Where to search, and how
Patent databases, official registers, research literature, theses, standards, product information, classification help, jurisdiction guides and templates. Each entry says what it is for, what it covers, how to access it and when the link was last reviewed.
Patent databases
WIPO PATENTSCOPE
Search international (PCT) applications and national collections from WIPO.
EPO Espacenet
The EPO's free worldwide patent search — the first stop for most prior-art searches.
IP India — Indian Patent Advanced Search (InPASS)
Official search of Indian patent applications and granted patents.
USPTO Patent Public Search
Full-text search of US patents and published applications.
Google Patents
Fast cross-jurisdiction search with machine translation and linked scholarly articles.
The Lens
Open patent and scholarly search with analysis tools, linking patents to the papers they cite.
J-PlatPat (Japan)
Japan Patent Office's free database for patents, utility models, designs and trade marks.
Official registers
IP India (Office of the CGPDTM)
Official website of the Indian patent, designs, trade marks and GI offices — forms, fees, journals, manuals and public notices.
European Patent Register
Legal status and file history of European patent applications.
WIPO Global Brand Database
Search trade marks, appellations of origin and emblems across many national and international collections.
WIPO Global Design Database
Search industrial designs registered under the Hague System and in participating national collections.
TMview (EUIPN)
Trade mark search across 70+ offices, including India.
IP Australia
Australian office: AusPat, trade mark and design searches, plain-English IP guides.
USPTO Trademark Search
Search US federal trade mark applications and registrations.
Research literature
Google Scholar
Broad search of scholarly articles, theses, books and patents.
Crossref Metadata Search
Find and verify publication details (DOI, date, journal) for research papers.
OpenAlex
Open index of scholarly works, authors, institutions and concepts, with a free API.
PubMed
Biomedical and life-science literature from the US National Library of Medicine.
PubMed Central
Free full-text archive of biomedical and life-science journal articles.
arXiv
Preprints in physics, mathematics, computer science, engineering, statistics and more.
Semantic Scholar
AI-assisted scholarly search with TL;DR summaries and citation context.
CORE
Aggregator of open-access research papers from repositories worldwide.
BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine)
Search 300+ million documents from institutional repositories and open-access sources.
SpringerLink
Journals, books and reference works from Springer Nature.
JSTOR
Digital library of academic journals, books and primary sources.
Theses
Shodhganga (INFLIBNET)
Indian theses and dissertations repository — essential prior art for ideas born in Indian universities.
NDLTD Global ETD Search
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
Standards
Bureau of Indian Standards
Indian national standards — check conformity requirements before prototyping a product.
ITU-T Recommendations
International telecommunication standards.
Product information
IndiaMART
What is already sold in India — product prior art and competitor scan.
Amazon India
Consumer-product prior art: features, listing dates, reviews that describe how a product is used.
Alibaba
Global manufacturing catalogue — check whether a "new" product is already made somewhere.
Classification
International Patent Classification (IPC)
The hierarchical classification used by every patent office; use it to search by technology instead of by words.
Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC)
The finer EPO/USPTO classification (250,000+ groups) used in Espacenet and Google Patents.
Jurisdictions & systems
PCT System (WIPO)
How the international patent application works, time limits and national-phase entry (India: 31 months).
Madrid System (international trade marks)
File one trade mark application covering many countries.
Hague System (international designs)
International registration of industrial designs.
India Code (official legislation)
Authoritative text of the Patents Act 1970, Designs Act 2000, Trade Marks Act 1999, Copyright Act 1957 and their rules.
UK Intellectual Property Office
UK office guidance and registers.
Guides & learning
Patent families explained (EPO)
Why one invention appears as many documents, and how to read a family.
WIPO Standards (document kind codes, dates)
Decode kind codes (A1, B2…) and INID codes on the front page of a patent.
USPTO Patent Basics
Plain-English introduction to US patents.
WIPO Academy (free IP courses)
Free distance-learning courses, including the General Course on IP (DL-101).
EPO learning resources
Free courses on searching, reading and filing European patents.
WIPO IP Advantage (case studies)
Real stories of how inventors and SMEs used IP to grow.
WIPO for SMEs and startups
IP guidance written for small businesses.
WIPO Inventor Assistance Program
Pro-bono patent attorney support for under-resourced inventors in participating countries.
NRDC India (technology transfer)
National Research Development Corporation — licensing Indian public-funded technologies and inventor support schemes.
Startup India
DPIIT recognition, Startups IP Protection scheme (SIPP) facilitators and fee concessions.
Startup India Seed Fund Scheme
Seed funding through approved incubators for proof of concept, prototype and market entry.
Atal Innovation Mission
Atal Tinkering Labs, Atal Incubation Centres and innovation challenges.
Innovate India (MyGov)
Government innovation challenges and hackathons.
Department of Science & Technology
Funding programmes for research, technology development and innovation (NIDHI, TDB and more).
Ministry of MSME
Schemes for MSMEs including IP facilitation and technology upgrades.
World Bank — Agriculture and Food
Evidence base for agriculture and food-system problems.
Global Innovation Index
Annual ranking of national innovation performance, with India's indicators.
Templates, forms & checklists
Invention Disclosure Form (MYCrave community template)
Capture an idea completely before anyone searches or drafts: problem, solution, how it works, what is new, who contributed, what has been disclosed.
Prior-art search log (template)
Record every search so a reviewer can repeat it and see what was and was not covered.
Technical-feature comparison table (template)
Compare your invention feature by feature against the closest prior art to see what, if anything, is new.
Sample prior-art report (structure)
What a cited prior-art report contains, so your educational exercise mirrors professional practice.
IP readiness checklist
Ten yes/no questions before you talk to anyone about your idea.