Patents are freely available online but often difficult to find. So, first, use IFIS Collections to identify the patents you need. Then use these three methods to find the free full-text of the documents.
Get full text with Espacenet
Searching Espacenet, the European Patent Office’s patent search interface, is often the best way to find the original downloadable patent documents. This site also collates patent families, linking together patent applications for the same content filed with patent offices around the world. To find a patent search the patent’s title inside quotation marks or search the patent number (found in the IFIS Collections record for the patent) with spaces closed.
Get full text with Google Patents
Type the patent title, inside quotation marks, into the simple search box or search by publication number, with any spaces closed. Sometimes Google Patents results will include a downloadable PDF version of a patent and sometimes only an HTML version.
Go directly to a country's patent office
In the rare cases that Espacenet or Google Patents fail to retrieve a patent’s text, try googling the issuing patent office. Translate the page, if necessary, to find how to proceed. You can learn more about retrieving food science and nutrition patents here.