How to Find Information: Patents on the Internet

A wealth of information about patents has recently been made available on the Internet as patent offices and other organisations have launched new services. Whether you are a newcomer to searching patents or an old hand, this short guide gives you details of many important Internet sources. One section describes the key free databases and compares then with added-value resources. Increasingly, helpful tools, such as patent classification systems and tutorials, are being put on the Internet, and, where useful, these are referenced. As with the rest of the Internet, the patent sites are constantly changing but users will have the option of updating references through the British Library's own patent pages.