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Patent Information: Research databases

Guide to patent resources

Patent classification

Patents in full (original documents) are available from national patent offices or from patent databases such as Espacenet.
You can search for patents using:

  • Keyword(s) 
  • Patent number
  • Classification code

Classification schemes are used to group patents by type of technical information: IPC (WIPO) - International classification
CPC - Cooperative Patent Classification (extended IPC); UKC - UK classification (before 2007), and Other (USPTO, JPO);

Patents in research databases

Research databases provide bibliographic references of published patents. Information about patents in research databases is subject specific.
The following databases include patents from selected sources, and they very in coverage. 

Reaxys - chemistry information database

SciFinder - database of chemistry research (CAS)

SCOPUS -covers research in science, engineering and technology, medicine and health care

Web of Science - Core Collection  multidisciplinary database covers mathematical, physical and life sciences 

To obtain full-text patent search patent office databases

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