Authoritative and Useful
http://www.uspto.gov
Redesigned in 2001, the homepage for the Patent and Trademark Office is a handsome production. As complete a backfile to 1790 as possible has been added, although it is still not possible to do a "one-stop shop" search. This is updated each week on Tuesday for very current material searches. It includes drawings/images and full text. Searching tools such as the Classification Manual Index and the Classification Manual have been added. Other useful information such as current forms is included. It is the most up to date of all of the resources for U. S. patent information. It offers related links to web sites for other national intellectual property offices or "official" entities of multi-national origin.
http://www.ftc.gov
A very good first resource for people seeking help in obtaining a patent. A subsection of this page is of specific interest to inventors, http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/invnalrt.shtm. This is a very valuable tool for consumers generally. It has especially helpful information in how to determine selecting the kind of firm usually called an "invention development" or "invention promotion" firm
http://www.google.com/patents
A search engine that provides access to full text and images of all the available published U.S. patents issued 1790 to mid-2006. Each Google Patent Search result represents an individual patent. Results are displayed based on their relevance to the specific search terms entered. A number of details are displayed about each patent in the list of results.
http://ep.espacenet.com/
Esp@cenet provides a searchable "Worldwide" database of patents from patent offices around the world including the United States with a user friendly interface. Bibliographic coverage (searching by inventor or patent title) of U.S. patents goes back to 1859. Images of patents are in PDF format which requires the Adobe (TM) Acrobat reader. Esp@cenet holds data on 38.3 million patents from 71 countries, of which 22.5 million have a title and 5.5 million an abstract in English.
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Self Help
http://www.inventhelper.org
Mounted and maintained by the Minnesota Inventors Congress, a 501(c)3 organization. The group bills itself as the sponsor of "world's oldest annual invention convention." This page allows discussion across and between a wide cross-section of inventors, manufacturers, investors and others as well as the general public. The page is easy to use and attractive.
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/engin/patent-tutorial/index.htm
An example of an excellent introduction to searching tool produced by the University of Texas, Austin, School of Engineering for its faculty and students. It is a chance to discover how to do a "patentability" search.
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Entrepreneur
http://www.inventionconvention.com
Part of the National Congress of Inventors' Organizations holding conventions and tradeshows. This is a little more like inventors talking to inventors. Headquartered in Lose Los Angeles, Stephen Paul Gnass is the Executive Director. They have held annual "trade shows" for inventors looking for opportunities to license their patents for about 12 years.
http://web.mit.edu/invent/
Put together by MIT in cooperation with the Lemuelson Foundation, there is information that the inventor will find useful in his search for money to manufacture and market. While there is similarity to the above page, this has a presentation slightly more related to an academic perspective. It is not limited to U. S. information. A particularly interesting feature is the materials, incentives and contests posted for the student inventor.
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Special Discussions
http://www.nttc.edu
Established by Congress in 1989,the National Technology Transfer Center is avowed to "take technologies off the shelves and put them to work." It offers help through a wide variety of tools and contact for research and development, testing, prototyping and a myriad of other services. It provides lists of federal licensable, university licensable technologies as well as a variety of other ways to develop and market new technology.
http://www.eere.energy.gov/industry/
The Department of Energy is the federal government agency having moneys for the development of new energy technologies. The Office also has some facilities to offer assessments of new products, creating a useful atmosphere for the small and independent inventor to succeed. . "oit " is a part of DOE which develops and delivers advance energy efficiency and other technologies. It is related to the "eren," energy efficiency and renewable energy office.
http://www.piercelaw.edu/tfield/ipbasics.htm
The Franklin Pierce Law Center in New Hampshire has become renown for its training of attorneys in Intellectual Property law. Through created initially for law students, the presentation is so helpful that it is very useful for anyone with ideas. Good links and development.
http://www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/ic1.nsf/en/home
A prime example of what other nearby countries are doing to encourage technology development and transfer. This Canadian version of the U.S. Small Business Administration or the State of Illinois' Small Business Development Network has been aggressive in presenting to the U.S. inventor possibilities north of the border.
http://www.inventorfraud.com
A newer page designed by Michael Neustel. The area of misrepresentation has become a particularly ticklish subject to deal with. The FTC page in the first section deals with some aspects of this problem. As a private person, Mr. Neustel, a registered patent attorney, is pursuing a difficult question. Reviewing this page is a starting point for any person who feels he has such a problem.
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Copyright
http://www.copyright.gov/
The only "official" U. S. spokes spot for this kind of intellectual property. Much material is available about copyright. The interest in copyright seems to be changing with the development of the "information highway," "distance learning" and other by-products of the Internet. The most useful part of this page is that all of the circulars, forms, form letters, actually frequently asked questions can be read and/or downloaded. Two important bills, which became law in 1999 make it very important to consult this page. Be sure to consider consulting an attorney if there are additional questions needing answers.
http://www.copyright.iupui.edu/
Dr. Kenneth Crews and the staff of the Indiana University-Purdue University center have put together a wonderful resource for anyone with an interest in copyright and its uses. It provides answer to a multitude of questions with clear and simple language.
http://fairuse.stanford.edu
Created initially by Stanford University Libraries, this offers well-organized information to the researcher. Now maintained and regularly updated by Stanford but also sponsored by the Council on Library Resources and FindLaw Internet Legal Resources, it is an outstanding resource.
http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/Intellectualproperty/cprtindx.htm#top
This link serves as an entryway into the University of Texas System Crash Course in Copyright, which presents an overview to fair use, ownership, creating multimedia, and copyright management.
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Just For Fun And Kids
http://www.invent.org/
While not strictly limited to kids, this features the Inventors Hall of Fame museum. It offers information about Camp Invention.
http://www.uspto.gov/go/kids/
The United States Patent & Trademark Office Kids' Pages features games, contests, puzzles, stories, and much more, that children can explore to learn about inventions, inventors, patents, trademarks, and copyright.
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Women Inventors
http://staff.lib.muohio.edu/shocker/FemInv/IL.php
This link provides access to the Illinois section of the Women Inventors Index 1790-1895. The website is based on the publication Women Inventors to Whom Patents Have Been Granted by the United States Government, 1790-1895.
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