Incorrect Formatting of Patent No. - USPTO# vs. US#

I’ve noticed that patent numbers are formatted in Paperpile as “#,” as opposed to “US#” or “WO#,” with the abbreviation of the issuing authority as a key component of the patent number. I attempted to manually add “US” or “WO” to the file data, but something in Paperpile removes them and defaults to simply a number for patent number.

Another work around I tried was to use the CSL editor to add the authority variable before the number. Unfortunately, this does not solve the issue and merely will result in “USPTO #” or “WIPO #.” Since I don’t have this issue using Mendeley, which uses on the same citation style formats, I’m guessing it’s an issue with the format of data Paperpile accepts for particular fields of data.

Is there a way to properly cite patent numbers with the inclusion of the authority abbreviation?

Paperpile separates the issuing authority and the number into separate fields for patents. Different citations styles apply these fields in different ways. The Chicago Style, for example, places the issuing authority before the number, i.e.

Houlihan, John T. 1988. Combination wristwatch and bicycle computer. USPTO 4780864. US Patent, filed March 21, 1988, and issued October 25, 1988. https://www.google.com/patents/US4780864.

I am not sure why your edits produce a different outcome, but the answer might lie in the how the Chicago style does it:

<else-if type="patent"> <group delimiter=" " prefix=". "> <text variable="authority"/> <text variable="number"/> </group> </else-if>