Welcome
Information on U.S. and international patents and trademarks is featured here. For copyright information look to the Library of Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office.
Quick Patent Searches
- Google PatentsUse Google's interface to search granted patents and published patent applications from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) back to 1790 and the European Patent Office (EPO) back to 1978.
- Patent LensAn easy search interface for both U.S. and international patent documents
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About Patents
The United States Patent and Trademark Office issues patents to protect an inventor's exclusive right to profit from his or her own ideas. For a fixed, non renewable period of time, the inventor can exclude all others from making, using, or selling the invention without authorization. To receive a patent, an invention must be new and useful or significantly different from previous inventions of its type. The government currently issues three types of patents: utility, design, and plant patents. To learn more, see these pages from USPTO:
- Process for Obtaining a Utility Patent
- Basic Facts about Patents
- Types of Patent Applications
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Patent StatisticsAccess to trends such as yearly number of patents by organization or industry or by geographic region. For an example of the information available see metropolitan Richmond, VA patents by organization, 2006-2010, http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/cbsa_asg/140060_asg.htm
U.S. Patent Searches
- Patent Searching TutorialThis explanation on Patent Searching at the USPTO comes from the McKinney Engineering Library at the University of Texas at Austin.
- Seven Step Strategy
- USPTO SearchSearch the full text of patents issued from 1976 on. Search title, description, and classifications for older patents.
- Patent ClassificationIdentify the formal terms that describe patents. Use these classification terms in a formal search. Look for the overview of the classification system and the index of classification terms. Please note even if you end up using the Quick Search, some work with the classification system will be extremely helpful for identifying the best search terms.
- Patent to PDFGiven the patent number, get the document in pdf.
- Process for Obtaining a Utility Patent
International IP
- World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
- European Patent Office
- Japan Patent Office
- Korean Intellectual Property Office
- Five IP OfficesEuropean Patent Office, Japan Patent Office, Korean Intellectual Property Office,
State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China, and
United States Patent and Trademark Office - Directory of Intellectual Property OfficesFrom the WIPO links to intellectual property offices around the world.
Trademarks
A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others. A service mark is the same as a trademark, except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. To learn more, see these publications:
- TESS (Trademark Electronic Search System)TESS is a searchable database of more than 4 million pending, registered and dead federal trademarks.
- Trademarks (from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office)Includes: trademark basics, search tools, online filing, fee schedule, assignments, and more.
Consultation Services
Need assistance with your search? Organizations affiliated with the USPTO are available to contact.
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