Patents and Trademarks

IBM Patent Web Server
This IBM-sponsored site provides access to over 26 years of U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) patent descriptions as well as the last seventeen years of images. The first entries date back to January 5, 1971. You can search, retrieve and study over two million patents.

MicroPatent
MicroPatent offers free access to full text (ASCII format) of the current two weeks of U.S. patents, which are keyword searchable. Also available are free class searching covering about one month's issues. The image full-text of U.S. patents is available online and can be downloaded. A special free patent image viewer is required to decompress and display the downloaded file. MicroPatent also offers U.S. trademark searching at various subscription levels, including a daily rate. This site is highly recommended to those needing intellectual property information.

U. S. Patent and Trademark Office
The USPTO offers patent searching, covering the period 1976 to the present. Searchable fields include front page information only, not full text. Citing as well as cited patents are available through this site. Patents may be ordered and are delivered by mail or fax. Also available are many of the USPTO brochures and publications on patents and trademarks.