A patent search tool for researchers should put patents next to the papers, because the same idea often appears in both. AI for Research looks up granted US patents through USPTO PatentsView in Official Sources, free of charge, and searches 250M+ scholarly works for the literature on the same technology. You see who patented what and when, and what the science says, before you talk to your technology transfer office or a patent attorney.
It is a research tool. Nothing here is a patentability, validity or freedom-to-operate opinion; a registered patent attorney or patent agent decides those.
Sources for law and patents
| Source | What it holds | Where in the product | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| USPTO PatentsView | Granted US patents: number, title, abstract, inventors, assignees, dates, classifications | Official Sources | 0 |
| OpenAlex and Semantic Scholar | 250M+ scholarly works, including law reviews and technology papers | All papers; Find Papers | Search 0 |
| arXiv and other preprints | Preprints, flagged as not peer reviewed | Preprints source | As the run's depth |
| Web | Public pages: patent office guidance, law firm notes, policy reports | Web source in Deep Research | As the run's depth |
| SEC EDGAR | US company filings, which often describe a company's patents and licensing | Official Sources | 0 |
| My Library | PDFs you add, such as patents you downloaded or articles from your library's databases | My Library source | As the run's depth |
Only US patents are covered. The EPO, WIPO and other offices are not searched, and patent families and legal status are not shown. Westlaw, Lexis and other case-law databases are not searched.
Tools for law and patents
A useful habit is to run the same idea twice: once as a patent lookup and once as a literature question. Inventors often publish before or after they file, and a paper can explain a method that the patent claims only in legal language. Keep both in the same project so the evidence stays together.
| Tool | What it does | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Official Sources | Look up US patents in PatentsView and company filings in SEC EDGAR | 0 |
| Deep Research | Cited answers on the science and the scholarship behind a technology | Summary 1, Deep 15, Detailed 45 (paid) |
| Find Papers | Search papers, law reviews and preprints | 0 |
| Library | Keep patents, papers and notes together in one project | 0 |
| Technical research workbook | Patent references (publication, family reference you record yourself, priority date, applicant, claim number, quoted passage), standards and benchmarks | 0 |
| White paper writer | A technical white paper built on cited evidence | Whole 15, section 3 |
The Technical research workbook is in Workbooks. Its patent section records what you read in a patent; it says plainly that the record does not determine validity, infringement or freedom to operate.
A worked example
Example (invented for illustration): a postdoc in materials engineering has a new coating for medical implants and a meeting with her university's technology transfer office next week.
- In Official Sources she searches PatentsView for antibacterial implant coatings granted in the last ten years and notes 14 US patents, with their assignees. 0 credits.
- A Deep Research Summary answer on "which antibacterial coating approaches for titanium implants have been tested in animal studies?" cites nine papers. 1 credit.
- A Deep report on silver-based versus peptide-based coatings, for the background section of her disclosure form: 15 credits.
- She records five of the closest patents in the Technical research workbook, each with the claim number and the passage she read. 0 credits.
- She brings the patent list, the papers and her notes to the technology transfer office. Their patent attorney runs the formal search, including European and international filings, and advises on patentability.
Total: 16 credits, inside the Free plan's 45 a month.
Citation styles and reporting standards
Legal writing in the US mostly uses the Bluebook, and in the UK OSCOLA; the editor formats references in 10,000+ citation styles. Cite a US patent by its number, title, inventor and issue date, and note the date you checked it. In a technical paper, patents are cited like any other source in the journal's style.
What it does not do
- It gives no patentability, validity, infringement or freedom-to-operate opinion, and no legal advice of any kind. A patent attorney or agent decides.
- It searches US patents only: no EPO, WIPO, JPO or CNIPA, no patent families and no legal status.
- It is not a complete prior art search. Prior art also includes non-US filings, products, theses and other public disclosures.
- It does not draft patent claims or file applications.
- It does not search case law, statutes or legal databases such as Westlaw or Lexis. Legal scholarship comes through the normal paper sources and the Web source.
Who uses it
- Researchers preparing an invention disclosure: see AI for academics and AI for PhD students.
- R&D, IP and strategy teams: see AI for industry.
For DBLP, arXiv and engineering papers, see engineering and computing. For company filings and economic data, see business and economics.
Learn more
- Patent search for researchers
- How to find sources for a research paper
- How to write a white paper
- What is deep research AI?
Last updated 2026-11-13