• Intellectual Property Search
  • United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
  • Delphion.com
  • SurfIP.gov.sg
  • Patent Law Links
  • U.S. Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS)
  • Marks Online
  • U.S. Copyright Office

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY SEARCH

Sometimes you come across a prospect who supposedly has patented the ultimate widget. Does the prospect or the employer hold the patent and therefore get the profits? Or do you need to see who holds a trademark or copyright? Where do you go? Here are some helpful search sites.

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE (USPTO)

USPTO offers a full-text search of all U.S. patents issued since 1976. Additionally, search all patent applications filed since March 15, 2001. The simple search allows two terms which you can limit to specific data fields. "And," "and not" and "or" are the boolean operators allowed. There's also an advanced boolean search.

http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html

USPTO also offers a list of patent depository libraries by state, in case you need hard copy.

http://www.uspto.gov/go/ptdl/ptdlib_1.html

For more information about using the USPTO site, see the Internet Prospector of  June 1999 at:

http://www.internet-prospector.org/spec0799.htm

DELPHION.COM

Formerly IBM Patent Search (reviewed in June 1999), Delphion.com offers a nice boolean query of U.S. and European patent databases and the English abstracts of Japanese patents. Simple and advanced full-text searches are also offered.

http://www.delphion.com/boolquery

SURFIP.GOV.SG

Here's a pretty cool site from the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore. The simple search allows you to search the intellectual property databases of the U.S., Canada, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, China, Europe, United Kingdom, Taipei, Korea and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in combination or singly. Combine your patent search with searches of business news and the Web!  The advanced search doesn't include the business news and Web search, but allows you to focus your search on an individual's name, assignee or other qualifiers. Registration is optional.

http://www.SurfIP.gov.sg/

PATENT LAW LINKS

This site offers links to Worldwide Patent offices, some with searchable databases.

http://www.patentlawlinks.com/patoff.htm

U.S. TRADEMARK ELECTRONIC SEARCH SYSTEM (TESS)

Search for U.S. trademarks, old and new, using TESS. According to the site, "TESS contains more than 3 million pending, registered and dead federal trademarks." Just click on the hot link -- the only thing on the page -- to get to the search page.

http://tess.uspto.gov/

MARKS ONLINE

This site also offers a trademark search facility:

http://www.marksonline.com/app/tmsearch

as well as a list of international trademark offices, some of which offer searchable databases:

http://www.marksonline.com/locator/ip_intl_office.html

U.S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE

The U.S. Copyright Office offers a searchable database. They apologize for the inconvenience of this non-Windows, function key-driven antiquity and are working on a state-of- the-art system, though no delivery date is given. I highly recommend reading the instructions before attempting a connection and search.

http://www.loc.gov/copyright/rb.html

Chris Mildner