If this is not possible,
you may wish to use priced searches such as those conducted by our
Research Service.
The Internet is constantly evolving and new sites will emerge,
whilst existing sites may change addresses or emphases. No liability
is accepted for any errors of commission or omission. However, if
you come across any problems in using the hypertext links, or have
suggestions for further sites, please let
us know. You are welcome to link to us.
These are our other lists of links:
Unless otherwise stated the sites on this list were understood
at the time of compilation to be free to use.
This page was updated 7 January 2008.
[Britain]
Patents Publication Enquiry
Official site.
Provides copies of published British patent applications and granted
patents published since 3 January 2007. They become available
at 1pm London time every Wednesday. You can search by number,
by date of publication (and limit to applications or grants),
link to status entry, link to official journal.
[Britain]
Patents Status Enquiry
Official site.
Status database giving published numbers for filing, ownership
details and if still in force. Enter a British patent application
number (check digit not required) or a published patent number
(British, or a granted EP designating GB) in the format GB2300000,
EP0500000 and so on. Note that changed ownership is often not
recorded.
DEPATISnet
Database hosted by German Patent Office offering links to Adobe
copies of German patents and many foreign patents. Often supplements
what is on Esp@cenet®.
Esp@cenet®
This is the European Patent Office gateway. If it is temporarily
unavailable the British Intellectual
Property Office or Irish
sites may work.
The "worldwide" format enables searching across a vast
amount of data (back to 1895 by name, title or abstract for Britain,
for example). Different formats can be chosen: brief results list,
detailed results list, abstract plus drawing, "mosaic"
of drawings, etc. by choosing among the formats. PDFs of the complete
specifications are often available. Machine translations from
German or French into English are available from the "Description"
formats. Later citations of the document being looked at are also
available. A useful tutorial can be found at "Get Assistance"
in the Advanced search option.
Some European B and A4 (top up search reports after PCT publications)
are also included. Those specifications suffixed U or Y should
have these added to the end of the number or they will not be
retrieved. There is a Global
Patent Data Coverage tool where clicking on the country provides
details of its coverage.
British "B" specifications are not yet available.
Title or abstract words can be truncated by *, or by ? for zero
or one character.
[European
Patent Office] Epoline®
Official site.
Status register of European patent specifications (only to end
of opposition period). Click on Register Plus to search for a
known application or published number (or go downwards on arrow
to pick other options). Use in format EP1300000 etc. In results,
click on All Documents on left hand side to see citations to copies
of correspondence (click on title to open that copy). There are
also subscriber features. Links to the Esp@cenet database for
the actual specifications and also to the EPO Board of Appeal
decisions.
[European
Patent Office] European Patent Server
Official site.
Provides copies of European Patent Office A and B specifications
(omits those published only as WO (PCT) documents). The entire
specification forms a single document. New publications go up
every Wednesday at 14.00 hours Central European Time.
You can search by publication/ application number, IPC (to 4 digit
level, e.g. A61K), publication date and kind of publication (A1,
B8 etc.). All the documents published in a given week can be identified
by checking the box for "all kind codes" and selecting the week
and year from drop down menus. A subset can then be found by checking
the box for the document kind code.
[Japan]
Patent Abstracts of Japan
Official site.
English abstracts plus drawing of Japanese patent applications
from 1976 (though some subject areas were at first not covered).
Includes legal status data.
Machine translations are available at this site (but only from
1993/94). After the search is entered, click on "index indication"
for list of hits. Click on the wanted hit. When the abstract appears,
click on "Detail" at top to begin translating. The Japanese document
is available as "Japanese". There is a delay in placing material
on the database of months.
When searching for specific patent numbers the search box defaults
to filing numbers. For A (kokai) publications click on
"publication number". A more up to date source for machine translations
where the document number is known is the Patent
& Utility Model Gazette.
[Patent Cooperation Treaty]
PatentScopeŽ
Official site.
This leads to the "structured search". Other search
masks are available, as are formats for results, see "options"
and "results" at top right of search boxes. Contains
images of specifications (including revised, amended etc.), often
in different formats, and often priority etc. documents, and has
searchable text for Latin character languages from the beginning
(1979). May include priority documents and some data on entering
national phases. It is updated about noon each Thursday.
Search IPC in the format H03F-3/45. Truncate by using *.
[US]
Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR)
Official site.
Searched by application or patent (grant) or publication (application)
number. Gives list of actions (with dates) leading to issue/ grant
from the file wrapper. Also provides data on related patent applications
(continuation in part etc.) in the "Continuity data" area and
on payment of maintenance fees in the "View Maint. Statement"
area. "File wrappers" (correspondence etc.) are often available.
Enter application numbers in the format 8/010000 where 8 is the
series number.
[US]
Patent Full-Text and Full-Page Image Databases
Official site.
From 1976 searchable front page data of US patents (but with revised
US classification) plus text of claims and description. Revised
versions of patents following litigation, and correction slips,
are not included. Images of patents from 1790 are available and
can be searched for by patent number or current US classification.
Published applications from 15 March 2001 are available as a separate
database in the same way as grants. The "assignees"
are often not given.
You may need to download a free plug-in to view the images. The
British Library workstations are pre-loaded with the AlternaTIFF
software (from the Help key).
Search IPC in the format H03F003/45. Truncate by using $.
