Start the process. To find out more about patents and trademarks and begin the search on your own, visit some of the below web sites, which allow you to search their databases free of charge.

1. United States Patent and Trademark Office
2. European Patent Office
3. World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
4. Canadian Patent Office
5. Australian Patent Office
6. Japanese Patent Office
7. Scirus Technical Information Web Site

To obtain free copies of U.S. patents, visit the USPTO web site listed above or these additional sites, which provide patents in a .PDF format:

Pat2PDF

Patent Fetcher

Free Patents Online