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The Internet is the largest storehouse of
information ever created in the history of the world. Of course, finding the
information that interests you
is the hard part. It can be difficult to determine whether the
data you want does not exists, or whether you are not looking in
the right place. Unfortunately,
some of the most desired information (such as full-text patents and trademark
registration information) is not yet freely available on the Internet.
The following listing of Internet searching capabilities is designed
to help find information relevant to intellectual property and the legal
regimes affecting the Internet and computer industries. Where free services
are
not available, the list includes search-for-fee services.
You may wish to skip directly to one of the
following subheadings:
     
- U.S. Full Text
- AIDS Patents Databases
- The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, in connection with CINDR and others,
provides a free, full-text searchable database of U.S. patents
related to AIDS treatments.
- Shadow Patent Office
- The SPO database allows full-text searching of issued U.S. patents.
Free searching is allowed for U.S. patents issued since 1993. The results
of the search include the details of patent issuance and the title of the
patent. To search for patents issued prior to 1993, or to obtain the
patent abstracts, a fee is charged. Fees range from approximately $50
to $175 USD for a detailed subject search. It is also possible to request
the full text of a patent through this service.
- QPAT-US-$
- QPAT-US is a full-text database of all U.S. patents issued since 1974
provided by Questel/Orbit. The database is only available for paying
subscribers. Subscription fees are approximately $195 per month or $1995
per year.
- Dialog-$
- Dialog is a comprehensive database collection that contains the most
widely used electronic databases for patent, trademark, and technical information.
You must subscribe to Dialog in order to use the services, and each database
incurs a usage charge. Dialog is accessible through Telnet.
- Optipat's OptiSearch system
- The OptiSearch system is an dial-in full-text database of U.S. patents.
Optipat charges $48 per hour for access to the database.
- U.S. Abstracts
- Patent Searching from IBM
- Another site providing free searching of U.S. patent bibliographic data.
The site contains data on all patents since 1974, and many patents back to 1971.
The patent data available on the site includes all bibliographic information, all patent
claims, and patent images since 1987.
Although full text patents are not available, IBM has made it easy to order
patents on-line through Optipat.
- U.S.P.T.O.
- The Patent and Trademark Office of the United States has created the
US Patent Bibliographic Database. This site allows searching
of bibliographic data on all patents since 1976, including the inventor's name,
the patent's title, the assignee's
name, as well as the abstract. Full text patents are not available.
- Chemical Patents Plus: From CAS
- The full-text of U.S. Chemical patents from 1974 to the present
(with partial coverage from 1971) is available from Chemical Abstracts Service,
a division of the American Chemical Society. The searching and viewing of
patents is without charge, although you will need to register at no cost.
Receiving the full-text of patents and viewing other patent information (such
as the patent number) does incur a charge.
- STO's Internet
Patent Search System
- A searching web site which allows users to retrieve patent titles using
the patent class/subclass codes, and to retrieve patent abstracts using a
particular patent number. The service also provides hypertext versions
of the Manual of Classification and the Index to Classification which assist
in determining the correct patent class and subclass.
- U.S. Patent Citation
Database-$
- This site allows you to search all bibliographic data associated with
issued U.S. patents since 1975. In addition, the database contains
information on the patents that cite to and are cited by a particular
patent. The database is available only to subscribers. Yearly
subscriptions cost between $500 and $3,000 USD.
- Obtaining Copies of U.S. Patents
- Optipat-$
- Optipat is a commercial patent copy provider which can provide copies of U.S. patents
via facsimile, mail, courier, or e-mail.
- Patent Searching from IBM
- Another site providing free searching of U.S. patent bibliographic data.
Although full text patents are not available, IBM has made it easy to order
patents on-line through Optipat.
- MicroPatent's PatentWEB-$
- The PatentWEB site allows a user to search U.S. patents by classification
and to order recent U.S., European and PCT patents by patent number for delivery.
Delivery can be by e-mail (no drawings) for $1.50, download for $3.00, fax for $5.00
plus a per page charge, or mail for $5 plus a per page charge.
Registration is free, but you must wait for a confirmation e-mail.
