Selected Resources for: Patents
 | Subject Librarian: Jon Jeffryes E-Mail: jeffryes@umn.edu Searching for patents can be tricky. Simple keyword searches often do not work in patent databases--you need to carefully think through your search strategy, trying different combinations of keywords and synonyms for your topic. The following websites are recommended sources for U.S., Canadian, and International patents. Be sure to consult each website's help menu or guides to be sure you are searching the interface correctly. |
Table of Contents
General Reference Sources
General Reference Works
| Introduction To Patents (A tutorial) An short introduction to patents and patentability created by the UMN Science and Engineering Library.
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| Patent Searching: A Tutorial A tutorial on searching for patents using Google Patents and the United States Patent and Trademark Office database.
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Guides
| General Information Concerning Patents (USPTO) Includes answers to frequently asked questions regarding patents, trademarks, servicemarks, and copyright. |
| Nolo's patents for beginners [electronic resource] An e-book through NetLibrary that gives an introductory overview of all aspects of patenting.
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Internet Resources
Search Engines
| FreePatentsOnline A website that allows you to access free pdf versions of patents. Including patents from the U.S., Europe, Japan and WIPO.
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| Google Patents Search Find U.S Patents and Patent Applications using keywords, back to the first patent issued. You cannot search really recent patents (those issued within the last couple of months). All patents available as pdfs.
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Web Sites
| CIPO - Canadian Patents Database Access over 75 years of patent descriptions and images. You can search, retrieve and study more than 1,400,000 patent documents. |
| Esp@cenet Find International Patents. Provides an interface to the published patent application databases of the European Patent Office and European national patent offices.
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| United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Use this site to search for U.S. issued patents and published patent applications. It gets updated weekly. |
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