Authors: Patents have two types of authors - the inventor(s) and the assignee(s) - the individual(s) or organisation(s) that hold the legal title to the patent.
Country name: For the name of the country that granted the patent, use the adjectival form, e.g. French instead of France, but for America, use the United States, and for Britain, use the United Kingdom.
Place of publication: For the place of publication - after the city, include the state code in brackets for USA/Canada or the country code for outside of the USA/Canada, e.g. St Louis (MI) or Auckland (NZ).
For more information on reference list format and style, see General information - basics of referencing.
1. Name(s) of Inventor(s), inventor(s); Name of assignee, assignee. Title of patent. Patent country Document type Country Code Patent number. Date issued (Year abbreviated month date).
1. Pagedas AC, inventor; Ancel Surgical R&D Inc., assignee. Flexible endoscopic grasping and cutting device and positioning tool assembly. United States patent US 20020103498. 2002 Aug 1.
2. Tapper HJ, Percy JH, inventors; James & Wells, assignee. A method and composition for treating animals. New Zealand patent NZ 280059. 1996 Sep 19.
When using another person's ideas or words, include an Arabic numeral in brackets (consecutively numbered). If the reference is referred to again, the same number is used.
... has been recently identified (1). There is a need to be cautious with giving aspirin to children, as overdosing can lead to mortality (1).
If you are expressing ideas that have originated from more than one source, separate the numbers with commas or use a hyphen if referring to a range of numbers (references).
... in alkyl sulphates such as sodium lauryl sulphate (3,5-6) and diethyl sulphate (7). Other compounds showing promise were those in the C12 - C14 range (3-4).