Patent and Trademark Information

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This page contains links to Web sources of information about patents and trademarks and how to obtain them. It also provides information about how to patent your own invention. You may also wish to consult with the staff of the Brown Science and Engineering Library and the staff of the Government Information Resources Department in Alderman Library, who also can assist you in locating patent and trademark information.

A web-based tutorial from the University of Texas McKinney Engineering Library about Patents may be of interest. Also, a tutorial from the University of California at San Diego is available.

Two useful guides by Michael White from Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario) are U.S. Patent Classification — Classes by Title and U.S. Patent Number Guide.

A useful book on the subject of patents and trademarks is Patent, Copyright & Trademark - A Desk Reference to Intellectual Property Law by Stephen Elias and Lisa Goldoftas, Nolo Press, 1996, located in the SEL book stacks under the call number KF2980.M38 1996.

You may also search the WWW for patent and trademark information using the web search engine of your choice from our web search page.

 

United States Patents

• Google Patent Search
  A somewhat more "user friendly" interface for searching for U.S. patents which does not require the downloading of a separate image viewer.
• Patent Fetcher
  Free downloads of U.S. patents in pdf format.
• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office homepage
• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Full Text Database
  A database of the full text content of U.S. patents issued from January 1, 1976 to the most recent weekly issue date.
• UVA Library Government Information Resources Patent Guide
  Lists tools and resources for understanding patents and how to search them for information.
• University of Virginia Patent Foundation
  The Patent Foundation evaluates inventions discovered and developed at UVA, protects such inventions with patents, and commercializes inventions by licensing the rights to companies for them to make and sell new products. It also evaluates, protects and commercializes non-patentable intellectual property (copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets), as well as biological materials. A list of patents issued to the University of Virginia since the formation of the Patent Foundation is here.

Other Patent Resources, U.S. and Foreign

• Canadian Patent Database
  This database lets you access over 75 years of Canadian patent descriptions and images. You can search, retrieve and study more than 1,400,000 patent documents.
• China Patent Database
  The web site of the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China (English Version). Searchable.
• Community of Science U.S. Patent Citation Database
  Search the entire database from 1971 to the present or search by state, country, or classification.
• DEPATISnet
  DEPATISnet is a service provided to you by the German Patent and Trade Mark Office. You can conduct online searches in patent publications from around the world stored in the database of DEPATIS, the in-house patent information system of the GPTO. PDF versions of patent documents are available for viewing and printing.
• Documents Dealing with Patenting Issues
  A compilation of documents from the Internet Patent News Service.
• European Patent Office
  The European Patent Office (EPO) is an international patent-granting authority established under the European Patent Convention (EPC), which was signed in Munich on 5 October 1973 and came into force on 7 October 1977. The European Patent Organisation, for which the European Patent Office acts as executive arm, currently has 19 member states: all the EU countries plus Cyprus, Liechtenstein, Monaco and Switzerland.
• European Patent Office - Patent Information on the Internet
  A page of links to patent information such as patent offices of the EPO member states; other national offices or similar authorities; PATLIB - the network of patent information centres in Europe; legal texts and patent classification systems; patent databases; patent information providers; patent licensing exchanges; mailing lists and news groups; professional representatives; official directories of national registered patent attorneys; law offices and similar sources; and patent software.
• Franklin Pierce Law Center Intellectual Property Mall
  A "one stop shop" for all things relating to intellectual property law, searching for and obtaining patents, and related matters.
• Gallery of Obscure Patents
  A collection of some of the more bizarre and unusual patents granted. Maintained by Delphion.
• Institut National de la Propriete Industrielle
  French patent search page. Text in French.
• Intellectual Property Digital Library
  The Intellectual Property Digital Library Web site provides access to various intellectual property data collections currently hosted by the World Intellectual Property Organization. These collections include Hague, JOPAL (non-patent reference), Madrid and PCT data and support fully searchable information retrieval and display by users on demand. Access to the Digital Library is available to the general public free-of-charge.
• Intellectual Property Office of Singapore
  IPOS offers a one-stop intellectual property portal for aggregated patent searching of several patent and trademark offices and web search engines with integrated results and more.
• Internet Patent News Service
  Information on the Internet Patent News Service and how to subscribe to its weekly E-mailing of patents issued by the USPTO during the previous week.
• Japanese Patents - Industrial Property Digital Library
  Search for Japanese patents published since 1976, select "PAJ". Information on all aspects of Japanese patents and patent law can be found at Japan Patent Office web page.
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe - Basic Legal Research Section
  This database contains links to all U.S. patents from 1971 to the present, plant and design patents, reissue patents, reexamination certificates, statutory invention registrations and defensive publications. Images of accompanying diagrams are not included (see USPTO site for images or ask a librarian for assistance).
• MicroPatent's PatentWEB
  A searchable index to U.S. and selected Japanese patents. First pages can be viewed free of charge; full text can be obtained for a fee via E-mail or fax.
• Patent.info Home Page
  A FAQ page including tips on patents, patent searching, and related information for inventors and others. Includes some links to search services.
• Patents
  Provides information on U.S. Patent-Retrieval Databases, Specialty Patent-Retrieval Databases, Determining Patent Class/Subclass, Information about the Patenting Process, and Obtaining Patents in Hardcopy. Also includes an online tutorial on patent searching on the web. University of California at San Diego.
• Russian Agency for Patents and Trademarks - Federal Institute of Industrial Property
  The Russian Agency for Patents and Trademarks (Rospatent) is a federal executive body duly authorized to grant, register, and maintain rights to inventions, utility models, industrial designs, trademarks, service marks, appellations of origin, as well as to effect registration of computer programs, databases, and topographies of integrated circuits in the Russian Federation. Search engine provided. Site available in both Russian and English.
• United Kingdom Patent Office
  This is the British equivalent to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office cited above.

 

 

Questions? Call the Information Desk at 924-3628.