He worked on indexing organic compounds for Chemical Abstracts, leading to the development of a compound naming system. He wrote The Ring Index with Capell, listing/cataloging ring systems. He was a nomenclature pioneer at CAS. He was known for his English-German and English-French Dictionaries for Chemists as well as his column "Words about Words." With E. J. Crane, he published A Guide to the Literature of Chemistry. Patterson helped found Chemical Abstracts.

Crane said, "He was the leading authority on the world on the nomenclature of chemistry. He...has done more to solve the problems of chemical nomenclature than anyone else. He was ever willing to help those having difficulty naming chemical substances."