Copyright and Intellectual Property: Patent Searching

How to Conduct a Preliminary U.S. Patent Search: A Step by Step Strategy (36 minutes)

A detailed handout of the Seven Step Strategy with examples and screen shots.

When searching for a chemical patent in SciFinder, select the Patent menu under References and enter the Patent Number, Assignee, and/or Inventor.

If you don't have the patent information mentioned above, then you can do a Research Topic search. From the results, filter the Document Type to Patent.

Begin at the library homepage, select the Articles and Databases tab, the letter N, and Nexis Uni. Nexis Uni® includes an option to search for patent filings.

To do this:

Click the Menu drop-down list, located near the top of the page.
Choose Patent from the list. The Advanced Search form appears, preconfigured to show the fields you'd need for searching patents.
Define your search properties and terms

With Advanced Options, you can search by Inventor, Attorney/Registered Agent, Applicant Number, Assignee, Patent Title, and more.  An efficient way to narrow your results is by specifying the date.  For example, if you're researching a new patent, try narrowing the date to the last 6 months.