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General Information about Patents
The most comprehensive source for U.S. patent and trademark information is the website of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
What is a Patent?
A patent is a grant of property right by the government to an inventor preventing others from making, using, or selling an invention for a period of 20 years from application date.
Most useful pages:
- General Information Concerning Patents
- How to Apply for a Utility Patent
- Current fee schedules
- Attorneys registered to practice before the U.S. PTO
- Forms
- Inventor Resources
How to Search for Patents by Subject
Conducting a Patent Search at a Patent and Trademark Depository Library - The Seven-Step Strategy
Find out what the class numbers mean: Patent Classification homepage
Need help with your patent searching? Questions?
See our Patent Services.
Patent Databases on the Internet
- Keyword searching of all US patents from 1790 to the present
- See full patent image with search terms highlighted
- Read more about it
USPTO Patent Full Text Database
- Search full text of US patents from 1976 to the present
- Retrieve patent images 1790-present using Patent Number Search or Classification number search
- Search US Patent Applications from same page (use the yellow box)
- Patent images are in TIF format
- Worldwide patent database with over 60 million patent documents from 81 countries
- Patent documents in the language of the issuing country, but at least 5 million have a searchable English abstract
- Includes US patents and applications searchable by keyword in title and abstract
- Patent images are in PDF
- Access to all US patents and patent applications and partial European data
- Free PDF downloading
- Free account features
Viewing and Printing Patent Images
If you already have a patent number:
- Pat2pdf.org -
Creates PDF files of US patents and
applications
- USAPat DVD collection – free printing of
complete patent – use designated patent
workstation on 3rd floor
- Esp@cenet - Use the "Save full document" feature to create a PDF of the entire patent.
Selected Foreign Patent Databases
Canadian Intellectual Property Office-Canadian Patents
Database
Japanese Patent Office-Industrial
Property Digital Library
The UK
Intellectual Property Office
Inventor Resources
USPTO
Inventor Resources
Inventor’s
Digest Online
National Inventor
Fraud Center
Lemelson-MIT
Program celebrating invention and innovation
Wisconsin
Innovation Service Center
Wisconsin
Small Business Association
Wisconsin Entrepreneurs' Network
UW Madison Small Business Development Center Start Up programs
Patenting Resources for UW Researchers and Students
Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation
- Serves the University of Wisconsin-Madison scientific community
- Patents the discoveries of UW-Madison researchers
- Licenses technologies to leading companies in Wisconsin, the United States and worldwide
UW Office of Corporate Relations
- Connects the resources of the university with the business community
Wisconsin Business Resource Database