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Citing a Patent in APA Style (6th Edition) | Format & Examples

Published on November 6, 2020 by Koen Driessen.

This article follows the guidelines of the 6th edition of the APA manual. A version updated for the 7th edition is available here.

The reference of a patent is different from the normal APA Style. The APA reference for a patent consists of four parts: the name of the inventor, the year in which the patent was issued, the unique patent identification number, and the name of the patent office.

Patent
APA-format Inventor Last Name, Initials. (Year Of Patent Issue). Patent Identifier No.. State, city: Patent Office Name
In reference list Fry, A. L. (1993). U.S. Patent No. 5,194,299. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
In the text
  • According to a patent on adhesive sheet material … (U.S. Patent No. 5,194,299, 1993).
  • A technique in Patent U.S. Patent No. 5,194,299 (1994) shows that … .

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Driessen, K. (2020, November 06). Citing a Patent in APA Style (6th Edition) | Format & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved January 8, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/6th-edition/archived-patent/

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Koen Driessen

Koen has written multiple theses and founded, together with Bas and Richard, the thesis editing company Scribbr in 2012.