Resources in patents

A patent is a legal protection for inventions, that gives its owner the exclusive right to use the invention for up to 20 years. Patents can be granted for new technical solutions to problems.

Learn more

If you want to learn more about what patents are, we recommend the Basic Patent Guide from the Swedish Intellectual Property Office.
If you want to learn more about how to search for patent documents in patent databases, take a look at this excellent guide from the KTH Library.

Patent databases

  • Swedish Patent Database - Search for Swedish patents, public patent applications and European patents (EP patents) validated in Sweden. Operated by the Swedish Intellectual Property Office, PRV.
  • The Swedish historical patent database - Contains detailed information about approximately 122,000 patents granted in Sweden between 1746-1945 and approximately 87,000 patentees (both organizations and individuals) and inventors.
  • European Patent Register - The European Patent Register is the most complete and up-to-date source of publicly available procedural information on European patent applications as they pass through each stage of the granting process.
  • Espacenet - Contains data on more than 140 million patent documents from all over the world. It also provides information to help you see if a patent has been granted and if it is still in force.
  • United States Patent and Trademark Office - U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is the agency responsible for granting U.S. patents and registering trademarks. 
  • Google Patents - Google Patents is a Google search engine that indexes patents and patent applications from around the world. Contains over 120 million patent publications from more than 100 patent offices around the world.
  • The Lens - Lens is a freely available database of scientific publications and patents. It contains more than 200 million scientific publications and more than 120 million patents. Lens retrieves bibliometric data from other sources such as PubMed, Crossref and OpenAlex. It is possible to perform more advanced searches and there are several ways to filter your search. Operated by Cambia, a non-profit company based in Australia.
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Editor: University Library Web Team
Last updated: 2023-08-14