Patent Citation Generator

How to Cite a Patent

1. 1. Enter the patent details. The inventor — not the assignee company — goes in the author position. Add the patent title, the patent number exactly as printed (including a country prefix like US or EP), the issuing office (e.g. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office), and the year the patent was issued.
2. 2. Pick a style. Choose APA, MLA, Chicago, IEEE, or any of the 10,832 styles. APA puts the number in parentheses after the italicized title — (U.S. Patent No. 10,123,456) — with the issuing office as publisher; IEEE is the usual choice in engineering papers.
3. 3. Generate. We build a full patent reference. Edit any field, then copy or export it to BibTeX, RIS, CSV, or Word.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I generate a citation for a patent?

Enter the inventor's name as the author, the patent title, the patent number, the issuing office (for example the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office), and the year it was issued, then pick your citation style and click Generate Citation. The source type is already set to 'Patent', so the fields map to the right CSL record.

How do I cite a patent in APA 7th edition?

APA lists the inventor in the author position, the year the patent was issued in parentheses, the italicized patent title with the patent number in parentheses — e.g. (U.S. Patent No. 10,123,456) — and the issuing body as publisher: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The in-text citation uses the inventor and year, like any other work.

Who is the author of a patent — the inventor or the company?

The inventor(s) named on the patent go in the author position, not the assignee company. Patents list inventors explicitly on the front page. If several inventors are named, enter them all and the generator applies each style's multi-author rules automatically.

Where do I find the patent number and issue date?

Both appear on the patent's front page and on Google Patents or the issuing office's database (USPTO, EPO, WIPO). Use the patent number exactly as printed, including any country prefix like US or EP, and cite the issue date rather than the filing date unless you are specifically citing a published application.

Can I cite a pending patent application?

Yes. Cite the published application using its publication number (for a US application, a number like US 2026/0123456 A1) and the publication year, and identify it as a patent application rather than an issued patent. Once the patent is granted, switch your citation to the granted patent number.

Which citation styles does the patent generator support?

All 10,832 styles in our library, including APA 7th, MLA 9th, Chicago, IEEE — the usual choice in engineering papers — Harvard, and Vancouver. Choose your style before or after entering the patent details and the reference reformats instantly. The tool is 100% free with no sign-up.