Important
Notices concerning the Patent Full-Text and Full-Page
Image Databases
- These databases are intended for use by the general public. Due
to limitations of equipment and bandwidth, they are not intended to be a
source for bulk downloads of USPTO data.
Individuals, companies, IP addresses, or blocks of IP addresses who, in
effect, deny service to the general public by generating unusually high
numbers (10,000 or more, roughly equivalent to viewing 1,000 patents) of daily database accesses (searches, pages, or
hits), whether generated manually or in an automated fashion, may be
denied access to these servers without notice. Please note that bulk data may be purchased from
USPTO at cost (see the USPTO Products and Services Catalog).
- Users creating their own hyperlinks to pages on this site are requested
and cautioned to do so in a manner which maintains a clear distinction
between the user's content and official content published by
USPTO. Users packaging pages from this Web site hyperlinked within
frames are requested and cautioned to properly identify USPTO-provided
content. Users formulating or constructing their own search or
query URLs in attempting to bypass the database query parsers
and directly access the database search engines or documents
will be permanently denied access to the database without notice,
as such efforts may lead to incorrectly formulated queries which
may jeopardize proper operation of the database servers. Please see
the status note on linking directly to a
particular patent
- Patents issued from 1790 through 1975 are searchable only
by patent number, issue date, and current US classifications. Attempts to search
those patents by any other fields will result in an error message.
- US Patent Classification data in the Full-Text Database (Current
US Classification [CCL]) is frequently updated to reflect
the most current PTO Master Classification File (MCF), and will not
necessarily match the classification data which appears on the patent
full-page images (i.e., the printed patent) or on the Patent
Classification pages.
- The Issued Patents Full-Text Database is a database of patent full-text
as it was printed on the patent on the day of issue. Changes to patent
documents contained in Certificates of Correction and
Re-examinations Certificates are not included in the searchable full-text of
the patent databases, but are available as additional full-page images at
the end of each patent's linked full-page images.
- Neither assignment changes nor address changes recorded at the USPTO are
reflected in the patent full-text or the patent full-page images.
- These databases have limited resources, both bandwidth and computer systems.
Therefor, to assure availability to the general public, searches are limited
in terms of both the length of the query and the amount of computer time
available for any single search. In particular, if the fully-expanded parsed
query, which can be estimated by looking at a resulting hit-list link using
your browser's Right-click-Properties capability, exceeds 256 characters in
length, the query may be rejected by the parser, may time out before completion,
or may produce invalid results even though it appears to have worked correctly.
- The fact that an invention cannot be found by searching in the Patent
Full-Text Database does not mean that the invention is patentable.
The USPTO's text-searchable patent database begins with patents
granted since 1976. A complete patentability search must consider
all prior art, including earlier patents, foreign patents and
non-patent literature.
- Please note that USPTO does not record or log the parameters of search
requests submitted to these databases. Such uncollected information
has thus never been disclosed through sale or FOIA request, intentionally
or otherwise, to any third party. USPTO does not plan to change
this operational policy.