How to Find a Patent Number
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issues all U.S. patents and maintains a list of all patent numbers. Because searching through existing patents is an important part of the patent process, the USPTO also has a convenient patent search function on its website. The advanced search option allows a user to enter virtually any aspect of the patent or product to find the patent number and other related information.
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Instructions
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Look on product. Some products have their U.S. patent numbers listed on the packaging, in accompanying literature or on the product itself. This is the easiest way to find a patent number, and with the number it is possible to learn more information about the patent and patent holder through the USPTO search portal. If nothing else, the product will give you basic information that can be used to start the patent number search.
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Visit the USPTO search portal. The Resources section below contains a link to the USPTO Patent Search page. Here, you can search for either existing patents or current applications.
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Do a quick search. With specific information about a patent, such as its official title, issue date, inventor name, or claim, up to two search terms can be entered through the quick search function. Each term can be matched to a specific field of the patent entry by selecting from a drop-down menu related the type of information (title, issue date, etc.) it represents.
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Do an advanced search. The advanced search option uses the same fields as the quick search, but allows for the entry of more than two terms. It also provides more information about each term and how it should be entered into the advanced search query field. Instead of drop-down menus, each item must be entered with a code related to its field, such as "ttl" for title or "in" for inventor.
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Tips & Warnings
If you're unsure of where to start, go to the quick search page and enter terms describing the product and use the "All Fields" designation. This will likely produce a large number of results, which can be narrowed in subsequent searches. The patent application search function is identical to the existing patent search described above, but searches through a different database. Patents from 1790 through 1975 can only be searched by Issue Date, Patent Number, and Current US Classification.
The links in the Resources section below are to USPTO web pages and contain official content published and provided by USPTO.
