Google announced today that it has expanded Google Patents to include documents from agencies in China, Germany, Canada and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Obviously, this greatly increases the coverage breadth of Google’s patent search engine.

“Many of these documents may provide prior art for future patent applications, and we hope their increased discoverability will improve the quality of patents in the U.S. and worldwide,” says Google engineering manager Jon Orwant. “So if you want to learn about a Chinese dual-drive bicycle, a German valve for inflating bicycle tires, attach a Canadian trailer to your bike, or read the WIPO application for pedalling with one leg, those and millions of other inventions are now available on Google Patents.”

“Thanks to Google Translate, all patents are available in both their original languages and in English, and you can search across the world’s patents using terms in any of those languages,” he adds.

Last year, Google announced the addition of European patents. Prior to that, Google Patents only featured documents from the U.S.

At the time, Google also launched a feature called the Prior Art Finder aimed at finding relevant art results.