Chicago 17th edition (notes–bibliography)
How to cite a patent in Chicago 17th edition (notes–bibliography)
Patents use official patent office country codes, filing vs issue dates, and unique patent numbers.
THE FORMAT
A patent in Chicago, at a glance
Inventor Last, First. Title of Invention. Patent Office patent no. x,xxx,xxx, filed Month Day, Year, and issued Month Day, Year.
Edison, Thomas A. Electric Lamp and Filament Assembly. US Patent 223,898, issued January 27, 1880.
1. Thomas A. Edison, Electric Lamp and Filament Assembly, US Patent 223,898, issued January 27, 1880.
In prose: 2. Edison, US Patent 223,898.
Copyeditor formats APA, MLA, Chicago and IEEE automatically — cite a source once and the bibliography builds itself. See how citations work .
BEFORE YOU FORMAT
What Chicago needs from a patent
Elements to collect
- Inventor or inventors
- Year of patent issue
- Title of the invention
- Patent office (e.g., US Patent Office, European Patent Office)
- Patent number (e.g., U.S. Patent No. 10,945,678)
- URL or database source
Rules specific to this entry
- Patent numbers and issuing offices are stated in plain text in Chicago.
Building the entry, step by step
Collect the details
Before you format anything, gather every element Chicago needs for a patent: Inventor or inventors; Year of patent issue; Title of the invention; Patent office (e.g., US Patent Office, European Patent Office).
Build the bibliography entry
Arrange those details in the Chicago order: Inventor Last, First. Title of Invention. Patent Office patent no. x,xxx,xxx, filed Month Day, Year, and issued Month Day, Year.
Add the in-text citation
In the body of your paper, cite it as 1. Thomas A. Edison, Electric Lamp and Filament Assembly, US Patent 223,898, issued January 27, 1880. — or work the same reference into your sentence as 2. Edison, US Patent 223,898..
Check it against the exceptions
Patent numbers and issuing offices are stated in plain text in Chicago.
Chicago RULES
The conventions behind every Chicago entry
The Chicago Manual of Style (17th ed.) is the authority. Where a journal or department publishes its own house rules, those win — check your submission guidelines before the bibliography is final.
The rules that apply across every source — author order, capitalization, how the bibliography is sorted, and where Chicago entries most often go wrong — are collected on the Chicago 17th edition (notes–bibliography) guide.
The same patent in another style
Switching styles late in a draft is normal. Here is the same source formatted five other ways.
Questions about Chicago and patents
What if the patent has no author?
Move the title into the author position and alphabetize by the first significant word of that title — ignoring an initial “A”, “An” or “The”. In the text, use a shortened form of the title where the author name would go.
What do I need before I can cite a patent?
Inventor or inventors, Year of patent issue, Title of the invention, and the rest of the elements listed above. Patents use official patent office country codes, filing vs issue dates, and unique patent numbers.
Is there anything unusual about a patent in Chicago?
Patent numbers and issuing offices are stated in plain text in Chicago.
Can I reformat this patent in another style later?
By hand, you would retype the entry — the element order, punctuation and italics all differ between styles. In Copyeditor, sources are stored as structured data, so switching between APA, MLA, Chicago and IEEE reformats every citation and the whole reference list at once.
Cite it once
and never reformat it again
Copyeditor keeps sources as structured data, so switching between APA, MLA, Chicago and IEEE reformats every citation and the whole bibliography at once.
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