Physics: Patents

A useful patent guide from Princeton University.

This tutorial will help you to understand the process and procedure in searching for patents.

Short guide from the University of Minnesota on the basics of patents.

A tutorial from the University of Minnesota on patent searching.

A useful guide about patents from MIT.

The Government Documents Department of the Birmingham Public Library is a designated Patent and Trademark Resource Center. Trained staff members are available to assist you with your patent or trademark search, Monday-Friday from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. Call 226-3620 for more information.

Search Canadian industrial designs from 1861 to the present.

This database lets you access 149 years of patent descriptions and images. You can search, retrieve and study more than 2,320,000 patent documents.

This database serves as a resource for policy makers and members of the general public interested in fields like genomics, genetics and biotechnology. The DNA Patent Database (DPD) contains a collection of DNA-based patents and patent applications issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and makes the full-text of such patents and applications available to users at no cost.

With its worldwide coverage and simple search features, Espacenet offers free access to information about inventions and technical developments from 1836 to today.

Includes international patent searching with varying years of coverage depending on the country

Requires registration to access PDFs of patents. Allows for RSS feeds and PDF and XML data downloads.

Google has a search feature specifically for patent information.

Provides side-by-side comparison of up to 20 free and commercial patent search databases with a required free registration.

Free patent printing site (U.S. only)

The Lens serves nearly all of the patent documents in the world as open, annotatable digital public goods that are integrated with scholarly and technical literature along with regulatory and business data

The U.S. Federal Agency that grants U.S. patents and registers trademarks.

Patent statistical reports based on organization, geographical location, technology, and inventor.

Under PatentScope, contains 1 million world patents and patent applications; will have a WO prefix. When viewing patent, click on "Document" to download in PDF, ZIP, or XML.