How do you verify a patent?

Question

If someone says they have a patent and gives you the number and tells you what it is for, how can you verify this? Is there a patent database on-line?
Thank you.

Answer 1

There is a common misconception about patents. Most are not registered with the patent office. If you have a patent but do not register it, the burden of proof falls upon you to prove it. That does not mean your patent is invalid.

Registered patents are public information. Patents are often accompanied by hundreds of pages and diagrams in documentation. Having a list of patents, although helpful, is not sufficient to understand the full scope of a patent.

If you want to research a patent, I would suggest this hyperlink
http://www.uspto.gov/patft/

Answer 2

The US Patent and Trademark Office (http://www.uspto.gov/) provide online databases for all registered patents and trademarks as well as pending applications for both.

You can search by either company name, inventor, Patent ID#, type of invention, description, etc.

Good luck.

Answer 3

http://www.uspto.gov/patft/