LibGuides: Aeronautics and Engineering: Patents

What Is a Patent?

"A patent is a limited duration property right relating to an invention, granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office in exchange for public disclosure of the invention."

USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office): What Is a Patent?

Classification Codes

"Patent classification is a system for organizing all U.S. patent documents and other technical documents into specific technology groupings based on common subject matter."

On January 1, 2013, the USPTO moved from using the United States Patent Classification (USPC) system to the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) system, a jointly developed system with the European Patent Office (EPO).

Image attribution: USPTO: International Classification of Patents for Inventions

Patent Search Strategies

Patent number, application number or publication number search
Keywords and synonyms search
Classification code search
Combination of keywords and classification code search
Citing and cited patent citations

Key Patent Databases

USPTO Patent Full Text Database
Search full-text patents from 1976 (PatFT), and search patent applications published since March 2001 (AppFT).

Espacenet Patent Search (EPO)
Provides online patent data from more than 80 different countries.

Google Patents
Google Patents includes over 120 million patent publications from 100+ patent offices around the world.

WIPO Patentscope
Search 83 million patent documents including 3.8 million published international patent applications (PCT).

The Lens Patent Search
A public patent database that includes the European Patent Office’s DocDB bibliographic data from 1907 - present, USPTO Applications from 2001 – present with full text and images, European Patent Office (EP) Grants from 1980 – present with full text and images, WIPO PCT Applications from 1978 – present with full text and images, and Australian Patent Full Text from IP Australia.

Databases that Include Chemistry-related Patents

SciFinder-n This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive database of chemistry and chemical engineering journals, patents, books, dissertations, technical reports, and more. Contains large collection of organic and inorganic substance information.
FIRST TIME USERS: Click here to create an account using the link and instructions provided. You will need your FlashLine login.
Provides integrated access to CAPlus, CAS registry, CASREACT, CHEMLIST, and CHEMCATS, which are produced by Chemical Abstracts Service; and to MEDLINE, which is produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Reaxys This link opens in a new window
Reaxys provides information about millions of chemical structures, reactions, and properties.

Reaxys Account
You do not have to create an account to use Reaxys, but if you do create an account, you can save searches and access additional features. To create an account or login, click the "Register" or "Login" links at the top right of the Reaxys home screen.

Library Locations at the Kent Campus

Regional Campus Libraries

Aeronautics and Engineering: Patents

Other Patent Resources

What Is a Patent?

Classification Codes

Patent Search Strategies

Key Patent Databases

Databases that Include Chemistry-related Patents

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