Boston Public Library
Patent, Trademark and Copyright Information
Government Documents
United States Patent and Trademark Information
• Search Patents via USPTO web site

• Search Trademark via USPTO (TESS)
• Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR)
• PAT2PDF.ORG - This free site enables the user to download a pdf file of a patent and to search several patents simultaneously. It covers all numbered patents from 1838 to the present. The user must know the patent number in order to search this database.
• Free Patents Online
Foreign Patents and Trademarks
• Foreign Patents 1920-present via Esp@cenet
• Canadian Intellectual Property Office
• China State Intellectual Property Office

• European Patent Office

• Japan Patent Office
• Russian Agency for Patent and Trademarks
Massachusetts
• Trademarks and Service Marks
Guides and Help
• BPL Full-Text Patent Holdings
• FAQ about Patents and Trademarks
• Guide to Patent Searching at the BPL
• Guide to Patent Searching (University of Texas)
• Guide to Trademark Searching at the BPL
• Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation - Smithsonian Institute
• US Patent Full Text Database Help
• Introduction to Patent Searching
Inventors Associations
• Inventors Association of New England
Copyrights
• Library of Congress Copyright Information
• Search Copyrights
• Stanford University Copyright Renewal Database
• When US Works Pass Into the Public Domain

In Library Fees/Charges
Patrons coming to the library may search free of charge. There is a $0.15 per page charge for printing from the Internet or the Cassis Machine.  

Mail and Telephone Requests
Patents will be reproduced and mailed at $0.35 per page plus $1.00 handling fee and $1.50 mailing fee.

Boston Public Library - A United States Patent and Trademark Depository Library

The Boston Public Library has the largest patent collection in New England and this collection is housed in the Government Documents Department. The collection includes U. S. patents from 1790 to the present, and British patents from 1617 to 1994, as well as patent and trademark journals. We have all the research materials to search U.S. patents and trademarks.