I had the pleasure of meeting Intellectual Property Attorney, Ron Haggerty when I spoke at METRO Small Business University on “Effective Website Design”.  After our conversation, I thought the internet must have some good resources for those interested in starting their own IP search.

Here are some IP online resources to start your own research.

Good online resources for your IP search:

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Information about patents, trademarks and IP law and policy.

InventNow
This youth-oriented microsite does an excellent job of boiling down the complexities of managing an IP portfolio into easy-to-manage steps. This is the place to get started.

Google Patents
Google Patents delivers information on more than 7 million existing patents.

Pat2PDF
A very handy web-based tool that finds patents and downloads them as PDFs.
Inventors Digest
Inventor and IP developer news, as well as IP trends and tips.

PatentWizard
Designed by a patent attorney, the site helps you take the critical first steps toward filing an early provisional patent.

Patent Pro
This full-featured (and incredibly complex) PC-based patent filing software takes work to learn, but can help entrepreneurs create a working patent.

Now if you need some legal IP help, please feel free to contact Ron Haggerty at ron@ronhaggerty.com