LibGuides: Finding patents: Home

What is a patent?

A patent gives a person a unique and legal right to make, use or sell their invention within a jurisdiction (or jurisdictions) for a fixed period of time. The patent is granted in return for full disclosure of the details of the invention.

Patents are useful sources for:

current awareness of technological advances
checking that your proposed invention is unique
identifying trends in technology
full and practical descriptions of technologies
references to other publication.

What is a patent?
Further information on patents provided by the British Library.

Finding patents

Free sources of patents

Espacenet
The Espacenet database contains the bibliographic data and images of more than 80 million patent documents worldwide. It incorporates the former The Great Britain esp@cenet database, which covers GB patent applications published by the UK Intellectual Property Office since 4 January 1979.
FreePatentsOnline
Find US Patents, US applications and European Patents.

Library databases giving references to patents

Derwent Innovations Index This link opens in a new window
Patent searching in chemical, electrical, electronic, and mechanical engineering.

Help and guidance
Web of Science Training Portal
FSTA (Food Science and Technology Abstracts) This link opens in a new window
References to publications covering food science, food processing and nutrition.

Covers food science, technology and nutrition including:

-food additives
-biotechnology
-food safety
-food science
-functional and novel foods
-nutrition
-packaging

Patent coverage includes European and World (PCT) patents and individual country patents from 17 major countries.

Help and guidance
Web of Science Training Portal
SciFinder-n This link opens in a new window
Chemical information, plus references to articles and patents in this subject.

Register to use SciFinder-n now (University username and password required)
Registration is subject to the terms of the CAS Privacy Policy

SciFinder is a key resource for chemistry-related research. Use it to find substance and reaction information and literature. Specifically you can use it to: identify a chemical substance and its related chemical structures; find chemical names, find regulatory information, and properties, including CAS Registry Numbers®; find reaction schemes; and view step-by-step experimental procedures, detailed conditions, and product yields. It gives references to journal articles and patents.

Also useful for researching in related areas such as: agricultural science; biomedical sciences; engineering; food; geological sciences; materials science; medical sciences; and physics.

More about SciFinder-n

Help and guidance
SciFinder-n support and training

Getting hold of the full-text of patents

The Library does not hold any patents.

If you need a patent that is not available online contact the British Library Patents section.

British Library Patents section
In addition to their collection of British patents, they hold the most comprehensive range of patent specifications and related material in the world. Since 1855 patents and related material from numerous countries have been collected and now include 47 million patent specifications from over 40 authorities. Numerous gazettes and much support literature, as well as an increasing number of electronic databases, facilitate greater access to the collection through subject, name and classification searches.

Need more help?

If you need help with finding information, then please contact your Academic Liaison Librarian for advice.

Contact your Academic Liaison Librarian

Finding patents: Home