Getting Started with Online Patent Searching
An important source of historical and genealogical patent information. Search U.S. patents full text from 1790.
Note: OCR text has significant errors and omissions, but does allow free search of much text back to 1836.
- Derwent Innovations Index (1963+) This link opens in a new window
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On the main search screen, click the arrow next to Core Collection and choose the index you wish to search through.
"Derwent Innovations Index merges patent information from Derwent World Patents Index with the patent citation information from Derwent Patent Citation Index. Users can conduct patent and citation searches of inventions in chemical, electrical, electronic, and mechanical engineering.Access restricted to subscribing institutions." - Espacenet (European Patent Office) This link opens in a new window"Espacenet offers free access to more than 90 million patent documents worldwide, containing information about inventions and technical developments from 1836 to today."
- Lens This link opens in a new window
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"The Lens serves nearly all of the patent documents in the world as open, annotatable digital public goods that are integrated with scholarly and technical literature along with regulatory and business data." - PatentsView This link opens in a new windowprovides a searchable database and visual displays of:
- relationships - patents, inventors & assignees for the most-cited patents
- locations - inventors & assignees by country, state, city
- comparisons - by location & technology fields
