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Business Information Centre

Patents

Patent Searching

Patent searching is a complex and time consuming process. Patent searches are best done in person at the Patent Office in Hull, Quebec or you may hire a registered patent agent to search on your behalf.

Toronto Reference Library is a Canadian patent depository library. You can conduct a preliminary search using the Business Information Centre's patent collection.
Our patent collection consists of print, microform and electronic resources.

Canadian Patents

• Fulltext Canadian Patents
  on microfilm: 1980 to present
  
  
• Patent Office Record (POR)
  in print: 1824-1855; 1873 to present
  
  
• Canadian Patent Abstracts
  on microfiche: April 1976 to May 1999
  
  
• Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO):
  Canadian Patent Database via the Internet. For laid-open applications or patents granted since August 15, 1978, this source contains bibliographic data, textual data (titles, abstracts and claims) and image data for patents issued fromJanuary 1, 1920 to present.
  
  

United States Patents

• Fulltext United States Utility Patents
  on microfilm: 1970-1996 and on PatentView (CD-ROM): 1997-2000
  
  
• Full United States Design Patents
  on microfilm: January 3 to October 3, 1995 and on PatentView (CD-ROM): 1997-2000
  
  
• Official Gazette of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (OG)
  on microfilm: 1872-1989
  in print: current 20 years
  
  
• Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents
  on microfilm: 1790-1871
  
  

User Education Classes

Calling All Inventors
is a 2-hour seminar which provides practical instruction on the use of TRL's print and electronic resources to do a preliminary search for Canadian and U.S. patents. Participants will learn to perform a basic manual subject search for a Canadian or U.S. patent and use selected databases to supplement their manual searches.

The course will be of interest to inventors who wish to investigate whether their invention, or something close to it, has ever been patented. It will also be of interest to those wanting to keep up with recent developments or trends in a particular field.

The cost is $10.00 per person for a maximum of five peole.

For information on the next available session, please phone the Learning Centre at 416-393-7209.

Updated: August 27, 2008

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