Finding Patents

Finding U.S. Patents

The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) Patent Database includes full text of patents from 1790 - present and also provides TIFF images of most of them.

By Patent Number

1. Go to USPTO Database.
2. Select Patent Number Search or Publication Number Search.

By Subject

1. Go to USPTO Database and select Quick Search. Enter keywords in the search box.
2. Find a patent that is close to what you're looking for.
3. Note the U.S. Classification number/Subclass for that patent, e.g. 711/111 .
4. Do a search of that Class/Subclass in USPTO to find more patents on that subject.

OR ...

1. Go to Index to the U.S. Patent Classification System and search for common terms or keywords.
2. Use the Class/Subclass numbers you found to check the Manual of U.S. Patent Classification to see if they are on target.
3. Search by Class/Subclass numbers in USPTO Database.

Finding Chemical Patents

Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) indexes chemical patents from approximately 25 countries and patent organizations. UCSD affiliates may search the online CAS database, Scifinder Scholar.

Finding International Patents

The European Patent Office maintains a free database of worldwide patents (including U.S. patents) called esp@cenet. Images of patents are provided in PDF format, but can only be printed one page at a time.

By Patent Number

1. Go to esp@cenet and select Number Search.
2. Select the Worldwide Patent Database
3. Enter the patent number in the search box in the format given.

By Patent Subject

1. Go to esp@cenet and select Quick Search.
2. Enter your keywords in the Search Terms box.
3. Find a patent that's close to what you're looking for.
4. Note the International Classification number/Subclass for that patent, e.g. H04B1/59.
5. Do a search of that Class/Subclass in the esp@cenet database to find more patents on that subject.

See these tutorials for more details:

University of Texas Patent Searching Tutorial

Patent Tutorial at the University of Central Florida

More Patent Resources

Books and Journals in the UCSD Libraries on Patents and Patenting