Special materials

Patents

U. S. Patents

You can obtain information about finding and using patents by consulting one of the college librarians for engineering or science.

All United States patents issued since 1790 are available as full page images directly from the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Web Patent Database. Patents issued since 1976 are also available as full-text HTML pages.

Complete instructions for searching and downloading full text images of patents are provided on the USPTO web pages.

NOTES on viewing patents from the U. S. Patent Office

• The Patent Office image files are in TIFF format.
• You may need to install a TIFF viewer plug-in for your browser as explained on the USPTO's Full-Text Database Images page. We spent less than 10 minutes reading the instructions, downloading, and installing Alterna TIFF, a free TIFF viewer plug-in for Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer, and Opera web browsers running under Windows 95 and later. Apple's free QuickTime version 4.1 or later for the Macintosh will read the patent images also. InterneTIFF is another Windows alternative with advanced features. Consult the USPTO document formats web pages or your local technical support personnel for more information about TIFF viewers for your computer platform.
• If the TIFF images do not display within Windows Internet Explorer after installing Alterna TIFF, try reinstalling Alterna TIFF with the "Modify my Windows Registry..." option turned on.

If the patent you need is a U. S. Patent that is for some reason not included in the USPTO database, or if it is a foreign patent, then we may be able to obtain the patent for you through interlibrary loan. There is no cost to you for obtaining a patent through ILL.

Foreign patents

The European Patent Office provides access to a variety of Patent Information Products and Search Engines. In particular, esp@cenet is a gateway to patent indexes, with support for several languages when accessed through the national offices of member states. English, German, and French interfaces are available on the European Patent Office's Patent Databases page. Included in the databases are patents from the European Patent Office, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and from world-wide sources including the United States and Japan.

Requesting a patent that is not available through the USPTO or European Patent Office

Please logon to ILLiad and click the "Request a Patent" button.

We need the following information about the patent you want:

1. Patent Number
2. Title of the Patent
3. Country of Origin (In what country was the patent registered?)
4. Author/Patent Holder

Finding patents

For assistance finding information about patents, please consult one of the college librarians in engineering or science. You may also wish to consult a Web-based patent tutorial at the University of California, San Diego. For additional help, consult one of the college librarians for engineering or science.

How we obtain patents

U. S. Patents

Virtually all U. S. Patents are available online, though the Patent Office has not made their online patents convenient to use.

Foreign Patents

We order foreign patents that are not available from the European Patent Office databases from the nearest potential provider we can find. Please be aware that the resources available to us for obtaining foreign patents are extremely limited.