10 Free Online Patent Tools Everyone Should Know About
Looking for information about patents and patent applications? The 10 free online patent tools below can help you access bibliographic and procedural information about different patent documents from around the world.
If you’re unsure about anything you find using these tools, can’t find a tool that does what you need on this list, or have any other questions around patents or other areas of IP, then get in touch with Russell IP here:
Important Notes
Detailed data about patent applications and patents becomes available when they are published. Publication typically takes place around 18 months from an application’s filing or priority date. Prior to that, little to no information about an application is available for public inspection.
This article is intended to provide an overview of a range of free patent tools. This article is not an endorsement of any particular tool. Consideration must be given to use of any online patent tools, for example in relation to confidentiality and accuracy.
Please bear in mind that features of online patent tools change over time and that this article might not always reflect the very latest features of all of the listed tools.
Table of Contents
1. One IPO Search – A UK Patent Search And Information Tool
One IPO Search is an online patent searching, information and document inspection service provided by the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO). If you want to find detailed information about a UK patent or application, such as the filing date, who the applicant(s) and inventor(s) are, or when the next renewal fee is due, One IPO Search is the place to go.
One IPO Search functions as the UK IPO’s online patent register, providing access to copies of documents that have been filed in relation to an application during its lifetime. One IPO Search usually also lists details about any prior art searching that has been carried out by the UK IPO, including a list of publication numbers of cited documents.
One IPO Search provides information about UK-direct patent applications and patents, and also about European patents designating the UK. Furthermore, One IPO Search is not limited to patents – it provides details about supplementary protection certificates too.
Iain Russell, founder of Russell IP, stays at the forefront of IP tools and was involved as an early tester of this service. Iain noted that One IPO Search offers lots of excellent search features, including:
- keyword searching options for inventor, applicant, and representative (agent)
- select status: filed, published, granted and/or not in force
- select type: all patents, green channel and/or licences of right
- CSV export of search results
- display results as a chart
- flexible listing of register documents (e.g. ability to sort by ascending/descending document date or sort alphabetically to group document types together).
See the UK IPO’s press release about the release of One IPO Search for more information, which includes a quote from Iain on the new service.
Summary – Use One IPO Search For…
…finding detailed information about patents and applications covering the UK.
2. Espacenet – An Online Patent Searching Tool Provided By The EPO
The European Patent Office (EPO) provides two different versions of its patent searching tool Espacenet. The two versions give access to the same database of patent documents but with different layouts.
The first version (sometimes known as “old Espacenet”!) has a more traditional design that lends itself well to navigation on a computer. Although old Espacenet is no longer in active development, it is stable and provides a comprehensive set of features.
The second version (sometimes known as “new Espacenet”) has a more modern user interface which has been designed to work well with more modern devices and a variety of screen sizes. On a computer, search results are presented alongside a preview pane which allows the user to view a more complete set of bibliographic information about a selected search result than old Espacenet’s results page. The search parameters are also visible on the screen when viewing the results.
Which version of Espacenet you use comes down to personal preference. You might find you like to use the two versions for different activities. They both provide access to the same comprehensive collection of over 150 million patent documents from around the world.
A particularly useful feature of both versions of Espacenet is the machine-translation facility. This can allow the reader to get an initial understanding of a foreign-language document and assess whether commissioning a human translation might be useful.
Espacenet also includes links to other national and regional patent registers, making it easy to find procedural information about the documents you have discovered with an Espacenet search.
Summary – Use Espacenet For…
- searching for patent documents;
- obtaining machine translations of patent documents; and
- navigating to national/regional registers to access more detailed procedural information.
3. European Patent Register – A European Patent Information Tool
As well as its patent searching tool Espacenet, the EPO provides a public register of European patents and patent applications. The register provides comprehensive information about European patents and applications, including copies of application and prosecution documents, and application details such as filing date, filing number and which official fees have been paid. The register also includes links to the websites of national patent offices, allowing the user to inspect national rights deriving from European patents. This gives an overview of which individual territories a European patent has been validated in, whether renewal fees are still being paid in those territories, and who is acting as the representative in each territory, for example.
Summary – Use The European Patent Register For…
…finding detailed information about European patents and applications.
4. The US Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Center – An Online Tool For US Patent Information
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has its own online patent register, called Patent Center. There you can inspect formal and substantive information about US patents and applications. For example, you can download copies of office actions and responses, powers of attorney, inventor assignment and declaration documents, and other information.
Patent Center also has links to other important tools, such as the USPTO’s maintenance fee page. This allows the user to inspect whether a maintenance fee has been paid, and also to pay maintenance fees when they are due.
Like its predecessor, USPTO PAIR (Patent Application Information Retrieval), Patent Center provides additional features to users who register for an account. This is useful for US patent attorneys, agents and other practitioners who file documents at the USPTO and perform other actions in relation to pending applications and granted patents.
Summary – Use USPTO Patent Center For…
…finding detailed information about US patents and applications.
5. Patentscope – A Patent Information Tool For PCT Applications
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) provides an online tool called Patentscope which allows the visitor to inspect formal and procedural information relating to international (“PCT”) patent applications. Patentscope provides bibliographic information and copies of documents filed by the applicant and issued by the International Bureau (IB), the Receiving Office (rO), the International Searching Authority (ISA) or the International Preliminary Examination Authority (IPEA) in relation to a PCT application.
For PCT applications which have already reached the end of the international phase, Patentscope also provides information about national and regional applications deriving from the PCT application. In some cases this information includes links to the respective national or regional patent offices, to give quick access to detailed national/regional formal and procedural information.
