Research Guides: Patents: Patent Databases and Agencies

U. S. Patent databases and online materials (free)

United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Patent Full-Text Databases
Full-image patents from 1790 to present. 1790-1975 can be searched by date, current U. S. classification number or patent number only. 1976-Present is full text searchable. Requires installation of TIFF viewer plug-in in order to view images. A list of missing patents is available at http://www.uspto.gov/patft/help/contents.htm
Google Patents
The content is provided by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and consists of patents issued in the 1790s to within the last couple of months and millions of patent applications. The entire collection is full-text searchable. However, there were some errors in the scanning, leaving some text rendered incorrectly.
Free Patents Online
Includes U.S. patents and applications as well as European patents (EP) and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) documents. Default quick search searches only U. S. Patents. Use the Advanced to select applications or foreign patents and refine search criteria.
The Lens
Free patent search includes USPTO, European Patent Office, WIPO Applications, and Australian patents full text. Provides filtering and basic analysis tools.
Official Gazette for U.S. Patents - Most recent 52 weeks
The Official Gazette for Patents is available online for the most recent 52 issues. It may be browsed by classification or type of patent, for example, utility, design, and plant. Specific patents may be accessed by class/subclass or patentee name. For each patent displayed, you may click the "Full Text" button in the upper left corner to retrieve the full text of the patent from the USPTO Full Text database.
Official Gazette of the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office - Internet Archive historical scans 1872-1998s
Scans of the Official Gazette for U. S. Patents from the Internet Archive. These are useful for finding information on specific inventors or patents prior to 1975. Microfilm of these scans are available in Princeton's ReCap off site storage. Search Princeton's main catalog for Official Gazette of the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents 1790-1919
Internet Archive scans of Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents from 1790-1919. Includes historic patent information and statistics. Also useful for looking up older information on inventors and patents.

Princeton University Databases that Include Patent Information

There are a few subject specific databases available at Princeton that include patents in the discipline. Using a these databases to find patents can be helpful if you are searching for information in that discipline. The databases will help narrow your search and usually include more advanced search functions than the standard patent databases.

BIOSIS Previews: Biological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
With more than 13,000,000 records from publications in over 90 countries, Biosis Previews is the most comprehensive index of journals, meetings, conferences, and symposia in the life sciences. Although this is not a full-text article database, our PULinks system conveniently links you to the full-text
Derwent Innovations Index This link opens in a new window
Patent index covering the areas of chemical, electrical, and mechanical engineering from 40 worldwide patent-issuing authorities. 1963+
Global Health This link opens in a new window
International public health database providing abstracts to literature about healthcare, biomedical life sciences, sexual and reproductive health, communicable and non-communicable diseases, environmental health, public health nutrition, food safety and hygiene . Covers English and foreign language journals, books, reports, patents, dissertations and conference proceedings.
If the database is in use, please try again later.
SciFinder Web (Chemical Abstracts) This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive coverage of all aspects of chemistry. Combines several Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) databases. 1907+
PU users must register for a personal SF Web account.

Statistics and Data

COMETS
Connecting Outcome Measures in Entrepreneurship, Technology, and Science (COMETS) database.
Geocoding of worldwide patent data
The dataset provides geographic coordinates for inventor and applicant locations in 18.8 million patent documents spanning over more than 30 years. The geocoded data are further allocated to the corresponding countries, regions and cities.
Global Corporate Patent Dataset
Links 3.1 million patents awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), between 1980 and 2017, to 9.2 thousand publicly listed firms worldwide
May Your Drug Price Be Ever Green (Orange Book Project Dataset & Methodology)
Dataset of pharmaceuticals in the U.S. market between 2005 and 2015, with 160,000 data points for every instance in which a company added a new patent or exclusivity
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Patents and exclusivities have become an increasingly important component in the “life cycle management” strategies that are employed by pharmaceutical companies to prolong the period of market monopoly for their drugs. Presenting the first comprehensive study of evergreening, this study examines all pharmaceuticals in the U.S. the market between 2005 and 2015, collecting 160,000 data points to note every instance in which a company added a new patent or exclusivity. This study gathers patent and exclusivity information published in the “Orange Book,” which is a regular FDA publication containing information on approved drugs, their therapeutically equivalent generics, and the patents and exclusivities attached to approved drugs, among other drug-related data.
National Bureau of Economic Research U. S. Patent Citations Data File
US Patent data for 1976-2006 and assignee match to Compustat.
OECD Patent Statistics
Patent Network Dataverse
Includes disambiguation and co-author networks from 1975-2010 and careers and co-author networks since 1975.