Canadian Patents Database

What's New

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The Site and the network have windows of planned general maintenance activities from Saturday at 6:00 p.m. to Sunday at 4:00 p.m. ET. During this period of time there may be disruptions to the image database or to the site.

Database maintenance is performed each Saturday between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. ET. During this period of time images might not be available.

What's New

November 6, 2006

Administrative Status Information Updated

Please note that Administrative Status information in the Canadian Patents Database is now complete and up-to-date. Thank you for your understanding.

October 20, 2006

Notice: Administrative Status Information

Please be aware that updates in the Administrative Status information on the Canadian Patents Database may not be completely current. We are working to resolve this situation and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. If the information shown does not correspond to your records, please contact us.

October 4, 2006

Patent payment history information updated

There were discrepancies in the payment history information of the Canadian Patents Database. The situation has been resolved and information is now up to date. Thank you for your patience.

September 22, 2006

Updates to payment history information

Please be aware that updates in the payment history information on the Canadian Patents Database may not be completely current. We are working to resolve this situation and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. If the information shown does not correspond to your records, please contact us.

August 16, 2006

Historical patent data now available

Bibliographic information for Canadian patents registered from 1867 to 1919 is now available for searching. Search fields include the inventor name, inventor country, owner at time of grant, grant date and Canadian Patent Classification. Filing date, where available, is displayed.

June 22, 2006

Searching Canadian Patent Classification (CPC) corrected

The problem concerning the use of a dot (.) in the CPC field when searching the Canadian Patent Database that was identified on May 23, 2006 has now been resolved. Thank you for your patience.

May 23, 2006

Notice: Searching Canadian Patent Classification (CPC)

A problem with special characters arising from the recent upgrade to the search engine has been identified. The search engine cannot search a CPC that contains a dot (.). We expect this problem to be corrected shortly; however, as a temporary solution, correct search results can be obtained by replacing the dot with a wildcard, e.g. for the CPC 260/355.5, replace the dot by a question mark (?). The search string would then read "260/355?5".

May 11, 2006

Canadian Patents Database Upgrade

As part of its continuing efforts to improve service to its clients, CIPO has just completed an upgrade to the search engine of the Canadian Patents Database. Extensive testing to ensure the integrity of this engine has been performed. However, should you encounter difficulties or discrepancies in your search results, please contact us.

November 9, 2005

Patent fee payment history now available

Bill C-29 — To assist you in determining whether a corrective payment needs to be made, relevant fee schedules and fee payment history with respect to specific patent applications or patents are now available through the Canadian Patents Database.

May 20, 2005

Notice in respect of hidden text

A recent quality check of the Canadian Patents Database shows anomalies in some claims and abstract texts. These anomalies are caused by the inclusion in the text of a "less than" (<) symbol immediately followed by a character, e.g., "<m." The browser interprets this sequence as a tag code and the text immediately following the "less than" (<) symbol is hidden until the browser encounters the closing tag, which is the "greater than" symbol (>).

This problem does not affect search results; however, where this situation occurs, users are asked to consult the image of the document for the full text. We are working to resolve this problem and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

The Canadian Patents Database (CPD) now includes information on expired status, which is accessible from the administrative status page of each patent document. For more information, see the Administrative Status Definitions section of the CPD help pages.

The Canadian Patents Database (CPD) now includes information on administrative status, which is accessible from the details page of each patent. For more information, see the Administrative Status Definitions section of the CPD help pages.

CIPO is pleased to provide access to the new Decisions of the Commissioner of Patents. This searchable database contains the public bilingual Decisions issued by the Commissioner since 1970. You may access the database now or use the link on the main CIPO page or on the pages of the Canadian Patent Database. The help files describe the extent of the content, the currency of the information and searching criteria. Once you have had a chance to check it out, please let us know what you think.

Important notice to users of the Canadian Patent Database regarding searches by International Patent Classification (IPC)

June 20, 2000

The Canadian Patent Database has been improved.

• The English and French databases have now been integrated and it is possible to use either official language in the same search.
• In the Advanced search, you can now select the language of filing.
• The total possible results per search has been increased to 1000 patents and you can break down the resulting number of documents into manageable lists. To access the lists you must use the navigation buttons in the hitlist page.
• The patent document details are now collected in a new browser window. You can navigate through your collection of Details pages by using the Back and Forward buttons of you browser.

October 29, 1999

You can now search more bibliographic fields, like inventor country, applicant name, PCT information. It is also possible to restrict the search to specific documents like PCT documents, non-PCT documents and/or Licence availability. All these changes are reflected mainly on the Boolean and Advanced search pages.

October 26, 1999

The patent documents detail screen shows more data information such as applicant names, PCT information and Availability of licence.

September 20, 1999

The automatic "stemming" function is no longer being used for the search of word variations. In order to extend the variation of characters in words, you can still use the wildcard function . For example, you can use "chang*" to find words such as "change", "changed" or "changing.