Summary – Use Patentscope For…
…inspecting detailed information about international (“PCT”) patent applications.
6. Common Citations Document – A Tool To Find Cited Documents
Another online patent tool provided by the European Patent Office (EPO), in partnership with the other members of the “five IP offices” group (also known as the IP5), is the Common Citations Document (CCD). The CCD lists documents cited against applications for the same invention (or sharing a common priority application or PCT application) at the 5 IP offices that form IP5:
- the EPO;
- the Japan Patent Office (JPO);
- the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO);
- the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA); and
- the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
The CCD also provides limited bibliographic information about the applications and the citations, and plots the applications and citations on a timeline to illustrate the relationships between them.
Summary – Use The CCD For…
…seeing an overview of documents cited by some of the major IP offices around the world in relation to the same invention or invention families.
7. Google Patents – An Online Patent Searching Tool
Google Patents provides a searching tool for identifying patent documents and viewing related bibliographic information, downloading PDF copies of the documents, and inspecting cited documents.
Google Patents includes links to many different platforms, such as:
Google Patents also makes it easy to search for patents and applications filed by the same applicant and/or naming common inventors.
Unlike most of the other tools discussed in this post, Google Patents provides all the information related to a patent document on a single page:
- bibliographic information at the top;
- the text of the application or patent (the description and claims);
- any relevant citations;
- other applications against which the document in question has been cited;
- similar documents;
- priority and related applications;
- legal events; and
- “concepts” that the document relates to.
Having all this information on a single page can make it easier to search through an entire patent document.
Summary – Use Google Patents For…
…locating patent documents and related information, and conveniently searching it all on a single page.
8. The Lens – A Patent And Academic Publication Discovery Tool
The Lens is a structured search tool which provides the user access to over 160 million patent documents. The user can construct a complex search by applying filters to several fields at once. This allows the user to identify specific sets of documents that meet the user’s criteria. For example, the user can apply filters to fields including Applicants, Inventors, Agents & Attorneys, Jurisdiction and Date Range.
The Lens includes some attractive design elements that are not found in the other tools mentioned in this list, such as the ability to select a country on a map to limit the search results to documents from that country. The Lens can also produce trend graphs which provide an indication of how document numbers have varied across time for a given set of search terms.
In addition to patent documents, The Lens stores academic publications and can provide links to academic documents that have been cited in relation to patent documents or that are associated with an applicant returned in a search.
Summary – Use The Lens For…
…creating complex structured queries to identify sets of documents meeting specified criteria.
9. pqai – A Patent Searching Tool Utilising AI
pqai is a patent tool initiative from AT&T that offers AI-powered patent searching. The user can enter a description of an invention or concept, and pqai will attempt to identify documents which match that description. This may be helpful for identifying prospective prior art documents before drafting begins.
pqai allows the user to impose certain restrictions on the result set that is returned. For instance, the user can specify that the results should only include documents filed or published between certain dates. pqai’s results include limited bibliographic information and links to Google Patents.
pqai also offers some other tools which may be helpful in searching for prior art or drafting a patent application.
As with all AI tools, it is important for the user to make a risk-based assessment of whether to input confidential information into pqai, for example by understanding how pqai uses such inputs, whether they are stored, and what assurances are provided in respect of user data.
Summary – Use pqai For…
…locating prior-art documents based on a plain-English description of an invention or concept.
10. FreePatentsOnline – An Online Tool For Building Precise Queries
FreePatentsOnline provides an “Expert Search” tool and a “Quick Search” tool. Expert Search allows the user to combine multiple search terms in a single text box, as long as the user adheres to a specified syntax (“AN” for Assignee Name, “AGTN” for Agent Name, etc). This gives the user granular control over the search but may require some effort to get to grips with. The tool returns results that match all the terms specified in the text box.
Quick Search more closely resembles the other searching tools on this list: the user is prompted to enter values in a series of search boxes corresponding to different bibliographic information. The tool then returns documents matching those terms.
The pool of patent documents searched by FreePatentsOnline is not as big as some of the other tools in this list, but the searching syntax gives the user control and flexibility to create specific searches to suit their requirements.
Summary – Use FreePatentsOnline For…
…conducting narrow searches using special query syntax.
Bonus Tool 11. Forward Citations
Forward Citations is a patent information tool built in partnership with Russell IP’s very own Iain Russell. Forward Citations monitors global patent databases to identify new forward citations (where one patent document is cited in relation to another). This can provide multiple insights into a patent or portfolio. For example, it can give the user an indication of the value of a patent or portfolio, based on how many forward patent citations the patents have. It also allows a patent applicant or owner to identify major competitors, based on whose patent applications are included in the forward citations from the applicant or owner’s own patent documents. The user can set up alerts about new forward citations from a particular document. This may help the user identify potential licensees or other commercial partners.
The results provided by Forward Citations include links to several of the patent tools above, including Espacenet and Common Citations Document.
Summary – Use Forward Citations For…
…estimating patent value and identifying competitors or prospective commercial partners based on numbers of patent forward citations.
Conclusion
The online patent tools listed above provide many different features and services to help users identify, locate and review patent documents from around the world. Which tools you use will depend on the task you are trying to accomplish and your own personal preferences.
If you need help interpreting a patent document you have identified using one of the free online patent tools above, contact Russell IP using the form below. You may also find our patent glossary helpful to understand some of the key terms used.
