From the United States Patent and Trademark Office

•Provisional Patent Application - www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/provapp.htm
•Registered Patent Practitioners - http://des.uspto.gov/OEDCI/GeoRegion.jsp
•Patent Information - http://www.uspto.gov/main/patents.htm
•Depository Libraries – www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/ptdl/index.html
•Independent Inventor Program - www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/iip/index.htm
•General Information - www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/doc/general/
•Web Patent Database - http://patents.uspto.gov/

Copyright and Trademark Information

•From the US Patent and Trademark Office - www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm
•For Trademark information - www.inventored.org/trademark/
•For Copyright information - http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/
•Franklin Pierce Law Center, US Patent, Trademark and Copyright Information - www.fplc.edu/tfield/ipbasics.htm

Invention Evaluation

•UIA Innovation Assessment Program - http://www.uiausa.org/Default.aspx?page=129
•US Dep’t of Energy’s Inventions & Innovations Program - http://www1.eere.energy.gov/inventions/
•Washington Innovation Assessment Center - http://www.business.wsu.edu/iac
•Wisconsin Innovation Services Center - http://academics.uww.edu/business/innovate/default.htm

Patent Related Information

•United States Patent and Trademark Office - http://www.uspto.gov
•Patent & Trademark Depository Libraries - http://www.uspto.gov/go/ptdl
•National Patent Association - http://www.nationalpatent.com
•National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts - http://www.nesta.org.uk/withflash.html
•Franklin Pierce Law Center, US Patent, Trademark and Copyright Information - www.fplc.edu/tfield/ipbasics.htm

Funding Sources

•Energy TechNet - http://www.energytechnet.com
•National Science Foundation - http://www.nsf.gov
•FinanceNet - http://www.financenet.gov
•SBA Procurements and Grants Hot List - http://www.sbaonline.sba.gov/hotlist/procure.html
•Small Business Innovation Research Program - http://www.sba.gov/SBIR
•National Institutes of Health Grants & Funding Opportunities - http://grants.nih.gov/grants/index.cfm

Help for Inventors

•Center for Design & Business - www.centerdesignbusiness.org
•R.R. Enterprises, Inc. - http://www.rjriley.com
•InventNET: The Inventors Network - http://www.inventnet.com
•Energy TechNet - http://www.energytechnet.com

Marketing and Licensing

•Small Business Administration - http://www.sbaonline.sba.gov/starting/businessplan.html
•Licensing Executives Society - www.usa-canada.les.org
•Ed Zimmer’s Entrepreneur Network - http://tenonline.org/index.html
•Licensing Consultants and Brokers Directory - http://www.usa-canada.les.org/consultants/directory.asp

Legal

•Cornell Law School - http://www.law.cornell.edu
•Franklin Pierce Law Center - http://www.fplc.edu

Manufacturing

•ThomasNet - www.thomasregister.com

If you haven’t heard of the google patent search tool, then hop aboard the google train.

Like many of google’s products such as search, photo sharing, and advertising, they make patent searches a cinch. Also, the search function is faster and quicker to use than the US Patent & Trademark Office patent search utility. You can easily view drawings with google whereas the USPTO site makes it more challenging. With google you can even download patents as a PDF to save the most relevant ones.

Notwithstanding all the pro’s of using the google patent search, there is one major drawback that has been voices by none other than patent office Commissioner John Doll. His concern with the google utility was that it did pull up the same results consistently, which is important when you are trying to make sure you conduct a thorough search. If the search for the same word turn up different results, how sure can you be that you’re not missing anything?

If nothing else, the google patent search tool is a great way to get started doing your own patent searches, although it might be recommended you use it in combination with the USPTO tool. Happy searching!