Open Google Patents

About

This solution allows you to quickly open Google Patents for a selected issued patent identifier or pre-grant publication identifier.

Select a patent identifier in text, then open the context menu and select "Open Google Patents" from the menu. You can normally open the context menu by right-clicking. For example, selection of "US7654321," and then "Open Google Patents" from the context menu, opens a new tab to the URL https://patents.google.com/patent/US7654321.

The solution works for both issued patent identifiers (e.g., US7654321, EP1234567) and pre-grant publication identifiers (e.g., US20240011111). Because the solution uses the identifier in the corresponding Google Patents URL, it is NOT currently possible to use the patent application serial number (e.g., US18/123,456).

Note that in the absence of a country code prefix, the presumption is that the identifier is for a US patent document. Be sure that the identifier has the country code included if the associated document is not a US patent document. 

The extension should work for any webpage loaded after the initial installation of the extension, as long as JavaScript is enabled.

Please let me know of any issues you experience before writing a review -- I'm happy to continue to improve the solution. The extension is provided 'As-Is' without any express or implied warranty of any kind.

Note that I do not collect any information from the extension -- all handling is done at your local browser. 

Enjoy!
/Scott

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v1.9:
- Updated to use a window popup instead of a desktop notification for error messages. 

v1.8:
- Updated to use Chrome extension manifest V3

v1.7:
- Added selected text to the context menu item.
- Updated to force uppercase for country code and kind code since Google Patents doesn't always handle lowercase letters. 

v1.6:
- Improved memory utilization.

v1.5:
- Modified code to require minimal permissions.
- Removed handling of links, as this functionality was of minimal value, and this removal allowed for a reduction in needed permissions. 

v1.4:
- Updated to better handle text selected within a text input box. 

v1.3:
- Updated to handle US reissue patent identifiers without a "US" country code prefix.

v1.2:
- Updated to link to newer Google Patents instead of legacy version. That is, https://patents.google.com/patent/ (new) instead of https://www.google.com/patents/ (old).

v1.1:
- Updated to handle identifiers without country code but with a kind code.