For many student and other early-stage projects, the goal is of a patent search to find out what already exists or is currently being developed. This "state-of-the art" type search typically does NOT give enough information to know if a particular idea is patentable or infringes on an existing patent, but it does give information about what has been tried already and how similar an idea is to what has been patented.
Free General / Broad Patent Search Tools
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The Lens / Patent Lens
This easy search interface for both U.S. and international patent documents has space for saving and annotating patent information. It includes full text and images from US patents granted beginning with 1976, US applications beginning with 2001, European Patent Office Grants beginning with 1980, WIPO PCT Applications beginning with 1978, and text of Australian patents.
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USPTO Patent Public Search
Searches USPAT (full-text U.S. patents back to 1970 and classification and patent number searching to 1790) and USOCR (OCR scanned pre-1970 U.S. patents - full text but sometimes character recognition / spelling is unreliable), and US-PGPUB (U.S. pre-grant applications to 3/2001).
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Google Patents
Use Google's interface to search granted patents and published patent applications from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) back to 1790, European Patent Office (EPO) back to 1978, and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) back to 1978.
Subscription / Specialty Tools
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Reaxys Chemical information resource. Search results can be narrowed to limit document type to patents and patent office to US (or other offices). Full text links go out to sites of those offices for the patents themselves.
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Scifinder Chemical information resource. Patents are marked in the results as PatentPak, and searches can be limited to patents. To see the patents themselves, use the names and identification numbers found in SciFinder to search other patent resources.
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Derwent Innovations Index Patent search tool with an emphasis toward mechanical patents and precise searches in three categories: three categories: chemical, electrical and electronic, and engineering -- rather than broad searches.
Narrowing Your Search
If you're getting too many results or too many irrelevant results, you probably should narrow your search down to just inventions that are in the same category as yours. Use the Cooperative Patent Classification system to find the classification for your invention, and then narrow down your search from there.
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Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC)
If you are finding too many or too few patents in your search, searching by the Cooperative Classification for your invention can quickly narrow your results down to patents that have been assigned to a particular category of invention. First find the classification here and then use that classification code to search for a patent with that classification.
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