Patent Number

The Patent Number is the number assigned to an approved patent, by the concerned national or international patent office. This patent number is of great importance and utility, as it distinguished a certain patent from others, and helps the patent authorities in keeping proper and flawless patent records. A patent number is an obvious proof of having a patent duly registered with the concerned authority, which the inventor or patent holder can freely use on its products. Thus, this patent number helps the inventor for finding recognition to its national or international business in any fields. Our this article offers precious information about patent number formats used in majority of countries of the world over, and tips for easier and quicker patent number lookup.

Patent Number Format

The format of granted patent number varies depending upon the diverse numbering systems used by different patent-issuing authorities and offices. Every patent office has its own elegant and appropriate numbering system or way for tracking its own patent application filings and publications. All patent numbers essentially have a consecutive series of numbers, but in some countries, the numeric series is restarted every year or periodically. While some countries have even a parallel numeric series for the published patent applications and granted patents. The following are the most prominent and reputed patent number formats in most of the countries of all across the world:

• Continuous Numbering Format - It follows the format of CCnnnnnnnn.
  Where, the CC represents the ISO Country Code,
  ‘nnnnnnnn’ = 1-8 digit number without commas, spaces, or punctuation.
  The ISO Country Code for some international patent authorities /countries is as follows -
  United States (U.S.), WIPO (WO), EPO (EP), Germany (DE), Canada (CA), Korea (KR),
  Australia (AU), Brazil (BR), South Africa (ZA), etc.

• Western Year Numbering Restart Format - It follows the 2/4/6 format as -
  CCYYYYNNNNNN.
  Where, CC = two-letter ISO Country Code,
  YYYY= 4-digit patent publication year, and
  NNNNNN= 6-digit number (exactly six without commas, spaces, or punctuation; adding
  zero is permissible after the number if required, to make it a 6-digit number).

• Japanese Emperor Year Numbering Restart Format - This patent number format is as
  follows - JPEENNNNNN.
  Where, JP = is ISO Country Code for Japan
  EE = is the last two digits of the Japanese Emperor Year, and
  NNNNNN = are a six-digit number, without commas, spaces, or punctuation;
  Adding leading zeros is allowed to make it a 6-digit number in total, if need be.

Patent Number Search

The patent number search is made for searching for any specific patent number, together with the registered patent. All published patents or patent applications are readily accessible through the online patent number search or patent application number search respectively. Now, the next question automatically arises is, how to find a patent number online, faster and efficiently. The following are two most famous and popular online patent databases for searching patent numbers:

• USPTO Patent Number Search - In this, to find patent number, you just have to enter the number of the patent desired, and a TIFF file viewer for viewing the patent images.
• Google Patents - By this means, the PDF version of the patent is obtainable, after entering in the patent number.