Patent Resources

The following resources are provided to assist inventors in learning about the patent system and to provide tools to help begin the patent process:

The homepage of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO):
www.uspto.gov

Public PAIR (Patent Application Information) is a resource to find information about any published patent application or issued patent:
http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal/pair

General information about the patent process: http://www.uspto.gov/patents/resources/general_info_concerning_patents.jsp

Patent searches can be conducted at the USPTO or using Google Patents:
http://patft.uspto.gov/
http://www.google.com/patents

Procedures used by USPTO Examiners to examine patent applications:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/index.htm

Find out what is new at the USPTO:
http://www.uspto.gov/news/index.jsp

The Official Gazette of Patents published by the USPTO:
http://www.uspto.gov/news/og/patent_og/index.jsp

The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act passed in September 2011:
http://www.uspto.gov/aia_implementation/bills-112hr1249enr.pdf