Research Guides: Patents and Trademarks: Legal, Assignment and Status Information

Legal, Assignment, and Status Information

Public PAIR (Patent Application Information Retrieval)
Discontinued as of 2013 - use Patent Center or "Global Dossier" links in most patent databases

Patentcenter.uspto.gov - US applications and patents only. Defaults to application number, Drop-down menu for patent and pre-grant publication number. "Documents & Transactions" links to "File wrapper" (prosecution history. "Supplemental Content" links include color Plant Patent PDF images.

Global Dossier
USPTO site requires patent or application number search. Patentcenter.uspto.com also links to US patent file histories, under "Documents & Transactions" links. Google Patents, Lens.org, Espacenet and Patentscope often link directly from search results to Global Dossier file prosecution histories.
Trademark Status and Document Retrieval (TSDR)
TSDR is linked from TESS search results, but this direct link allows search by U.S. Serial Number and both U.S. and International Registration numbers, and includes 600,000+ "dead marks NOT in TESS
U.S. Patent Assignments
Patent owners are NOT required to let USPTO know of changes in ownership, but many do register these changes
U.S. Trademark Assignments
Trademark owners are NOT required to register ownership changes with USPTO, but many do
European Patent Register
Application and legal status of European Patent Office applications
INPADOC and patent family information
Patent bibliographic records ("Front Page" information) in Espacenet are linked to INPADOC legal status, when available. Patent Families (patents that share at least one cited patent) are also linked.