Patent literature in a narrow sense refers to
Patent documents are related materials including the research, design, development and test results of discoveries, inventions, utility models and industrial designs that have been applied for or confirmed.
Patent documents also include published or unpublished documents that protect the rights of inventors, patentees and holders of industrial designs and utility model registration certificates.
At present, most countries and regions in the world have established patent systems. According to the statistics of the World Intellectual Property Organization, 90%-95% of the inventions in the world can be found in patent literature.