Frequently-Asked Questions (FAQ) about the US Patent Full-Text Database

Questions about the Database

Questions about Searching

Questions about the Database

How can I view the patent images?

The PTO Web Patent Full-Text Database includes the full text of all patents granted since 1976, and the patent number, issue date, and current US classification for all patents granted from 1790 through 1975. At the top of each text display page is a button marked "Images". Clicking on that button will display the full-page image of the first printed page of that particular patent, along with navigational tools allowing the viewing of all the other pages.

You must have a properly configured Web browser with an image display plug-in capable of displaying TIFF images with T.6 (CCITT Group 4) compression. Further directions are provided on the Web page at How to Access Full-Page Images.

What information is in the database?: The database consists includes information about all US patents (including utility, design, reissue, plant patents and SIR documents) from the first patent issued in 1790 to the most recent issue week.

Patents from January 1976 to the present offer the full searchable text, including all bibliographic data, such as the inventor's name, the patent's title, and the assignee's name; the abstract; the full description of the invention; and the claims. The display of each patent's full-text includes a hyperlink to obtain full-page images of each page of the patent. Information from Certificates of Correction and Reexaminations is not included in the full-text database per se, but can be found as full-page images appended to the full-page images of the original patent.

Patents from 1790 to December 1975 offer only the patent number, issue date, and current US patent classification in the text display, and can be searched only within those fields. However, this limited text display also includes a hyperlink to obtain full-page images of all pages of the patent.

Does your database include data on pending patent applications?: The Patent Grant Database only includes data on patents which have been issued. Since 1 January 2001, patent applications have been published in the Published Patent Applications Database (AppFT).

Does your database include data on the current fee status and expiration of patents?: No, the US Patent Full Text Database does not include this data, but it is available on the PTO Web site. Use the link to the Patent Application Information Retrieval database (PAIR) on the Web database main page.

How often is the database updated?: The database is normally updated every Tuesday, the day patents are issued. Exceptions may occur for Federal holidays and when problems arise with data availability. Current US classifications are normally updated every two months. Check at the Database Contents page for details.

How can I link to a particular patent?: A special shortened URL format: http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=5123456

where the patent number "5123456" may be replaced by any valid patent number within the database, has been established to enable users to more easily construct a URL for bookmarking or linking to the full-text of a single granted patent. To simplify this process even further, the patent grant search process has been modified such that when a search results in a single hit, the user is taken directly to the full-text display for that patent, rather than to a hit list containing only the single patent.

Questions about Searching

How do I use the Quick Search Page?: Help is available on the Quick Search Help Page.

How do I use the Advanced Search Page?: Help is available on the Advanced Search Help Page.

What is the menu under the heading "Select Years"?

This selects the range of patent issue years to which your search will be applied. The choices are:

Default: Search the range of years (1976 - present) for which searchable full-text is available.
Search the full range of years (1790 - present).

How do I search for a particular patent number?

There are several ways. The easiest is to use the Patent Number Search Page, enter the number you are searching for in the box provided, and hit the 'Search' Button.

Alternatively, you can go to the Quick Search Page, select which year(s) you want to search by using the Select years to search menu, type the patent number in the Term 1 text entry box, and select 'Patent Number' from the Field 1 menu. Then hit the 'Search' button.

Note: If you are not sure of the issue date, search all years in the database by selecting the all years range, 1976 to date, from the Select years to search menu. You can also click on the Database Contents Page for a table listing all patent numbers and issue years since 1976.

To search for a patent number using the Advanced Search Page, use this syntax:

PN/number

Where number is the number of the patent for which you want to view. Non-utility patents must include a prefix: 'D' for design patents, 'PP' for plant patents, 'RE' for reissue patents, 'T' for defensive publications, and 'H' for SIRs.

How do I search for a particular class and subclass?

To search by class and subclass, go to the Quick Search Page, select the all years option in the Select years to search menu, select the appropriate Term text entry box and then type the class and subclass in this form:

class/subclass (for example, 2.5)

Note subclasses can contain decimal or alpha modifiers (for example, 427/2.31 or 427.3A)

Choose 'Current US Classification' from the matching Fields menu and hit the 'Search' button.

You can also search for class/subclass on the Advanced Search Page by using this syntax:

CCL/class/subclass

Further information on searching by class is available on the Field Search Help Page.

How do I search for a particular type of patent, e.g., a design patent?

To search for a particular type of patent, go to any one of the three search pages (Quick, Advanced, Number) and, in the appropriate patent number field (Patent Number, PN/, Query), enter the patent number including the appropriate prefix:

'D' for design patents,
'PP' for plant patents,
'R' for reissue patents,
'T' for defensive publications,
'H' for SIRs,
'X' for X patents, or
'AI' for Additional Improvements

What are Stopwords?

Stopwords are terms that appear so frequently in patent text that they lose their usefulness as search terms. Examples are "and", "or", and "the". Although they are not indexed as search terms, they will be displayed in your search results.