Patents
Use the drop-down links in the "Patent" tab above to find more information about patents.
Caveat: At U of M, we can't do the search for you. No exceptions. We are happy to help people get started, but for legal reasons, patent and trademark searches must be done by the people who will use the results. We have plenty of expertise in using the searching systems. We even know a bit about the law. But none of us are trained intellectual property lawyers, so none of us can give legal advice (which is what doing such a search for somebody is).
Searching for Patents
Please note: We are here to help, but we cannot search for you. If you intend to make, use, or sell an invention of yours, you should find out whether someone else has created something like it already. You have a number of options when it comes to searching for patents. The US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) has in recent years made many resources available over the World Wide Web. Below are some of the resources available. For a complete listing of USPTO web resources and their limitations, please see the USPTO website. To view images of patents, you will need what is called a plug-in that works with your web browser. For more info, see USPTO's plug-in information. The database can be searched on the web, with the following important restrictions:
| Patents issued since January 1, 1976 - present | All fields searchable |
| Images of patents issued 1790 - 1975 | Searchable by current class number and patent number only. |
Once you've identified a patent that you'd like to look at, the easiest way to view the patent is to use Patent Fetcher or another patent printing resource. Just enter patent number, and these sites can generate a PDF file that you can download. General Patent Searching - Resources Other Ways to Search for Patents The material that existed before resources were made available on the World Wide Web still exists in many places. If a Patent and Trademark Depository Library is nearby (e.g., the University of Michigan's Art, Architecture & Engineering Library), you can search using the Index of Patents series of books. These work particularly well when you know the patentee's name (usually patentee=inventor) and roughly when the patent got issued. They are also important for finding information about older (pre-1970) patents. If you want to search using other criteria, such as words you would expect to see in the title or abstract of your patent, you can search using the USPTO World Wide Web resources, or the other resources listed above. Online Tutorials and Guides Caveat: At U of M, we can't do the search for you. No exceptions. We are happy to help people get started, but for legal reasons, patent and trademark searches must be done by the people who will use the results. We have plenty of expertise in using the searching systems. We even know a bit about the law. But none of us are trained intellectual property lawyers, so none of us can give legal advice (which is what doing such a search for somebody is).
Unless otherwise noted, websites are accessible from any computer, on or off-site.
Subject Guide |
Leena Lalwani2392 Duderstadt Center
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Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2094
734-936-2332
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Subjects:
Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, Pharmaceutical Engineering, Patents and Trademarks, Standards
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