Patents and Trademarks

Contact

John J Meier
Title: Science Librarian

Physical and Mathematical Sciences Library
201 Davey Lab
University Park, PA 16802
814-867-1448
or
Your Campus Librarian

Search for Patents

U.S. Patent & Trademark Office - Full-Text Patent Database
A searchable database of full text data and images from all U.S. patents issued since 1976. The USPTO website also offers tools to access patents from 1790 to present such as: Index to the U.S. Patent Classification System, Manual of Classification, Classification Definitions Class/subclass listings of patents, Access to patent images
esp@cenet - European Patent Office Database
More than 30.5 million documents including the most recent 24 months of publications from the European Patent Office, recent 24 months of PCT-publications from World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the EPODOC database for "worldwide documents" where coverage varies by country (with US Patents from 1836 to present), or Japanese Documents - PAJ (Patent Abstracts of Japan) bibliographic database since 1976.
Japan Patent Office
In addition to patent searching (Patent Abstracts of Japan), the Japanese patent office now offers trademark searching, although the only English searching capability is to search "well-known" Japanese marks.
Google Patent Search
Full text searching of patents since 1836 with some errors from digitization. Use the Advanced Search to look by select patent data or dates.

Finding Chemical Patents

Scifinder Scholar (client software available for PSU users)
Online version of Chemical Abstracts, Registry File, ChemCats, CASReacts, and Medline. Client software available to PSU users at this URL. Also available to PSU users on LIAS workstation in Physical and Mathematical Sciences Library and Earth and Mineral Sciences Library. (1907-present for Chemical Abstracts)

Books on Patent Searching

Patent Searching Made Easy
A guide to patent searching on the internet and in the library (2000).
Patent searching tools & techniques
A practical guide to the art and science of this task, along with essential information on patent law, patent search theory, and practice.

Search for Trademarks

Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS)
Provides for on-line searching of existing trademark application and registration information. TESS provides public access to the same text and image database of trademarks as is currently provided to examining attorneys at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Patent Websites

United States Patent and Trademark Office
The comprehensive site from the United States Department of Commerce that offers an overview of this agency as well as information about nearly anything the inventor would like to know about patent and trademark policies and procedures.
Patent Search Tutorial
Developed by Penn State Librarians, this tutorial will help you to understand the process and procedure in searching for patents.
The Trilateral Co-operation
Established in 1983 between the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
Penn State Intellectual Property Office
The Intellectual Property Office is responsible for managing, protecting, and licensing the intellectual property of faculty, graduate students, and staff at all Penn State locations.

Patent and Trademark Resource Center

Penn State University Libraries maintain a Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC) in the Physical and Mathematical Sciences (PAMS) Library. As an official depository of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), we have a formal agreement to provide assistance to the public in the use of patent and trademark resources provided by the PTO. Librarians and library staff are familiar with search resources and can show you how to use computerized databases, collections, and other resources for searching.