LibGuides: Patents: Patents

A Patent is legal and technical document that describes an invention and grants a property right to the inventor for a limited period. Patents are an important source of technical and scientific information, as they are often the first source of published information on a new technology. It has been estimated that over 70% of the information published in patents is never published elsewhere.

Finding Patents

Esp@cenet
Espacenet offers free access to more than 70 million patent documents worldwide, containing information about inventions and technical developments from 1836 to today.
Google Patents
Google Patents covers issued patents and millions of patent applications made available by the USPTO, from the 1790s to the present. It indexes full text documents from patent offices around the world and offers real time coverage information.

Reaxys This link opens in a new window
Reaxys is a powerful chemistry data-searching tool designed to retrieve chemical reactions, substances and their properties, patent data and more. Reaxys can be searched in a number of ways, including by chemical structure, formula, and physical property parameters. Designed by chemists, Reaxys is a chemical sciences research solution that delivers facts the way chemists need them. NOTE: A personal account is needed to use this database, click on 'Activate personalization' or 'Not registered?' to set up an account. The registration process only needs to be completed once.
SciFinder-n This link opens in a new window
Scifinder-n is a powerful, chemist-curated database from CAS offering reference, substance and reaction searching with sophisticated analysis tools. Substances can be searched by chemical structure, markush (for Patents), molecular formula, property or substance identifier. All alternative substance names are listed alongside CAS Registry numbers and commercial sources. Tools including MethodsNow (showing every experimental step for ease of replication in the lab) and PatentPak (enabling you to get straight to the novel chemistry information in a Patent document). NOTE: When accessing SciFinder-n for the first time, you will be asked to enter your Newcastle University email address and to confirm this via a verification code. Once you have confirmed the verification code, you will be given access to SciFinder-n and you won't need to confirm your identity the next time you access it.

United States Patent and Trademark Office
The database includes information about all US patents from the first patent issued in 1790 up to the present day.

Got an idea?

Newcastle City Library is a designated PATLIB UK centre and they are the only library providing specialist patent information between Leeds and Glasgow. The Centre is supported by the UK Intellectual Property Office and the European Patent Office.

They provide a range of services to support you through trade marks, copyright and patents.

Information packs and specialists leaflets
Free Intellectual Property Surgeries; booking required
Access to historical British patent abstracts and name indexes from 1617 to 1930.
Patent and Trade mark searches; please contact the centre for more information.

Subject support guide

Patents

Finding Patents

Got an idea?

Online resources