The Swedish historical patent database is an online search tool for researchers and the general public that contains detailed information about approximately 122,000 patents granted in Sweden between 1746-1945 and approximately 87,000 patentees (both organizations and individuals) and inventors.

Organization

The database has been developed by a group of researchers at the Department of Business Studies at Uppsala University in collaboration with the Swedish Intellectual Property Office (PRV) during the period 2017–2021. At Uppsala University the work has been organized by Professor Fredrik Tell (PhD) and David Andersson (PhD) together with Simon Elgar and Jesper Alkarp. At PRV, the work has been organized by Patent Expert Anders Bruun, Process Owner Åsa Viken, Head of Patent Department Sara Backman and former Head Archivist Dyveke Frimodt.

Professor Patricio Sáiz at the Department of Economic Analysis: Economic Theory and Economic History at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in Spain has acted as an advisor to the project. Technical development and design of the database infrastructure, back end and search engine have been performed by Francisco Llorens (Intercyd).

In addition, the following research assistants have also contributed to the project:

John-Erik Bergkvist, Sabina Dellstig, Anna Vestermark, Embla Hausmanis, Mathias Karlsson, Mathilda Lindeborg, Frida Myrsten, Sofia Nilsson, Anna Norell, Magnus Norberg, Daniel Nyborg, Sara Soltani, Anna Vögeli, Torulf Standwerth.

The database has been developed with the support of the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (Grant: IN17-0954:1), the Department of Business Studies at Uppsala University and PRV.

Sources and data

The database has been constructed based on the following sources:

• Patent- och registreringsverkets registratur, 1885–1945 (Patent- och registreringsverkets arkiv).
• Kommerskollegium, Ingående diarier över patent, 1820–1884 (Riksarkivet).
• Bidrag till Sveriges officiella statistik (BiSOS) D: Fabriker och manufakturer, 1860–1884 (Statistiska centralbyrån).
• Förteckning över patenter beviljade i Sverige och Norge 1866–1875 (L. A. Groth & Co Patent Agency, Stockholm: 1876).

N.B. YOU CAN ONLY SEARCH THE DATABASE IN SWEDISH. THE FOLLOWING TEXT IS ONLY FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES.

The search engine allows for a variety of searches. You can perform text searches in the published patent documents (only available for the years 1885–1945) or search the metadata available in the database. In the metadata you can search by grant year, patent title, patentee and/or inventor, patent classification or geographical location of the patentee and/or inventor. You can choose to search only one of the fields or a combination of several (for example for a specific name and year). The search results will present all available metadata for the patents that match the search.

It is also possible to combine searches in the metadata with searches in the patent documents.

You can perform searches in three different ways, full search, phrase search and combined search.

For example, a search for: "hammer" and "hydraulic" (the search engine does not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters), will get the following search results:

FULL SEARCH: the results show all patents or patent documents where “hammer” and/or “hydraulic” are found, regardless of whether only one or both words are found, if they are found together or separately or in a different order.

PHRASE SEARCH: the results show all patents or patent documents where the exact phrase "hydraulic hammer" is found.

COMBINED SEARCH: the results show all patents or patent documents where both "hammer" and "hydraulic" are found, regardless of the order in which they appear.

The results are displayed in a list organized by year from 1746 to 1945. By clicking on each patent in the list, you can see all the metadata and download the patent documents. The results also provide a direct link to Espacenet where there may be additional information available. The number of hits in each search is limited to 500 patents.

When you search the database keep in mind that an inventor can live in different places and have different occupations across time.

The Swedish historical patent database is an online tool that has been developed by researchers at the Department of Business Studies at Uppsala University in collaboration with the Swedish Intellectual Property Office (PRV). The database contains detailed information about patents, patentees and inventors across time and space.

The goal of the database is to make historical patent data available for the public and researchers.

Disclaimer

Data entry has been done manually to minimize errors. However, by using the database, you understand that the creators of the database are not responsible for the data being 100% correct and that updates to the database might be done continuously as more information becomes available. The creators of the database are not responsible for how the data is used or interpretations made on basis of the data.

The user of the database agrees to not to use the data for commercial purposes. 

Citation requirement

The user of the database agrees to cite and refer to the database in all publications, reports, conference papers or other forms of material where the data is used and to provide title and full citation where the data is used.

Revisions

The terms of use may be revised. By using the database, you agree and consent to latest revisions.