Free tools · References of record
Every reference the Patent Office already had for this patent.
The references of record are everything the examiner considered: the art the examiner cited, the art the applicant disclosed in information disclosure statements, and the foreign family members of both. Enter a US patent number below for the full list, counted by source.
By patent number
One number, any format. Pick what you want to know about it, or ask for everything.
Free. Five lookups a day per visitor; fifteen with an email. The examiner's search log is read by a paid transcription, so it is limited to three new patents a day per visitor and twenty for everyone. A patent already read is always free and never counts. Resets at midnight UTC.
Every answer shown here, by email, with a link back. Also lifts your limit to fifteen lookups a day.
Deadline calculators
Dates in, dates out. The IPR one-year bar, the PTAB milestones, a contest's close in your own zone, the PCT national phase and the EP opposition window.
Date the complaint was served (35 U.S.C. §315(b)).
Date the IPR petition was filed.
The close as posted, Eastern Time.
Earliest priority date. 30 months for most offices; 31 for the EP and some others.
Date the mention of the EP grant was published. An opposition is due 9 months later (Art. 99 EPC).
Statutory and rule-based intervals, counted in calendar days; the PTAB lines are the usual milestones, and the Board's own scheduling order governs. Not legal advice. Feeds the invalidity search.
WO / PCT report reader
A WO number in; out: the international search report's citations with their X, Y and A categories and the claims each was aimed at, the earliest priority, the national-phase dates, and whether the US national phase has been entered.
International search report · EPO record
- X
- Y
- A
X: relevant alone. Y: relevant combined with another. A: background. Only the searching authority's own citations are listed, not the applicant's. National-phase limits vary by office; check the WIPO PCT time-limits table for the one you need.
Wayback date-prover
A URL in; out: the earliest archived capture of the page and its link, as a citable line for dating a manual, a datasheet or a product page. A capture proves the page existed by that date; it says nothing about when it was first published. Feeds the non-patent literature sweep.
From the Wayback Machine
About this tool
Under 35 U.S.C. §325(d) the Patent Trial and Appeal Board may decline an IPR petition that relies on art the same as, or substantially the same as, art already before the Office. So the references of record are the floor a new search has to clear, not a starting point to repeat.
The tool separates examiner-cited from applicant-cited references, adds their family members, and lets you copy the counts.
Questions
- Is a reference the applicant disclosed but the examiner never discussed 'of record'?
- Yes. A reference listed on an information disclosure statement that the examiner initialled was considered, and the Board treats it as before the Office for §325(d), however briefly it was reviewed.
- Why include the references' family members?
- A foreign counterpart of a cited US patent usually discloses the same thing. Presenting it as new art invites the 'substantially the same' finding.