Until relatively recently the title page -- front page -- of a U.S. Patent contained little information about the patent and its form was not rigidly set. Partly as a result of the need for better record keeping, and especially for better record searching and retrieval, title pages of modern patents issued since about 1970 have contained, in a consistent format, all of the information essential for the positive identification of that patent and for placing that invention within its relevant technology field.

At the top of the title page, the header of a U.S. patent is emblazoned with the patent number, an inventor identification, and the date of issue. The numbers in square brackets -- more recently, in parentheses -- refer to data field numbers of the Patent Office records management database system.