For the first time in a long time, I'm actually excited about a new Google service: Google Patent Search! Google Patent Search covers the entire collection of patents made available by the USPTO—from patents issued in the 1790s through those issued in the middle of 2006. An especially nice twist is that they're hosting copies of all the patent text/images, so you won't get redirected to a (slower) government server to see the patent, and there's finally a way to view patent diagrams without downloading some obscure tiff-viewer! The only real downside is that they don’t include patent applications, or even U.S. patents issued in the last few months (they're working on it) ... and of course, they don't include international patents either (yet?).
patents made available by the USPTO—from patents issued in the 1790s through those
issued in the middle of 2006. An especially nice twist is that they're hosting copies of all the patent text/images, so you won't get redirected to a (slower) government server to see the patent, and there's finally a way to view patent diagrams without downloading some obscure tiff-viewer!
The only real downside is that they don’t include patent applications,
or even U.S. patents issued in the last few months (they're working on it) ... and of course, they don't include international patents either (yet?).