Patent Searching for Research

The USPTO's Basic Search is the quickest way to find patents by patent or patent application number, publication date, or names such as the inventor, the company that owns the patent or applied for it, and the attorney or law firm representing the inventor, company, or applicant. On this page you'll find some tips on:

• Using Quick Lookup to find Patents by number
• Tips on Field Searching via the Basic Search template
• Interpreting the Search results and viewing the Patent or Application
• How to find the year a patent was issued
• Helpful USPTO resources on searching

You will find the Basic Search button at the bottom left of the USPTO's Patent Search Public page. 

Search by Patent Number or Patent Application Number

Use the Quick Lookup box at the top of the page, The Search button located to the right executes the search.

Search Tips:

Patent searches require 7 Digits, so add zeros to at the beginning of the number

• Examples
  • Patent Number 123456 should be entered as 0123456
  • Patent Number 12345 should be entered as 0012345
  • Patent Number 78 should be entered as 0000078
• Design Patent searches should include the D counting as a digit
  • Design patent number D558758 should be entered as D558758

Patent Application searches require 11 digits, so add zeros after the date at the beginning of the Patent Application Number

• Example
  • The first 4 digits in a Patent Application Number signify the date
  • In this 2021, 10 digit patent application, the year is highlighted in brown: 2021123456
  • So, the Patent Application Number should be entered in the Quick Lookup box as 20210123456

The Basic Search template makes it easy to search crucial parts or fields of Patents and Patent Applications.

Basic Search template overview

Located underneath the Quick Lookup search, on the bottom half of the page. Basic search:

• Automatically searches "Everything", all fields in patents and published patent applications unless you change it
• Allows only one (1) word in each search box
• Has two (2) search boxes
• Defaults to the AND operator, which will will retrieve patents and applications with both (all) of the search terms
  • You can use the drop down arrow next to AND to change the operator to:
  • OR, which will retrieve patents with either one keyword or the other keyword or both
  • NOT, which will retrieve patents with the first keyword but not the second. Use this operator sparingly! You may miss important patents with this technique
• The Search button is located in the bottom right of the template

The "Everything" Search Default

Basic Search defaults to searching "Everything", which in essence is a Keyword search. Given:

• The number of patents in the database
• That Basic Search only allows one word per search field, and
• Only has 2 search fields

Keyword searching this way is ineffective. Complex keyword searches should be done in the USPTO's Advanced search, or in an alternative patent database.

Individual keywords can be combined with field searches effectively, such as combining a keyword with an inventor's name or a company (Assignee).

Example Search: Keyword Potato "Everywhere" with "Assignee Name" Simplot.

Field Searching

Use the Drop Down Arrow next to "Everything" to change the field or part of a patent record to search. Options include:

• Applicant Name
• Assignee Name (patent owner, frequently a company)
• Attorney Agent / Firm
• Attorney Name
• Inventor Name
• Publication Date

Example Search: Inventor Name ROSS and Patent number 2586719

Publication Date - Search Tip

When searching by a Publication Date, the format should be YearMonthDate as in YYYYMMDD

• Publication Date of December 30, 2022 would be searched as 20221230

Example Search: Publication Date November 14, 1836 and Keyword Screws

Search results from a Basic Search are displayed in spreadsheet fashion and are easy to read.

• Displayed in the upper right is the search query that was run
• In the upper left you'll find the total number of publications retrieved
  • The default is to show 50 publications per page
• Click Preview to view the first page of a patent or application
• Click PDF to see a scan of the entire document
  • Individual patents may be printed or downloaded
• At the bottom of the display, you'll see the arrows to scroll forward and back through the list

Old patents can be tricky to find. Knowing the year a patent was issued can help. If you have a patent number, and need to know the year it was issued try looking here: