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BASIC SOURCES OF INFORMATION ON PATENTS AND TRADEMARKS

While Princeton University is a depository library for the Government Printing Office, it is not a member of the Patent and Trademark Depository Library Program. There are two Patent and Trademark deposi-tory libraries in New Jersey, which are the Newark Public Library (973) 733-7779 and the Rutgers University Library of Science and Medicine (732) 445-2895.

However, a substantial amount of information concerning patents and trademarks can be accessed through electronic and print publications located in the Social Science Reference Center (SSRC) in Firestone Li-brary, as well as online from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office web site (http://www.uspto.gov). The Patent and Trademark Office web site and the publications listed here provide introductory information concerning patents and trademarks and the process of registering them, as well as reference information concerning past and existing patents and trademarks.

FULL-TEXT SOURCES FOR PATENTS AND TRADEMARKS
Sources for full-text U.S. and International Patents from United States Patent and Trademark Office and Non-U.S. Patent Office Sites

The following print publications are available on the Government Documents Reference shelves just to the left of the reference desk in SSRC:

Basic Facts About Trademarks. C 21.2:T 67/4/2001.
General Information Concerning Patents. C 21.26/2:997.
Index of the U.S. Patent Classification System. C 21.12/2:2001.
Concordance: U.S. Patent Classification to International Patent Classification. C 21.14/2:C 74/2000.
Index of Trademarks. C 21.5/3: 997 Annual index of trademarks, registrants, and related information.

The following document is available in the Ready Reference section of SSRC, to the right of the reference desk:
Index of Patents Issued from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. T223 .D3. This two-part resource provides an index to patent holders (part I, volumes 1 & 2) and an index to subjects of in-ventions (part II). It began publication in 1974 and is issued annually. Each edition covers only those patents issued during the year of publication; it is not cumulative. The most recent edition is kept in the SSRC. Earlier editions are kept in the On-Site Annex (Annex B) in Fine Hall.

The following publications are available in the Government Documents stacks in the SSRC:

Trademarks, the Fingerprints of Commerce: an Educational Guide to Understanding the Importance of Trademarks. C 21.14/2:F 49.
A Guide to Filing a Design Patent Application. C 21.14/2:D.
A Guide to Filing a Utility Patent Application. C 21.14/2:UT 4/2001

Electronic Resources. Researchers may wish to make use of the extensive resources that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has made available electronically both on its website and on compact disk.
Among the resources available on the Patent and Trademark Office web site are:

Patent Full-Text and Image Database. This resource provides full-page images of each page of each patent in the database. Patents issued from 1790 to 1975 can be searched only by patent number and cur-rent U.S. patent classification. Records for patents granted since 1975 can be searched by using any of 31 index fields available, including patent number, issue date, name, city and state of invention, application date, classification and description. Searches can be performed for patents already issued as well as for patent applications.

The Trademark Electronic Search System has 41 index fields available for conducting searches of its database, which contains over three million pending, registered and "dead" federal trademarks. Both of these resources provide links to introductory material, guides and manuals available online.

Much of the material available on the web site is also available in electronic format on compact disk. The Social Science Reference Center houses the following resources in storage cabinets within SSRC and makes them available upon request at the SSRC Reference Desk:

Patents & Trademarks ASSIGN. C 21.31/13:
Patents and Trademarks ASSIGN includes assignment data for both patents and trademarks. Patent data is derived from assignment deeds recorded from August 1980 through the present, including assignments of patent grants and patent applications.

Patents CLASS: Current Classifications of U.S. Patents Issued 1790 to Present. C 21.31/5:
(The month and year of release appear after this number in the form YYYY/MM.) This data-base contains current classification information for all utility, design, plant, reissue, X-numbered patents, and patent application publications, and defensive publications and statutory invention registrations issued from 1790 to the present (over 6 million documents).

Patents ASSIST: Full Text of Patent Search Tools. Compact disk. C 21.31/5: (The month and year of release appear after this number in the form YYYY/MM.)
This database provides searchable text of many patent search tools including: Index to the U.S. Patent Classification, IPC - USPC Concordance, Manual of Classification, and Manual of Patent Examining Procedure. In addition, Classification Definitions, a Patentee/Applicant-Assignee Index, and a Classifica-tion Orders Index (classifications established or abolished since 1976) are included.

Trademarks ASSIST: Full Text of Trademark Search Tools. Compact disk. C 21.31/10:
(The month and year of release appear after this number in the form YYYY/MM.) This da-tabase includes searchable text of the various manuals and rules of procedure used for evaluating trade-mark applications and administrative trials and appeals.

Patents BIB: Selected Bibliographic Information from U.S. Patent Grant Publications and Patent Application Publications 1969 to Present. C 21.31/2:
Patents BIB contains bibliographic information for utility patent grants issued from 1969 to the present and for other types of patent documents issued from 1977 to the present. There are 15 searchable fields including patent title, patent abstracts, current classifications, assignees, and inventors' names and ad-dresses (if not assigned at time of issue), and status (i.e., withdrawn, corrected, expired for failure to pay maintenance fees, reinstated, reexamined or term extended).

Resources in Firestone outside the Social Science Reference Center:

Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office (continued by Official Gazette of the United States Patent and Trademark Office). MICROFILM S00412
All issues of the Official Gazette from Volume 1 (January, 1872) through Volume 1262 (September, 2002) are available on microfilm in Firestone Microforms Services.

In addition, a three-volume print edition of the Subject-matter Index of Patents for Inventions Issued by the United States Patent Office From 1790 to 1873, Inclusive is available in Firestone stacks at T223.D7 A45 1976.

Sara Crawford and James Snow
Social Science Resource Center, Princeton University
Revised May, 2003