diff --git a/Doc/library/unittest.mock.rst b/Doc/library/unittest.mock.rst
--- a/Doc/library/unittest.mock.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/unittest.mock.rst
@@ -1031,6 +1031,11 @@
     default because it can be dangerous. With it switched on you can write
     passing tests against APIs that don't actually exist!
 
+    .. note::
+
+        If you are patching any builtins inside a module then you don't need
+        to pass `create=True`, it will be added by default.
+
     Patch can be used as a `TestCase` class decorator. It works by
     decorating each test method in the class. This reduces the boilerplate
     code when your test methods share a common patchings set. `patch` finds
@@ -1401,6 +1406,21 @@
 
     Stop all active patches. Only stops patches started with `start`.
 
+.. patch-builtins:
+
+patch builtins
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+You can patch any builtins within a module. The following example patches
+builtin `ord`:
+
+    >>> @patch('__main__.ord')
+    ... def test(mock_ord):
+    ...     mock_ord.return_value = 101
+    ...     print(ord('c'))
+    ...
+    >>> test()
+    101
+
 
 TEST_PREFIX
 ~~~~~~~~~~~
diff --git a/Lib/unittest/mock.py b/Lib/unittest/mock.py
--- a/Lib/unittest/mock.py
+++ b/Lib/unittest/mock.py
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 import inspect
 import pprint
 import sys
+from types import ModuleType
 from functools import wraps, partial
 
 
@@ -1142,6 +1143,9 @@
         else:
             local = True
 
+        if name in __builtins__ and isinstance(target, ModuleType):
+            self.create = True
+
         if not self.create and original is DEFAULT:
             raise AttributeError(
                 "%s does not have the attribute %r" % (target, name)
diff --git a/Lib/unittest/test/testmock/testpatch.py b/Lib/unittest/test/testmock/testpatch.py
--- a/Lib/unittest/test/testmock/testpatch.py
+++ b/Lib/unittest/test/testmock/testpatch.py
@@ -377,7 +377,7 @@
 
     def test_patchobject_wont_create_by_default(self):
         try:
-            @patch.object(SomeClass, 'frooble', sentinel.Frooble)
+            @patch.object(SomeClass, 'ord', sentinel.Frooble)
             def test():
                 self.fail('Patching non existent attributes should fail')
 
@@ -386,7 +386,27 @@
             pass
         else:
             self.fail('Patching non existent attributes should fail')
-        self.assertFalse(hasattr(SomeClass, 'frooble'))
+        self.assertFalse(hasattr(SomeClass, 'ord'))
+
+
+    def test_patch_builtins_without_create(self):
+        @patch(__name__+'.ord')
+        def test_ord(mock_ord):
+            mock_ord.return_value = 101
+            return ord('c')
+
+        @patch(__name__+'.open')
+        def test_open(mock_open):
+            m = mock_open.return_value
+            m.read.return_value = 'abcd'
+
+            fobj = open('doesnotexists.txt')
+            data = fobj.read()
+            fobj.close()
+            return data
+
+        self.assertEqual(test_ord(), 101)
+        self.assertEqual(test_open(), 'abcd')
 
 
     def test_patch_with_static_methods(self):