Engineering Guide to Research

Patents are a source of technical information that are vital for businesses, researchers, and academics. Reasons to search for patents include:

• Gain access to a wealth of technical information not published anywhere else
• Learn how something works (diagrams, detailed description)
• Avoid duplication of research efforts
• Identify new research trends and/or licensing opportunities
• Find information on a company's activities, or identify experts in a field
• Gain protection for an idea or invention.

The following is a list of some of the larger intellectual property offices in the world:

• Canadian Patent Database (Canadian Intellectual Property Office)
• Espacenet (European Patent Office)
• J-Plat-Pat (Japan Patent Office)
• KIPRIS (Korean Intellectual Property Office)
• USPTO Patent Public Search (United States Patent and Trademark Office)
• PatentScope (World Intellectual Property Office)

These are some tools that you can use to search for patents internationally:

• Espacenet
• Free Patents Online
• Google Patents
• The Lens

For more information, see the "How do I find patents?" guide.