What is a patent number?

A patent number is a unique code assigned to a particular invention by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). It is a combination of numbers and/or letters, and it is used to identify the invention and its owner. The patent number is specific to a particular country, so a patent in California will have a different patent number than the same invention in another state or country. In California, the patent numbers are assigned consecutively, meaning the next patent after one with the number 10 is 11. When the numbers reach 999,999, they are reset to one and the following patent numbers will include a letter after them (eg. 1A, 1B, 1C, etc). In addition to identifying the invention and its owner, the patent number can be used to perform a search in the USPTO database to look up the patent and its related documents. The patent number can be found on the patent itself, as well as on the USPTO website or the USPTO’s public search facility. Patent numbers are an important part of the patent system because they are used to track inventions, protect intellectual property, and give inventors exclusive rights to their inventions for a limited period of time. Patent numbers are also used to help prevent fraud and ensure that inventors are able to enforce their rights to their inventions.

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