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Patent Information

American Psychological Association (APA)

APA Citation Format for a Patent:

Inventor(s) Last name, First initial(s). (Year). Title of patent (U.S. Patent No. XXXXXXX). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Required Elements:

Element Details
Inventor(s) Last name and initials, separated by commas
Year Year the patent was issued
Title Italicized, in sentence case
Patent Number "U.S. Patent No." followed by 7+ digit number
Issuing Authority "U.S. Patent and Trademark Office"

Example APA Citation

Jobs, S. P., & Wozniak, S. G. (1985). Personal computer with integrated graphical interface (U.S. Patent No. 4,555,555). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Additional Tips

  • Use the issue date, not the application date.
  • If there are more than 20 inventors, list the first 19 followed by an ellipsis (...) and the final inventor.
  • You can abbreviate "United States" to "U.S." in APA style.
  • Use sentence case for the title: only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized.

IEEE

IEEE Citation Format for a Patent:

[#] Initials. Last name(s), "Title of patent," Patent type, Country Patent No. X,XXX,XXX, Month Day, Year.

Required Elements:

Element Details
Reference number [1] (matches order of citation in text)
Inventor(s) S. P. Jobs and S. G. Wozniak
Title of patent "Personal computer with integrated graphical interface"
Patent type U.S. Patent
Patent number 4,555,555
Issue date Mar. 12, 1985

Example IEEE Citation:

[1] S. P. Jobs and S. G. Wozniak, "Personal computer with integrated graphical interface," U.S. Patent 4,555,555, Mar. 12, 1985.

Additional Tips

  • Titles go in quotation marks, not italics.
  • Use abbreviated months (Jan., Feb., Mar., etc.).
  • Author names use initials first, followed by last names.
  • All citations are numbered in the order they appear in the document, and the numbers are used to match in-text citations like [1].
  • IEEE uses numerical in-text citations in square brackets (e.g., [1]) and a matching reference list entry at the end.
  • If the patent has multiple dates listed use the issue date as publication date.
  • It may be difficult to find a persistent URL or DOI to include in your citation, so this is an optional inclusion.

Chicago

Chicago Citation Format for a Patent:

Inventor Last Name, First Name. Year. Title of Patent. U.S. Patent X,XXX,XXX, issued Month Day, Year.

Required Elements:

Element Details
Inventor Name(s) Last name first; list all named inventors (e.g., Jobs, Steve)
Year of Issue Use the year the patent was granted, not filed
Title of Patent In italics, use sentence-style capitalization (capitalize first word and proper nouns)
Patent Number Include full number with issuing authority (e.g., U.S. Patent 4,555,555)
Issue Date Full date the patent was granted (Month Day, Year)
Issuing Country Include “U.S.” or other appropriate authority (e.g., EP, CN)

Example Chicago Citation:

Jobs, Steve, and Stephen G. Wozniak. 1985. Personal Computer with Integrated Graphical Interface. U.S. Patent 4,555,555, issued March 12, 1985.

Additional Tips

  • Use italic for the patent title.
  • Use the issue date, not the application date.
  • If you're citing a foreign patent, change "U.S. Patent" to match the country (e.g., "EP Patent").
  • If you include it in a footnote only (no bibliography), full details go in the footnote.