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Application number

The application number is the number assigned to a patent application when it is filed. The application number is made up of a country code (two letters), the year of filing (four digits), and a serial number (variable, maximum seven digits). A serial number having fewer than seven digits must be rounded up to seven digits by adding zeros (eg GB19950008026).

To retrieve all the documents having a particular country code in combination with other entries (dates, etc.), all you have to do is enter the country code (eg GB) in the application number field in combination with a date in the publication date field.

You may enter a maximum of four search terms per field and a total of 21 search terms per mask. For the application number field, if more than one term is entered, the default operator is OR. This means that you can enter your search terms without having to type the default operator.

For more information on patent searching, see the following pages:

Default operators
Boolean operators
Limitations
FAQ searching
Country codes
Number formats