PATENTS -- NO COST SEARCHING WEB SITES

European Patent Office (US/WO/JP/...) esp@cenet
Simple searches on bibliographic data in patent documents.
You can download full text images as PDF files - page by page only - but they are free.

Patents, U.S. (Google)
About Google Patent search (U.S. Patents)
Provides simple and advanced searches of U.S. Patents; PDF files

USPTO (US Patent and Trademark Office) Database

Good site to search for most recent US patents.
Searches front page information in US patent starting from 1790.
Searches full-text information in US patents issued starting 1976 to the Tuesday prior to today's date
(US patents are issued every Tuesday).
You can download the full text images as TIFF files - page by page only - but they are free.
How to access and view U.S. Patent Full-Page Images

Search Note:
• Patent images are only accessible from the full-text display of each patent. Patent images must be retrieved one page at a time. This is necessary since patents can be as long as 5,000 pages, and the resources required to download such "jumbo" patents are not available.

FreepatentsOnline
Millions of US patents searchable. One PDF per patent Future plans to add US applications.

DEPATISnet information
Database contains US (1790+), EP(1978+) and WO (1978+). Database also contains the following country patents:
DE-1877+, DD-1946+, AT-1920+, CH-1888+, FR-1920+, GB-1920+, JP-1976+
Patents and Applications are in one site. Link to full text of patent.
Website is available in English and German
You can download the full text images as PDF files - page by page - but they are free

SurfIP
US-1790+, WO-97+, EP-97+, CH, CA, Taiwan and Singapore Patents and JP patent abstracts.
Registration is required
You may also combine the search with Internet Search Engines such as Google or Northern Light and Business Databases like Hoovers.
You can download full text images as PDF files - page by page only - but they are free.

International Patent Offices

Patent Information Users Group (PIUG)

US Patent and Trademark Office

PATENT DEPOSITORY LIBRARIES

• Los Angeles Public Library



• Patents and Trademarks at LAPL (Los Angeles Public Library)

PATENTS -- GUIDES

• What Every Chemist Should Know about Patents (3rd ed. 2002)
(pdf)
• What Every Chemist Should Know About Patents (2006 Supplement)
(pdf)

PATENTS -- TUTORIALS

"The University of Texas Engineering Library has produced two excellent online tutorials that can show you some of the steps you will go through in performing a patent or trademark search at any Patent and Trademark Depository Library. Some parts of the search are different at the Los Angeles Public Library, but those are very minor."--LAPL quote