Last revised: July 2009

Patent and Trademark Information

Scope

The U.S. Government grants a patent to an inventor "to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States."

A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, which identifies the source of goods or services of one party from those of another.

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Library (EPSL) at the University of Maryland is a designated U.S. Patent and Trademark Depository Library (PTDL). This is a selective guide to available library resources on patents and trademarks.

For patent and trademark assistance, visit or contact the library during Information Desk Hours. For an in depth consultation, contact Jim Miller at jmiller2(@umd.edu), or call (301)-405-9152, or Bob Kackley at rkackley(@umd.edu), or call (301)-405-9155, to set up an appointment.

Obtaining Copies of Patents and Trademarks

Patent copies and delivery times may be cheaper and faster from the U.S. Patent office. Compare ILL policies and prices with prices and delivery options at the USPTO.

Printing and Photocopying at UM Libraries
ALL U.S. patents, and 20+ million others, are available in full-text pdf on the Web.

Faster Printing and Download

• Free Patents Online
• Patent Retriever
• http://www.pat2pdf.org/

Getting Started

You may want to start with a brief overview of what patents are, how they are used, and the basics of searching. The World Intellectual Property Organization provides a helpful guide (PDF) that includes an introduction to searching patents.

Many resources are available for searching patents and trademarks. The following databases are recommended for their coverage and search capabilities. For additional places to search, try Internet Resources.

• Full text of U.S. Patents 1976-Present
• Search by patent number and current US classifications 1790-Present
• Full text images from 1790-Present are available using a free TIFF plug-in
• The Advanced search page explains index fields (title, current class, inventor, cited references, etc.) at the bottom of the page
• Many records cite earlier technology: US patent numbers, foreign patent numbers, articles, books, technical reports, and even company catalogs
• Please note: the rapidly growing Patent Applications database (2001-present) is a separate file

• Search titles and some abstracts of over 50 million patents from 71 countries
• Display and print full text of US utility patents 1836-Present
• Use the Advanced Search to search US titles, inventors and assignees (applicants) from 1920-Present
• Search by patent number and European Classification (ECLA) or International Patent Classification (IPC) for older patents
• Use the Classification Search for detailed help with ECLA searching
• If you have a patent number, use the Number Search and type the patent number in the Publication Number box in the format us25151 with no leading zeros

• Provides access to more than 4 million pending, registered and dead federal trademarks
• This is the same file the trademark examiners use and it allows very complex searches
• You can display logos (images) and search for them using design search codes

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University of Maryland Collections

UM onsite collections consist of mainly backup archives. Except for PubWEST, most have corresponding sources available free on the web (See Internet Resources).

EPSL Onsite Resources

• PubWEST
• Please call ahead: Librarian login required
• Faster than the USPTO free web database
• Offers more features and search capabilities than the USPTO free web database
• Includes international patents


• USAPat
• DVD-ROM (not a searchable database)
• All US Patents (scanned images) 1790-Present


• USAMark
• DVD-ROM (not a searchable database)
• All Registered U.S. Trademarks (scanned images) 1870-Present
• Includes over 600,000 "Dead" (abandoned) marks NOT available in TESS (These images are also available online in Trademark Document Retrieval (TDR)


• Official Gazette
Microfilm: vol.1(1872) - vol.845(1967)
EPSL Periodical Stacks: 1943-1998
EPSL Reference: Patents 1998-2002 (after 2002 on CD-ROM See Information Desk for assistance); Trademarks 1999-2005
Call Number: T223.A3
Online: Patents (most recent 52 issues); Trademarks (most recent five issues)

DVD/CD-ROM Databases

These are mostly backup archives, but they are sometimes faster, or better for downloading huge sets of data, spreadsheets, etc.

