Skip to Main Content
Mississippi State University

Library update: Recent database changes

Learn more

Patent and Trademark Resource Center

What is a patent?

A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention, which is a product or a process that provides, in general, a new way of doing something, or offers a new technical solution to a problem. To get a patent, technical information about the invention must be disclosed to the public in a patent application.   
       - by World Intellectual Property                 Organization

Patent rights must be filed in individual countries where protection is sought.

Multi-Step U.S. Patent Search Strategy

Summary of the Multi-Step Search Strategy:

  • Brainstorm terms describing your invention. 
  • Conduct a keyword search using Patent Public Search. 
  • Conduct an in-depth review of the documents found by your search. 
  • Expand the search with relevant CPC classifications. 
  • Review cited references. 
  • Broaden your search with foreign patents, non-patent literature and/or a patent professional’s search. 

Searching Patents

This page presents several resources for you to conduct patent search. Most of the search tools are free to use.

  • United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Patent Public Search
    The USPTO patent research database provides complete and up-to-date patent information.     Copies of patents, patent applications, and other related filings are available on their web site. Full text and images are available for patents from 1976. Patents issued from 1790 to 1975 are searchable only by patent number, issue date, and current classification numbers.
  • European Patent Office Database (Espacenet)
    The Espacenet database offers access to published patent documents worldwide, including those published by the U.S. The documents include information about inventions and technical developments from 1782 to the present.  
  • Google Patents
    Google Patents provides user-friendly search interface that searches full text of patents filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the European Patent Office, and the World Intellectual Property Organization. It also includes technical documents and books indexed in Google Scholar and Google Books, and documents from the Prior Art Archive.
  • PatentScope - World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
    The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is an agency of the United Nations. This resource allows you to search patent documents from participating national and regional intellectual property offices (Patent Cooperation Treaty members). You can use keywords, international patent classification (IPC), chemical structures, and other criteria to perform searches, and information is translated in different languages. 
  • The Lens
    The Lens database contains patent documents from around the world. This search tool provides Boolean functions, classification search, biological search, and other. It offers quick access to patent family information.

Additional Patent Search Databases from Individual Countries

  • Australian Patent Search         
    Search for Australian patents. You can search by patent number, invention title, or keyword.
    [Note: The Lens patent database can retrieve full text documents of Austrian patents.]

  • Japan Patent Office 
    Provides databases of publications of Japanese patents and trademarks. Abstracts are searchable in English via J-Platpat.

           [Note: The English abstracts of patents from the above Asian countries can be searched in Espacenet.]

Library Databases for Patent Searching

  • SciFinder Patent Searching (registration required)
    SciFinder indexes patent records from around the world, including the following major patent offices:
    • Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO)
    • European Patent Office (EPO)
    • French Patent Office (INPI)
    • German Patent Office (DPMA)
    • Japanese Patent Office (JPO)
    • Russian Patent Office (ROSPATENT)
    • United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO)
    • United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
    • World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
  • Scopus 
    Scopus indexes patents from the following five major patent offices: 
    • World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) 
    • European Patent Office (EPO)
    • United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
    • Japanese Patent Office (JPO)
    • United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO)