- About Patents
- Patent Classification
- Finding US Patents
- International Patents
- Specialty Patents: Plant, Business, and Software Patents
About Patents
 United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) – Patent Main Page — WWWFrom the “Basic Facts A bout Patents” page: “The right conferred by the patent grant is, in the language of the statute and of the grant itself, “the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling” the invention in the United States or “importing” the invention into the United States. What is granted is not the right to make, use, offer for sale, sell or import, but the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the invention.” |
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| USPTO Glossary of Terms – WWW | |
| Patent Article from Wikipedia — WWW A good introduction to concepts and terminology surrounding patents. |
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| Patent Applications Handbook, by Stephen A. Becker — PRINT Law 3rd floor: Monographs collection KF3120.Z9 P28 2008 A guide to the patent application process, updated annually. |
Finding US Patents
| Google Patent Search — WWW Search the full-text of all US patents and applications, 1790-present. Downloadable PDF files are available for all patents. Use the Advanced Search features to refine your searches. |
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| USPTO Patent Search — WWW Search the full-text of US patents since 1976 and by the date, number, or classification of patents from 1790-1975. Viewing the patent image requires the use of a browser plug-in, which can be buggy. We recommend you use a service such as pat2pdf.org or Google Patents to retrieve PDF versions. |
Patent Classification
| Searching using the USPTO Patent Classification System allows for much more targeted searching than simple keywords. Every patent is assigned class and subclass numbers, based on what’s being patented |
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| USPTO Patent Classification Main Menu — WWW | |
| Index to the United States Patent Classification (USPC) System — WWW A good entry point into patent classification. |
International Patents
| LexisNexis Academic — ELECTRONIC In the “Sources” section, search for “patents” to find an extensive list of patent resources, including Canadian, European, and Japanese patents. Documents will be plain-text only. |
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| Canadian Intellectual Property Office — WWW | |
| European Patent Office — WWW | |
| Japan Patent Office — WWW |
Specialty Patents: Plant, Business, and Software Patents
| Plant Patents: General Information About 35 U.S.C. 161 Plant Patents — WWW Details on patenting ” distinct and new” varieties of plants in the US. |
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| Business Methods Patents — WWW USPTO Class 705 deals with “Automated Financial or Management Data Processing Methods [Business Methods]” and covers both techniques for dealing with financial information as well as software applications. |
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| EFF: Software Patent Busting Project – WWW The Electronic Frontier Foundation takes aim at what it perceives as overly broad software patents. |