• Cassis Patent & Trademark Assignments
• Comparable web sites: Patent Assignments and Trademark Assignments
• Cassis Patents BIB
• Search abstracts 1988-present
• Search titles 1969-present
• Cassis Trademarks BIB
• Less information than USPTO Trademark Search, but faster printing/exporting
• Cassis Patents Assist
• Includes Art Unit/Supervisory Examiner index, Attorneys & Agents list, and classification search options not available on the web
• Patent Abstracts of Japan
• 1976-2000
• Largely replaced by Espacenet and PAJ online
• GlobalPat
• 1971-1998
• Replaced by Espacenet
• DEPAROM
• 1999-2005
• Backup archive for Depatisnet

McKeldin Government Documents

• U.S. Utility Patents, 1790 to present
• Design Patents, 1842 to present
• Reissue Patents, 1983 (R31,119) to present
• Defensive Publications, 1975 (T9300,001) to 1986
• Statutory Invention Registrations (SIRS), 1985 to present
• Reexamination Certificates, 1983 to present
• CDR (Corrections, Disclaimers, Reissues), 1983 to 1987
• Patent Status File, 1987 to present

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Internet Resources

United States Patent and Trademark Internet Resources

• Links to information about patents and trademarks
• For information on international intellectual property sites try Related Web Sites

• Links to the Manual of Classification, Index to the Manual, classification definitions, and much more.

• Full text of U.S. Patents 1976-Present
• Search by patent number and current US classifications 1790-Present
• Full text images from 1790-Present are available using a free TIFF plug-in
• The Advanced search page explains index fields (title, current class, inventor, cited references, etc.) at the bottom of the page
• Many records cite earlier technology: US patent numbers, foreign patent numbers, articles, books, technical reports, and even company catalogs
• Please note: the rapidly growing Patent Applications database (2001-present) is a separate file

• US, PCT, EPO, JPO, and Korea patents from mid 1970s
• Good search interface
• Includes drugs, clinical trials, trademarks, and other files

• The German Patent Office's international patent database
• U.S. patents from 1790 (X1)
• Includes plant and design patents

• An important source of historical and genealogical patent information
• Search U.S. patents full text from 1790
• Note: OCR text has significant errors and omissions
• Google is NOT yet ready for Patent Classification (subject) searching, as of Summer 2008

• Rutgers University's Edison Papers web site provides full text of Thomas Edison's 1,093 patents

• Provides access to more than 4 million pending, registered and dead federal trademarks
• This is the same file the trademark examiners use and it allows very complex searches
• You can display logos (images) and search for them using design search codes

• Provides access to the Maryland state trademarks database
• Contains links to other state trademark offices

• Provides links to most state's trademark and company name databases

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International Patent and Trademark Internet Resources

• A comprehensive source of patent and other intellectual property information

• Rolf Claessen's free intellectual property news and law site
• Includes links to international patent and trademark legal news and case law

• Search titles and some abstracts of over 50 million patents from 71 countries
• Display and print full text of US utility patents 1836-Present
• Use the Advanced Search to search US titles, inventors and assignees (applicants) from 1920-Present
• Search by patent number and European Classification (ECLA) or International Patent Classification (IPC) for older patents
• Use the Classification Search for detailed help with ECLA searching
• If you have a patent number, use the Number Search and type the patent number in the Publication Number box in the format us25151 with no leading zeros

• Provides access to over 75 years of patent descriptions and images
• Includes links to trademark databases and other Canadian company information

• Requires registration
• Free-of-charge option includes some features not available on the free sites, such as cited year searching

• U.S. patents from 1790 (X1)
• Includes plant and design patents

• Click on PAJ - Patent Abstracts of Japan
• Search Applicants, Titles, Abstracts in English
• Search IPC (International Patent Classification)
• Click grey "Number" button at upper right for number search
• Next to "Search Results" total, click "Index Indication"
• Click numbers in Index list for image and English abstract
• Click "Detail" for machine translation of text

• WIPO's Trademarks Gateway
• Romarin International Trademarks Database
• Madrid Express Database (less detail)

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Historical Patents Internet Resources

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Search Aids

The following are indexes and other tools used for searching and browsing patents and trademarks. To search for patents and trademarks on the internet, try the United States Patent and Trademark Office or the European Patent Office.

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