Need a quick and easy way to locate and view existing patents, forget the US Patent Website, Google offers a great Google Patent Search tool.

Visit www.google.com/patents

Enter the name of the company your want to research in the search box, click Search Patents.

What will come up are a list of patents for that particular company.

Each patent has the following that you can click on for more information:

• Overview
• Abstract
• Drawing
• Description
• Claim

The patent information is available as a downloadable PDF or you can read it online.

There is an advanced search button that allows you to put in different criteria.

Want to see how this tool works?  Check out a company like GE.  You will be reading patents for a very long time.