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As part of Google’s mission to organize the world’s information and make it
universally accessible and useful, we’re constantly working to expand the
diversity of content we make available to our users. With Google Patent
Search, you can now search the full text of the U.S. patent corpus and
find patents that interest you.
Q. Where does this patent data come from?
A. All patents available through Google Patent Search
come from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Patents
issued in the United States are public domain government information, and
images of the entire database of U.S. patents are readily available online
via the USPTO website.
Q. What types of patents are available?
A. Google Patent Search covers the entire collection of
patents made available by the USPTO—from patents issued in the 1790s through those
issued in the middle of 2006. We don’t currently include patent applications,
international patents, or U.S. patents issued over the last few months, but we
look forward to expanding our coverage in the future.
Q. How many U.S. patents are there?
A. To date, the USPTO has issued approximately
7 million patents.
Q. How does it work?
A. Using the same technology that powers Google Book Search,
Google has converted the entire image database of U.S. patents into a format that’s easy
to search. You can search the full text of U.S. patents from the Google Patent Search
homepage, or visit the Advanced Patent Search page to search by
criteria like patent number, inventor, and filing date.
Q. How do you rank patents in the search results?
A. As with Google Web Search, we rank patent results
according to their relevance to a given search query. We use a number of signals
to evaluate how relevant each patent is to a user's query, and we determine our
results algorithmically.
Q. Is Google hosting the patent pages?
A. Yes. We’re providing an easy way to find and read these
patents.
Q. Can I download a PDF of a patent I've found in Google Patent Search?
A. Yes, by simply clicking the "Download PDF" button on the patent's
About page. You can find this button under the patent summary section for each patent in our
index.
Q. When will the product be available in my country/language?
A. Google Patent Search is currently available in English, and it
includes only U.S. patents. We’re always looking to extend our products and services to users
worldwide, and we hope to continue to expand the patent offices we cover and the language
interfaces available.
Q. Can I submit a suggestion or feature request for Google Patent Search?
A. Absolutely. Our team is working hard to improve Google Patent Search,
and we encourage you to send us any suggestions you have. Just email us at
[email protected].
You can increase the accuracy and effectiveness of your searches on Google Patent
Search by adding "operators" that fine-tune your search terms. Here are the most
common search operators, which can be easily accessed via the Advanced Google Patent
Search page:
By Patent Details
In the Summary section of the "About this Patent" page for each patent, we include
a number of identifying details, such as the patent number, the inventor and assignee.
You can restrict their search by each of these details on the
Advanced Patent Search page.
Patent Number: To look for a specific patent using its Patent Number, you'd enter:
Inventor: To look for patents associated with a specific inventor, you'd enter:
Assignee: To look for patents associated with a specific assignee, you'd enter:
By Classification
You can search patents using both USPTO and international classification codes. For more information on classifications, please visit the
USPTO's Patent Classification resources.
Current US Classification: If you'd like to use U.S. classification codes to restrict your search, just enter:
International Classification: To restrict your search using international classification codes, just enter:
By Date
We offer the ability to search patents by their issue and/or filing dates.
Issue Date: To search patents by their issue date, you can enter your term and dates here:
Filing Date: To search patents by their filing date, just enter your term and dates here:
Additional Operators
Google Patent Search supports many of the same operators that you can use in advanced searches on
Google Web Search. For instance:
- the "-" operator excludes all results that include this search term, as in [
flying -airplane ];
- phrase search only returns results that include this exact phrase, as in [
"over the shoulder" ];
- the "OR" operator returns results that include either of your search terms, as in [
rayon OR nylon ];
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