Intellectual Property (patents, trademarks, copyrights)
In-Library Services
- The largest patent collection in New England, including includes U. S. patents from 1790 to the present, and British patents from 1617 to 1994
- Patent searching using the Cassis patent search computer. Searching is free; printing costs $0.15 per page. Read more about patent searches using the Cassis machine.
Massachusetts
United States Patent, Trademark, and Copyright information & search
- US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
- Search Copyrights through the US Copyright Office
- Search through the European Patent Office
- Google Patents - Full-text searching of US patents from the 1790s to the present. About Google Patents
- Historical Patent and Trademark Databases (from PTRCA)
- PAT2PDF.org - This free site enables the user to download a PDF file of a patent and to search for several patents simultaneously. It covers all numbered patents from 1838 to the present. You can only search by patent number.
- Free Patents Online – IP Research and Communities
Other National Patent & Intellectual Property sites
- Canadian Intellectual Property Office
- European Patent Office
- French National Institute of Intellectual Property
- German Patent Office (DPMA)
- Japan Patent Office
- Russian Agency for Patents (ROSPATENT)
- United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office
- World Intellectual Property Organization
Copyright Resources
- US Copyright Office
- Creative Commons – information on alternatives to traditional copyright, including descriptions of Creative Commons licenses
- Stanford University Copyright Renewal Database
- When US Works Pass Into the Public Domain
Other Guides & Help
- StopFakes.gov from the US Department of Commerce
- Invent Now
- Inventors Association of New England
- Inventor’s Handbook (from the Lemelson Center/MIT)
- Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation — Smithsonian Institute
- US Patent Full Text Database Help
- Guide to Patent Searching (from the University of Texas)
- Scam Prevention page at USTPO.gov
- The Patent Search Blog (Stephen van Dulken’s blog on invention and design)