USPTO computer patent index

From: Marvin Johnston <marvin_at_rain.org>
Date: Tue Apr 6 14:24:58 2004

I just tried it with both Netscape and (ugh) Internet Explorer; neither
one works. With MSIE, I get a javascript error on page.

This sounds like a great resource, and I am looking forward to seeing it
when it is fully functional!

Hans B PUFAL wrote:
>
> A new resource :
>
> http://www.citem.org/Patents/Computers
>
> The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) maintains a giant database
> of patents dating back to the early 1800's. Patents issued after 1975
> are stored as full text and are searchable. All earlier patents are
> available only as TIFF images and can be recovered only by knowing
> the patent number or by an arduous search system based on an unobvious
> (hence patentable ?) classification system.
>
> The data in these early patents is of immense interest to anyone interested
> in early computer history and I took it upon myself to begin indexing
> the computer related patents. My index currently holds 880 listings and
> many names familiar to the computer history buff can be found; though many
> remain to be discovered.
>
> There is a mass of fascinating documents to browse through. I have seen
> patents running to almost 1000 pages (check out patent number 3400371
> issued exactly 40 years ago today)
>
> The complete index is downloaded as a single HTML page and I use JavaScript
> to provide searching, sorting and statistical functions. For those who
> cannot, or do not want to, enable Javascript, I will be implementing those
> features as PHP code in the near future.
>
> I will also set up a discussion forum so that as you discover interesting
> bits you can transmit them on to others. Many patents relate directly to
> actual commercial machines (see the one listed above) but rarely name those
> machines. It will be useful to know the relationship between patents and
> actual systems.
>
> As always your comments, suggestions and help are welcome.
>
> Best regards,
>
> -- HansP
Received on Tue Apr 06 2004 - 14:24:58 BST

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