# Patentscope

PATENTSCOPE is a global patent database and search system developed and maintained by the World Intellectual Property Organization. It provides free and open access to a vast collection of international patent documents, including patent applications, granted patents, and related technical information.

## History

In 2001, WIPO launched PATENTSCOPE as an online service to provide free access to international patent documents. The database initially focused on the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications, which are international patent applications filed under the PCT system. In 2008, it was transformed into a search system for not only published PCT applications, but also national and regional patent collections. In 2009 it counted with 9 data collections. In 2013, with the addition of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and China’s national patent collections the database past the 30 million record mark.
In 2014, Espacenet, Patentscope and Depatisnet were the main multinational patent databases offered by patent authorities which are available to the public free of charge.
Chemical search was made available in 2016, allowing non-chemists to also search for chemical information.
Over the years, the scope of PATENTSCOPE expanded to include additional patent collections from various countries and regions, making it a global resource for patent information. In 2018, WIPO implemented an AI tool for translating patent documents held in PATENTSCOPE.
In 2020, during COVID-19 pandemic, WIPO launched a new search functionality to facilitate the location and retrieval of information useful to develop new technologies that could fight against the pandemic.
As of June 2023, the database included 111 million patents documents, including 4.6 millions published international patent applications.

## Features and functionalities

PATENTSCOPE offers a range of features and functionalities to assist users in searching and retrieving patent-related information. Some of the key features of the database include:

### Comprehensive coverage

PATENTSCOPE provides access to millions of patent documents from around the world. It is the official publication reference site for published PCT applications. It includes patent applications, granted patents, and related technical information from national and international patent offices. The database covers a broad range of technology fields, allowing users to search for patents in their specific areas of interest.

### Multilingual search interface

One of the notable features of the database is its multilingual search interface. Users can perform searches using keywords, patent numbers, inventors' names, and other relevant criteria in multiple languages. The database supports a range of languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese.

### Advanced search options

PATENTSCOPE offers advanced search options to help users refine their queries and retrieve precise results. Users can apply various search filters, such as publication date, patent classification, applicant's name, and legal status, to narrow down their searches. The system also supports boolean operators and wildcard characters, enabling complex and customized search queries.

### Patent family information

PATENTSCOPE provides access to patent family information, which helps users track related patent documents across different jurisdictions. Users can view the entire patent family tree for a specific invention, including its priority applications, divisional applications, and related granted patents. This feature is particularly useful for evaluating the global coverage and legal status of a patent.

### Full-text document access

The database allows users to access the full-text content of patent documents directly from the search results. Users can view the complete patent description, claims, drawings, and other relevant information in PDF format. Additionally, the database supports machine translation, enabling users to automatically translate patent documents into their preferred language.

### Translation

PATENTSCOPE integrates WIPO Translate which is a neural network translation tool developed by the World Intellectual Property Organization and trained exclusively on patent documents. The translation is available as a stand-alone tool to translate patent documents and is also available directly in the result list and in the patent document to translate the different parts such as the bibliographic data, the description, the claims and full-text. This tool has been shared with several UN organizations.
The Cross-Lingual Information Retrieval interface is also available in the database, and allows users to not only translate their search terms but also find synonyms of those.

### Chemical searches

PATENTSCOPE offers different search options for chemical compounds such as exact structure search, substructure search and Markush search. Users can draw formulas, use commercial and common names, as well as number references to perform their searches.