Resources for Researching Space Economy Patents

Primary Sources

Patent Search Database	Description and Link
USPTO Patent Office	USPTO’s database allows users to search for U.S. patents dating back to 1790. You can search by various fields such as inventor name, patent number, and keyword. Visit the database.
Espacenet	This is provided by the European Patent Office (EPO). Espacenet offers free access to information about inventions and technical developments from the 19th century right up to today. It covers patents from many different countries around the world. Visit Espacenet.
Google Patents	Google’s patent search engine is user-friendly and can be a good starting point for preliminary patent research. It includes patents and patent applications from the USPTO, EPO, and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), among others. Visit Google Patents.
WIPO’s PATENTSCOPE	The World Intellectual Property Organization’s database includes over 90 million patent documents from around the world, including international patent applications submitted under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). Visit PATENTSCOPE.
China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) Database	For patents filed in China, the CNIPA database can be a useful resource. However, the site is primarily in Chinese. Visit the CNIPA database.
Japan Patent Office (JPO) Database	For Japanese patents, the JPO provides a database known as “J-PlatPat.” Visit J-PlatPat.

Report/Resource	Description and Link
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)	WIPO’s yearly report on intellectual property activity and trends, Access the report.
European Space Agency (ESA) Patents and Licensing	ESA provides insights into its patent portfolio and licensing opportunities. While this isn’t a comprehensive analysis of all space economy patents, it gives an interesting view from a key player in the space sector. Check out the details.
United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Patent Technology Monitoring Team (PTMT)	The PTMT periodically publishes reports on patent trends in various sectors. They don’t have a dedicated report on space economy patents, but they do have data sets that might be useful. Explore their resources.