- Directly
from the USPTO-$
- Although you cannot yet order patents from the USPTO directly through
the Internet, this page will tell you how to contact the USPTO to order
patents via phone or facsimile. In addition, e-mail ordering is now available.
- Through a local
library
- This page explains the Patent and Trademark Depository Library Program of the
USPTO. Through this program, local libraries are given complete
sets of all issued U.S. patents. In addition, the libraries have CD ROM
systems containing recent patents and trademark registrations in a searchable
computer database. Use of the CD ROM systems is free.
- Agricultural
Biotechnology Patents from the U.S. Department of Agriculture
- This web site contains the full-text of recent agricultural biotechnology
patents from 1994 to the present, and various other useful links for
biotechnology researchers.
- European Patents
- EPO's European
Patent Register-$
- The European Patent Register is an English language on-line database
provided by the European Patent Office, which contains information
on the legal status of all published European applications. The
Register includes such information as the expected grant date, cited
documents, oral proceedings, oppositions, appeals, licenses, and
bibliographic data
regarding the application. There are no charges for subscriptions
to the Register. However, a DM 2.50 per transaction fee
(that is, per application or publication number retrieved in a search)
is charged. A one-month free trial is available.
- Dialog-$
- Dialog is a comprehensive database collection which contains the most
widely electronic databases for patent, trademarks and technical information.You
must subscribe to Dialog in order to use the services, and each database
incurs a usage charge. Dialog is accessible through Telnet.
- Federal and State (U.S.) Registrations
- Dialog-$
- Dialog is a comprehensive database collection which contains the most
widely electronic databases for patent, trademarks and technical information.
Trademarkscan is available directly through Dialog. You
must subscribe to Dialog in order to use the services, and each database
incurs a usage charge. Dialog is accessible through Telnet.
- MicroPatent's TrademarkWEB
- The TrademarkWEB site allows a user to search registered U.S. trademarks through
a sophisticated searching engine. The cost is very reasonable, at $5 per day,
$100 per month, and $995 per year. However, state registrations and common law
trademark usage is not available, so MicroPatent's TrademarkWEB should not
be used as a sole source for a trademark availability search. Nevertheless,
this web based searching engine is a great place to start when investigating
a possible new trademark.
- Through a local
library
- This page explains the Patent and Trademark Depository Library Program
of the USPTO. Through this program, local libraries are given CD ROM
systems containing recent patents and trademark registrations in a searchable
computer database. Use of the CD ROM systems is free.
- Common Law (usage) Trademark Searching (see also
Internet Searching Engines)
- BigBook
- This searching site not only contains a comprehensive business listing,
but also has a versatile mapping feature that shows a street map of where
the business is located. Because the system allows the direct entry of addresses,
you may also see a map to an individual's house address.
- BigYellow
- A national (U.S.) yellow pages directory with over 16 million business listed.
- WhoWhere?
- A searching site that searches for e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and businesses.
- Switchboard
- A home and business searching directory of phone numbers and addresses.
- Lookup USA
- A service which searches through home and business phone and address records.
- Hypertext Dictionary/Thesaurus
- A web based dictionary that allows trademark owners to examine the definition of their
marks to determine whether the mark might be merely descriptive.
- U.S. Copyright Registrations
-
Library of Congress Information System (LOCIS)-through telnet
- Although this service can be difficult to use, it is a free
database of recent U.S. copyright registrations.
- Dialog-$
- Dialog is a comprehensive database collection which contains the most
widely electronic databases for patent, trademarks and technical information.You
must subscribe to Dialog in order to use the services, and each database
incurs a usage charge. Dialog is accessible through Telnet.
- Thomson & Thomson-$
- Thomson & Thomson is the largest and one of the most highly respected
trademark searching service in the world. Thomson & Thomson provide not
only searching services, but are also the providers of Trademarkscan, a pay per search
trademark database available on Dialog and Westlaw. The standard full search fee is
$355 USD.
- CORSEARCH-$
- The second largest trademark searching firm in the U.S., CORSEARCH provides
comprehensive trademark searches at a rate slightly lower than Thomson &
Thomson. Their rates for a full trademark search (including state registration and
common law searches) ranges from $340 USD for a 3-4 day search to $675 USD for a
Super-Rush search.
