View the Seven Step Strategy here. It will teach you how to conduct preliminary searches of U.S. patents and published applications using free online resources from the USPTO and its bi-lateral partner EPO (European Patent Office).
The Patent Public Search tool is the web-based patent search application that replaced internal legacy search tools PubEast and PubWest and external legacy search tools PatFT and AppFT.
Patent Public Search has two user selectable modern interfaces that provide enhanced access to prior art. The new, powerful, and flexible capabilities of the application will improve the overall patent searching process.
Click here to visit the Patent Public Search tool site.
Click here to view training materials for Patent Public Search.
Click here to view the Patent Public Search - Search Overview.
If you already know the patent number, visit the Patent Public Search screen and enter the patent number in the Query search bar.
Query Screen:
Search result (note that you may need to click the Images tab in order to see the full text of the patent):
A keyword search will not provide a thorough review of all relevant patents because:
Despite the limitations, a keyword search may be a helpful entry point for some purposes. To conduct a basic keyword search, visit the Patent Public Search Basic database and enter your keyword in the Term 1 search bar:
Your search results screen will return over 151,000 patents of various relevance. To narrow your search results, consider other terms which may narrow the field of interest. See the Seven Step Search Strategy from the USPTO for help with brainstorming terms and finding appropriate classification codes which will yield better search results.
Searching by Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) code is the most thorough way to search for utility patent prior art. If you have the classification code(s) of interest, visit the Patent Public Search database and enter the code as seen below:
Query Screen:
Visit the USPTO's Patent Classification webpage to learn more about the United States Classification System (USPC) used for design and plant patents.
If you have the name of the inventor or the assignee, you can visit the Patent Public Search database and enter the search terms as follows:
1. Enter name in search bar. Format the entry as last name-first name-initial for a full name. If you are unsure of the exact name, you can truncate in the following ways: Doe-$ or Doe-John$ or Doe-J$. If the assignee was a company but you are unsure of the exact name, you can truncate a portion of the name.
2. Place the inventor or assignee name in quotations followed by the classification code surrounded in periods similar to the search query below and search.
Query Screen: