Google Patents: The global patent search engine

Google Patents (www.google.com/patents) includes over 8 million full-text patents. Google Patents works in the same way as the Google search engine. Google Patents is the global patent search engine that lets users search through patents from the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office), EPO (European Patent Office), etc. This study begins with an overview of how to use Google Patent and identifies advanced search techniques not well-documented by Google Patent. It makes several suggestions for improving Google Patents. This study also compares the citation counts provided by Google Patents for journals in the field of library and information science (LIS). Finally, it concludes that Google Patents provides a free alternative or complement to other patent databases. It also addressed the advantages of Google Patents, for example, easy-use search interface and fast search engine; convenient access to patent images in PDF format; and fast downloads of PDF patent documents.