How to Look Up Patent Holders
The U.S. government has issued more than 6.5 million patents since 1790. At one time, looking up patent holders meant poring through stacks of paper or studying endless rolls of microfilm. Not anymore. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has made the records of every patent ever issued available through a searchable online database. Further, records of every patent application since March 2001 are also available. Updated weekly, the database makes it easier than ever to look up patent holders.
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Instructions
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Using the Database
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1
Visit the database page at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website.
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2
Select the kind of search you want to conduct. Your options are "Quick Search," "Advanced Search" and "Patent Number Search." See the details for each in the sections below.
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3
Provide the relevant information, and click on "Search." Patents issued from 1790 through 1975 are searchable only by the patent number, the patent issue date or the current U.S. classification (which isn't something a layperson is likely to know). For patents issued in 1976 and after, the full text of the patent is searchable.
Quick Search
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4
Click on "Quick Search" on the main database page.
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5
Enter search terms in the "Term 1" and "Term 2" boxes, and select the search field for each from the drop-down menu. For example, if you want to search for patents issued to Apple founder Steve Jobs, type "Jobs" in the "Term 1" box, and select "Inventor Name" from the drop-down menu.
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6
Select an operator from the drop-down menu to go between the terms. Choosing "AND" searches for patents with both terms. "OR" searches for patents with either of the terms. "ANDNOT" searches for patents with Term 1 but not Term 2.
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Select the date range for the search from the drop-down menu.
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Click on "Search."
Advanced Search
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Click on "Advanced Search" on the main database page.
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Enter search terms in the box. Precede each term with the "Field Code" (shown in the table) and a slash. Use "AND," "OR" and "ANDNOT" operators as described in Step 3 of the Quick Search section. So, if you want to search for Steve Jobs' patents with the word "computer" in the title, you would type:
in/Steven AND Jobs
AND
ttl/computerFor instructions on how to format each of the various fields, click on the links in the table on the Advanced Search page.
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11
Select a date range from the drop-down menu.
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Click on "Search."
Patent Number Search
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Click on "Patent Number Search" on the main database page.
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Enter the patent number in the search box. Each patent number is seven characters--letters and numbers. Commas are optional, so entering "6,819,550" and "6819550" produce the same result.
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Click on "Search."
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Tips & Warnings
When searching by an inventor's name, try variations. Microsoft's Bill Gates, for example, is listed on patents as "William H. Gates III." Searching for "Bill AND Gates" gets you none of his patents; searching for "William AND Gates" works.
