Patents resources

The following resources are available via the Find Databases link in LibrarySearch or freely as open access resources (where indicated):

British Library Patents Information Service (open access) Some patents might only be available in print. The British Library is the UK’s national patent library and its collection can be consulted in the reading room. It has a comprehensive collection of British and foreign patent documentation and can provide guidance on searching for patents.

Derwent Innovations Index (via Web of Science) Access to patents in areas such as chemical, electrical, electronic, and mechanical engineering. Cover over 14.3 million basic inventions (1963-present) from almost 60 worldwide patent-issuing authorities. Provides additional descriptive information and coding to allow users to effectively search and quickly grasp a patent’s significance and its relationship to other patents. Access Web of Science and choose to search in Derwent Innovations Index under DOCUMENTS.

Espacenet - European Patent Office (open access) Index to more than 140 million patent documents worldwide from 1836 onwards. Full-text access to British patents from 1859. Full-text access to patents from other countries including US from 1836 and various starting dates for EPO, WIPO, France, Germany and Switzerland.

Europe PMC (open access) Europe PMC is an open access repository, providing the ability to search across and access worldwide life sciences resources, including patents (Select Advanced Search and refine to ‘Patents’ in the source list.

Free Patents Online (open access) Patent data, search, and analytics.

Google Patents (open access) Search freely accessible patents and drawings from the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Ipsum (open access) UK Patent Office resource which allows you to check the status of UK patents/patent applications.

Lens Patent Search (open access) Discovery and analytics tools on a comprehensive collection of patent literature with citation indexing.

Lexis+ UK (LexisNexis) Includes select resources covering law and procedure relating to patents in the UK and Europe, key precedents and recent and future developments in patent law. Also allows for searching across select patent cases from 1939. Once signed in to LexisLibrary, search for the word ‘patent’ in the Search sources search box. Relevant databases will display and can be browsed or searched for search terms using the keyword box.

Scopus The largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature covering international research output in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities. Includes data from and allows searching across 13 million patents. Run a search for ‘patent’ from the main search box and then select the Patents tab to view patents.

UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) UK (open access) Official UK government body responsible for intellectual property (IP) rights including patents, designs, trade marks and copyright.

US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) (open access) Online database for the United States Patent and Trademark Office with guidance on the search process. Includes full text of all US patents 1976-present, and PDF images of US patents issued 1790-1975.

World Intellectual Property Organization - PATENTSCOPE (open access) WIPO is the world's most comprehensive source of data on intellectual property. Search 111 million patent documents including 4.6 million published international patent applications. Includes empirical studies, reports and factual information on IP.