United States Patent and Trademark Office, homepage (http://www.uspto.gov) links to all of the USPTO sites and search engines. Since it can often be rather difficult to navigate, some of the sites more useful to novice searchers are linked below.

General Information about Patents (http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/doc/general/index.html) is a table of contents to the information that the USPTO site provides about patenting.

Patent and Trademark Depository Library Program homepage (http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/ptdl/index.html) provides useful links within this site include List of PTDLs (http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/ptdl/ptdllibm.htm), Basic Materials Available (http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/ptdl/ptdlserv.htm), and Frequently Asked Questions About Patents (http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/doc/general/faq).

USPTO's list of related sites (http://www.uspto.gov/web/menu/other.html). Most useful in this page is the list of the intellectual property offices of foreign countries. Since U.S. patents only protect intellectual property in the United States and its territories, this is a useful site for inventors interested in patenting in different countries.

USPTO Web Patent Databases (http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html) provide the user with two databases to search. The bibliographic database contains a complete listing of citations and abstracts from patents issued between January 1, 1976, and the present. The full text database is still incomplete; however, when it is completed it will span the same time period. Both databases are searchable by Boolean expression (simple search), manual field search (advanced search), and patent number search.

PTO bulletin (http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ahrpa/opa/bulletin/index.html) is a periodic update of happenings connected with the USPTO.

List of Patent Attorneys and Agents Licensed to Practice Before the PTO (http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/dcom/olia/oed/roster/region/). This source provides a geographic listing of patent attorneys and agents registered with and approved by the USPTO.

USPTO Forms (http://www.uspto.gov/web/forms/). Current forms for patent and trademark applications, reissues, etc., available from the USPTO.

IBM Intellectual Property Network (http://www.patents.ibm.com/). This site provides full text of patents issued between 1974 and the present. Although the time coverage is more extensive than the USPTO site, the quality of the images and the text leave much to be desired. Search capabilities include Boolean searches, text searches, and searches by patent number.

Franklin Pierce Law Center U.S. Patent, Trademark & Copyright Information (http://www.fplc.edu/tfield/ipbasics.htm) provides information useful for general patent searchers as well as providing trademark and copyright information. Run by a law school, it is particularly useful in providing information to those interested in becoming patent attorneys.

Chemical Patents Plus (http://casweb.cas.org/chempatplus/). This source, maintained by the American Chemical Society, provides access to full-text patent information from 1975 to the present. It is updated weekly, and the texts of the patents listed in the Official Gazette on Tuesday are available by Thursday. Although the site requires a CAS user ID and password, registration, searching, and retrieval of patent titles and abstracts is free. There is a charge to display the text of the patents. There is enhanced coverage of the chemical patent literature.

Patent, Trademark, Copyright and Intellectial Property (http://fedlaw.gsa.gov/legal23.htm). This site provides links to various laws and regulations surrounding intellectual property, as well as listing various links to related sites.

DOE Patent Databases (http://apollo.osti.gov/waisgate/gchome2.html) list bibliographic information on patents issued to the Department of Energy beginning in 1978 to the present.

Web Patent Searching Tutorial (http://scilib.ucsd.edu/electclass/patsearch/index.html) from the University of California San Diego. This provides additional assistance in performing basic patent searches, including a valuable comparison chart between the IBM and USPTO search sites.

Electronic versions of some basic print sources (http://magni.grainger.uiuc.edu/patents/whery.html). For explanation of the functions of many of these sources, please refer to these patent searching techniques.

Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (http://patents.ame.nd.edu/mpep). The foreword to the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure explains its purpose in the following words: “This Manual is published to provide Patent and Trademark Office patent examiners, applicants, attorneys, agents, and representatives of applicants with a reference work on the practices and procedures relative to the prosecution of patent applications before the Patent and Trademark Office. It contains instructions to examiners, as well as other material in the nature of information and interpretation, and outlines the current procedures which the examiners are required or authorized to follow in appropriate cases in the normal examination of a patent application” (http://patents.ame.nd.edu/mpep/00/Foreword.html).

Index to the Manual of Classification (http://metalab.unc.edu/patents/index.html), run through the University of North Carolina.

Classification Definitions (http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/clasdefs/).