- TM Center-$
- A slightly cheaper searching service, the TM Center provides a range of trademark
services, from an exact match search to a full common law search, and even
federal trademark filings by a trademark attorney.
- tmWEB-$
- Formerly a free searching service, tmWEB now provides a $25 trademark
search that can be ordered over the Internet. A search that includes some
common law searching costs $100, while a search with a trademark availability
opinion costs $150. It appears as if their searching techniques are not as broad
as those used by Thomson & Thomson, and hence may not discover as many
potential problem trademarks. For instance, tmWEB will not search for state registered
trademarks. However, they are significantly cheaper than Thomson & Thomson.
- Seek Information Service-$
- Another trademark searching services, Seek Information Service provides
trademark searches at a cheaper rate than Thomson and Thomson. However,
their web site does not explain the common law databases used in their
trademark searches.
- PATSCAN-$
- PATSCAN is a patent and trademark searching service operated out of the
University of British Columbia. Trademark search requests can include
coverage in Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and most of Europe. Searches
can be made on a rush basis. You may also simply request patent copies of
recent patents. Requests must be made by facsimile or by phone--no facility
is made for requesting searches over the web.
- Mark Watch-$
- Mark Watch is a trademark monitoring service specializing in monitoring
the Internet for misuses of a trademark.
- Software Patent Institute
- The Software Patent Institute database features one of the most comprehensive
collections of software documentation available. The database is invaluable
for doing technical searches in the software field. The database is
now free.
- IBM InfoMarket-$
- InfoMarket is a new service by IBM which allows pay-per-view to a rich assortment
of information, including technical information. In order to access the content
downloaded from InfoMarket, a helper application is required to decrypt the files.
At the present time, the helper application only runs on Windows platforms.
- FindLaw: Internet Legal Resources
- The FindLaw resource sets itself apart from other legal databases
by allowing you to search numerous on-line legal journals,
as well as numerous other legal sources, through its index of online law review articles.
FindLaw is also responsible for the
LawCrawler, an index of
(almost) all legal sites on the World Wide Web.
- Legal MetaIndex
- An index of legal indexes maintained by Georgia State University College
of Law.
- Four11
- An e-mail and phone directory of individuals.
- BigBook
- This searching site not only contains a comprehensive business listing,
but also has a high tech mapping feature which shows you on a street map where
the business is located. Because the system allows the direct entry of addresses,
you may also see a map to an individual house address.
- Big Foot
- An global e-mail searching service.
- OKRA
- Another global e-mail searching service, provided by University of
California, Riverside.
- WhoWhere?
- A searching site that searches for e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and businesses.
- Switchboard
- A home and business searching directory of phone numbers and addresses.
- Lookup USA
- A services which searches through home and business phone and address records.
- Alta Vista
- A general World Wide Web searching engine developed by Digital Equipment Corporation.
Also includes the ability to search Usenet newsgroups. The database is generated by
an automatic web crawler.
- Excite
- Another general World Wide Web searching engine, Excite is also generated through
an automatic web crawler. Like Alta Vista, Excite allows searching of Usenet newsgroups.
The Excite web site also includes some Web page reviews.
- HotBot
- A third WWW searching engine, by Wired Magazine
-
Infoseek Guide
- Another general World Wide Web searching engine, Infoseek is not considered as
comprehensive as some of the other pages in terms of the number of pages which have
been indexed. However, Infoseek does provide very sophisticated searching algorithms,
and their Web page summaries are usually superior to those provided by other services.
- Lycos
- A very comprehensive general WWW searching engine. Lycos also provides the a2z digesting
service and the Point WWW rating service.
- Magellan
- Another general WWW searching engine that also provides reviews of web pages. The reviewed
pages are accessible via searching or through a hierarchical menu structure.
- Open Text
- Still another general WWW searching engine.
- WebCrawler
- This general WWW searching engine is operated by Global Network Navigator (GNN), and
includes access to GNN's web site reviews.
- WebFinder
- A searching tool by InterNIC that is designed to find the web server of particular
organizations.
- Yahoo!
- Yahoo! provides a hierarchical, subject-oriented guide to the World Wide Web. This site
can be a useful place to start, but it is often necessary to visit a more comprehensive
Web searching engine if a search fails on Yahoo!.
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