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.
- [Britain] Patents status enquiry
The British Patent Office's patent register 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 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®
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 for publication 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] PatentScope
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. 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 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 $.
